Developed by Cronos and published by none other than astragon, Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is a firefighting sim where you fight fires while playing as a leader of a firefighting squad. Over the past few years, we have seen plenty of firefighting games and I have tried nearly all of them since I am a big fan of virtual firefighting. None of the games I played were as good as Firefighting Simulator – The Squad and I am surprised that I never got to play this game before since the PC version of the game has been out for quite some time. This is our review of Firefighting Simulator – The Squad in which we break through some doors with axes and quench some thirsty fires.
The gameplay is where Firefighting Simulator – The Squad really shines because not only is the gameplay crisp, but it is also really open-ended. Upon arriving at a fire scene, the game gives you complete freedom of how you want to tackle the fire. If you have the firetruck with a ladder, you can use the ladder to reach the upper floors and start from there after prying open windows or doors or if you prefer, send your squad in from the backside and you enter from the front side of the house to deal with the fire at various fronts at the same time. Your squad plays a vital role in Firefighting Simulator – The Squad because you cannot tackle the fires all alone. For approaching the fires, your fire trucks come equipped with everything. You can choose the option to have your team set up everything upon arriving at the scene which includes setting up the support pipe along with the attack pipe. The support pipe keeps your truck loaded with water while you and your crew will take the attacking pipes inside the buildings to tackle the burning fires.
After your initial survey of the scene, you can pick up various items to help you in firefighting such as axes, crowbars, and even saws which help you break open doors, windows, and locks in order to gain access to burning buildings. Since smoke compiles inside the buildings, you can open up windows to tackle the smoke and let it escape into the environment outside. While inside burning buildings, you have to consider various steps for your own safety as well such as not entering flames directly or moving around while crouched to see better since the top of the rooms are filled with deadly smoke. You can also turn off the electricity supply to the burning building to help control the fire if there are electronics sparking inside the building. You can give different commands to your squad as well such as assisting you with the fire, taking survivors outside to ambulances, or even breaking down windows, walls, or doors for opening up paths for the other team members.
While the gameplay of Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is pretty solid, I felt that the squad control mechanics of the game could have been more refined because they are pretty confusing and the icons on the screen do not help much. You can get a basic idea from the in-game tutorial but in the main game, the squad commands do not always work and they sometimes glitch out. The AI of the game is mostly excellent and does everything it is supposed to do and most of the time genuinely helps you out, but it is still an AI after all and sometimes it breaks into situations when it ultimately becomes really frustrating. The squad mates do not tend to the fire on their own and you have to assign them tasks every time otherwise they will just stand there doing nothing. The squad command is probably my least favorite aspect of the gameplay because unless you are playing online with random people or your friends, the AI will always annoy you in one way or another.
Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is set in a fantasy American city, and it comes with its own districts. While there is no freeroam in the city, you have the option to deploy directly on a scene or drive there in your firetruck. If you decide to drive to the scene yourself, you can explore the city and feel the similar astragon feel to the city. The roads have traffic, and they will move side after hearing your siren. The trucks handle really well and depending on what sort of truck you are driving; each truck feels unique when it comes to speed and handling. Firefighting Simulator – The Squad features real-world licensed trucks, and they are highly detailed.
Each compartment on the trucks works flawlessly and you will find something useful inside them. Upon arriving at the scene, you can set up your truck yourself as well as connect the pipes to fire hydrants, and then attach the correct nozzles for tackling fires. You can take out whatever equipment you need from the truck and if your truck is missing anything, a support truck mostly accompanies you to the fire scene that you can check out for more items and equipment as well. After completing missions, the game gives you a rating of how effectively you tackled the situation, and you earn XP to level up. As you level up, you unlock new missions and trucks to drive.
Before starting the mission, you can choose whether you want to tackle it solo or in multiplayer. Multiplayer gives you the option of playing with just your friends or with random people around the world. If you do not want to choose a mission, you can browse through a list of random online games from around the world and join them as well. Apart from this, you can choose some difficult challenges here such as hiding helping markers that highlight victims and other useful items in a mission or if you want to set up the supply line yourself and even if you want to manually refilling fire extinguishers if they run out. You can tailor the game to your own will and play it however you want it, which is one of the strongest suits of Firefighting Simulator – The Squad. The game also offers a detailed tutorial that goes over each and every mechanic of the title thoroughly and teaches you everything there is to know about the game.
Coming to the technical bits of Firefighting Simulator – The Squad, the game runs pretty stable on the PS5 and I do not remember any sort of game-breaking bugs. The squad control mechanic could have been more refined, but I will not consider that a game-breaking bug because it mostly works as it should. The game uses Adaptive Triggers of the DualSense controller which is a huge thing because most of the developers are completely ignoring them, and it feels really cool when the water pipe tries to resist your input when you try to shoot water from it.
The vibration of the controller is also tailored to the platform and does not feel like generic vibrations like most games have. The fire and smoke effects look beautiful in the game and the overall design of the world and level look great as well. I do have some concerns with the sound design of the game because sometimes the fire’s sound would become too loud and sometimes it would die down completely even if there is some fire around. Apart from this, the music and other sound effects work just fine.
astragon has a long list of solid simulators under its belt and I am happy to see another great title joining their roster. Firefighting Simulator – The Squad not only looks good but gives you enough freedom with its multitude of licensed firefighting vehicles, equipment, tools, and the actual ability to see the fire up close really puts you in the heat of the action. Each mission brings its own level of challenge from open areas such as tree fires in parks to claustrophobic villas where all you can see is smoke and fire, complete with dynamic events. The advanced mechanics put into place such as the backdraft, the ability to open windows for ventilation, and having functional ladders and water cannons on ladders just show the level of detail and work that has been done on the game by Cronos. With all this said, the game also looks beautiful on the PS5 and especially in 4K. It is a must-play for players who love simulation games and especially those who were looking for a solid firefighting game on the PS5.
Final Verdict:
Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is an excellent firefighting simulator and simply one of the best ones that I have played in a long time. The missions are brilliant, and the action is intense in the game. I loved the diversity of the missions because despite some of the missions looking similar, each one brings its own challenges into the mix. Everything ranging from the firefighting mechanics to the vehicle driving is excellent and I had a great time playing the game. With solid visuals and sound design, the cherry on the top is that the game also uses Adaptive Triggers of the DualSense controller which makes Firefighting Simulator – The Squad a great title on the console. There are a few AI snags here and there and the AI management could have been a little better in the game which is why I am taking some points off from the final score of the title but still, if you were looking for a solid firefighting game for the PS5 console, I can easily recommend Firefighting Simulator – The Squad to you. It is highly addictive and keeps you glued to the screen.
Final Score: 8.5/10
