Developer: stillalive studios
Publisher: Aerosoft GmbH
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Rescue HQ – The Tycoon – Review
Do you know exactly which siren belongs to what type of 911 emergency vehicle when you hear one going around your neighborhood? If so, maybe Rescue HQ – The Tycoon might be something for you. You don’t know? Well, then no worries either. Rescue HQ is here to grasp your attention and possibly keep it anyway. So grab your guns, medkits and fire extinguishers, cause you are going to need all of them in the name of… profit.
Story
You, whoever you are, are being asked by the Mayor to, well, to make a profit. The shady man who is high on power seems to have some very dark sides, more than often accidentally expressing his wishes such as burning down everybody in the city instead of saving them. Nevertheless, he tasks you with building a fire department and so you will. After that, multiple other events and assignments are given to you, such as bringing life to a police force to eventually protect a witness, or getting ready for a festival that will surely increase health risks such as fragmented bones. But besides the mayor talking to you occasionally, this is one of the games that creates a narrative in your mind by your own doing, building and arranging things to your liking.
Graphics
The graphics that Rescue HQ brings forward are simple, and effective by making them so. There’s already enough going on as you grow your empire of first-response units, so basic looks are welcome. Most of it all are just simple models that show clearly what’s what. A desk, a PC, a couch are just that, albeit presented in a very simplistic fashion. The employees are faceless voxel-based (3D cubes like in Minecraft) moving characters, and there are some good lighting and shadow placements going on. Like said, it’s simple yet effective.
Sound
The sound is developed just as smart as the graphics. Surrounded by many people in a large building with much going on, especially with cars that include sirens and all, you expect to have a lot of unwanted noise. Rescue HQ – The Tycoon seems to purposely select those noises that don’t make everything too chaotic, mainly by not giving some things noises at all. To make it even better, in the background it constantly serves some smooth late night jazz to represent the sounds of an active city, yet make the game seem cool and relaxed at the same time.
Gameplay
Rescue HQ – The Tycoon relies on the way that most tycoon games and simulators present themselves, namely by letting you build something up and manage that creation. In this management game, however, most is not as complicated as in those other games. You have a building section that allows you to build a room of the size you desire for each set of stuff that you need. So if you want to buy kitchenware or toilets, you’ll first make a room that’s only usable for those appliances. In a way, it’s set up as easy as a game such as The Sims. A pro is that it’s accessible for most ages. A con is that it might start to feel repetitive and boring because there’s not as much to do as in most tycoon simulators.
The game lets you pick a campaign level, which gives you a predetermined difficulty and amount of space arranged in a certain way. It’s up to you to make the best of it. The first thing you must know when you start playing is that the level takes forever to complete. The latter is not a problem because you can just save and load games in-between as you want to, but a more clear setup of achievable goals or things to do would be nice. Sometimes it feels like a challenge is missing or something severe happening around your headquarters. Your main goal will mostly be to prevent going bankrupt, but the game doesn’t feel it will let you any time soon.
You start off with a fire department and build some trucks, build some showers, hire more personnel and so on. After that, you quickly find yourself doing the same for a police station and a medical department. Different fire reports start to come in that you need to respond to in a proper fashion. Each report has a recommended amount of personnel and tools to ensure success. It’s up to you to decide which and how much you will send to each reported location. For instance, an arsonist lighting a building on fire will require you to send policemen and firemen (and women, obviously), a medkit and cans of air. To supply these things you need to have a canned air refill station amongst others. To unlock such things, you have to spend reputation, something you earn by completing cases such as putting out fires. It’s determined by waiting for it.
When deciding what you are going to send out on a case, it determines your chances of success. You might need a spare policeman and send three instead of the recommended four. Together with the supplied gear though, the chances of success might still be around 90 or 95 percent, giving you a free man for other important jobs such as processing detained criminals or repairing used gear. During the game, you will get multiple events to prepare for such as a barbecue season that you will need to respect by preparing the fire department, but it’s still never really hard to get most things into place. And even then, the chances of success with some missing gear are still pretty high. At which point you are, just like with the reputation resource, kind of waiting for time to pass. This is why shorter, more challenging campaign goals would be nice as well
Conclusion
Rescue HQ – The Tycoon is a very accessible and nice game that has some fun and addicting times waiting for you. However, compared to other tycoons and as a standalone game, it misses a bit of challenge and sometimes some logical points of action during the campaign. It gives you some freedom of building and managing your creations, but at the same time, you are bound to wait for cases and resources, making the game a bit boring at times.
Rescue HQ - The Tycoon - Review,
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