This article is dedicated to
Firefighters anywhere in our beloved world. To be more specific, those brave
men who fight the massive wild fire in Australia and also our men too. There's
true story that happens in neighborhood of my parent's home several months ago.
Some miserable bastard sets a fire to burn some thrash that soon become huge
wildfire that spread to forest near my parent's home. The smoke that it causes,
forces my father to stays at his room and inhales oxygen tube. Entire neighborhood
is in panic as smoke are everywhere. Quite long time later, firefighters arrive
and they work relentless to put out the fire. Once in awhile they take a rest.
They're exhausted and nearly suffocated. Some of them got splinters inside
their boot. Our neighbor voluntarily provide those firefighters with tea,
coffee, and lunch. After they struggle for hours, the crisis is averted and
guess what? They're dispatched to another fire accident immediately. How
admirable they are. Anyway, here's Human
Corporation's The Firemen (1994) on SNES.
I don't like the letter 'F' and
'E' there. They replace middle bar of those letter with dot and that's not okay
with me. That's not the only problem, the hose has been cut! Also that fire
reminds me of Demon's Crest's title,
somehow.
Here's the screen that i talked
about. Maybe it contains much more fire than the previous title screen but
still wild fire nonetheless. For those who don't know, Demon's Crest is spin off from Ghost
n Goblin series that starring Firebrand/Red Arremer as the protagonist.
Yes, you got to play as the infamous annoying red demon of GnG. The game also
features Metroid-like upgrades for the demon to navigate certain platform
element or improve his warfare. But don't expect the game is soft or easy. It's
still tied with GnG afterall, that means the game is harsh especially on
certain point. Oh, right! I was talking about The Firemen. My bad. As the fire reminds me of this hard game but
that doesn't mean i'm backing out on extinguishing any wild fire on the game.
As they said, "pantang pulang, sebelum padam" [translate: Abstain to
go home, before (the fire) extinguished]
I figure i have to know about the
controller configuration first before jumping to action. Consider it as proper
preparation. You must be well prepared before resolving any accident, right?
Anyway, this is probably the most comprehensive setting options that i've ever
see. Below the control setting is: difficulty setting, sound mode setting, and
language setting. But they're functional, nevertheless.
There's a narration about the situation
on first mission. On the building of Metrotech Chemical Company, a fire begin
from the kitchen or more likely from the stove. The fire begin to spread due to
flammable chemicals on the premise. D-sector fire brigade has been dispatched
to resolve the accident. Metrotech's engineer said that there's Chemical MDL
supply that can cause huge explosion when exposed with intense heat. The plan
is to get said dangerous substance and take it to rooftop and then blow the
water tank with it that hopefully extinguish the whole flame. I like to say 2
things: First, can't they put out the flame from outside using fire engine's
big spray like in real life? Second, if i were the fire brigade i will just
ignore the distress call. Metrotech is incompetent yet dangerous big company,
much like Umbrella Corporation. And there's a good chance that Metrotech also
nefarious. The last comment may be just my extreme prejudice.
Coming from east entrance of the
building, is Pete the captain of the brigade and his second-in-command Daniel.
Their task to get the MDL stuff in basement, for now. I love the corporation's
logo on door mat. It reminds me of Logitech's. Perhaps because both names end
with 'Tech'. By the way, Daniel is the one who wield fire axe and has wrist
phone. The communication operator on the other side is Winona. While the one
who carries portable water cannon is the captain, Pete. And he's the one that i
will play as.
Because i left the controller
setting in default, the control is as follows: D-pad to move , 'Y' button to
spray the water straight and 'B' button to spray the water in downed angle. The
straight spray has range across the screen and used to deal with big flame like
on my left. Meanwhile the downed spray is used to extinguish burning floor like
in the corner on my up-left.
Mr. Daniel here is controlled by
AI. He will opens the unlocked door since i can't do that by myself. He can
also cut the fire with his axe and he's invincible! Invincible melee partner?
That reminds me Twisted Tales of Spike McFang.
Whooops! At least, i can confirm
that i can break the glass with my water spray.
They have park inside the
building for some reason. Fortunately there's no forest fire to take care but
the bridge that leads to inner part of the building, has collapsed. Thus we
have to make detour.
There's slope that allows us to
go down the river. Surprisingly, it's only waist-deep. I thought it was deeper.
Hey! I can extinguish a fire up there. That's convenience.
It's weird to me to see burning
toilet like this. The tiles are supposed to be wet and hard to burn, right?
We found a survivor! He can't
move his leg so Daniel carries him to safety. Moreover it's princess carry. How
lucky he is. ;p
Well, that was fast. I figure i
can take care of the flames by myself. Oh, right! I can't open doors.
Oh, No! Tall R2-D2 is on fire.
Don't worry! I'll put out the flame, buddy. Welp! He explodes. Goddamn me!
These fire jets can't be put down
but i can crawl underneath them. Hold 'A' button and d-pad to crawl. Simple!
After that, it's the 1st boss
fight! Yup! There's boss fight in this game and it's big (sentient) flame that
cover itself by smaller flames. Good thing Daniel is invincible so he can
"tank" me from the boss.
Engineer_negativevocalization10.wav.
Daniel is invincible but i'm not (i have health bar at top-right of the HUD).
It's hard to dodge the smaller flames that unleashed by the boss and that's the
time when it's vulnerable. Also it like to bounces around the place. Moreover,
i don't have dodge move or something like that and i move pretty slow.
Finally, i put lots of water into
the boss that it explodes. I left 6% of the flame somewhere behind and i think
that's good enough as there's time limit on every stage. I can't put out all
the flame while some Goddamn chemist substance is about to explode anyway.
Speaking the devil, here the
bloody thing. But the crisis isn't over as the boiler room is on fire and about
to explode soon. Joy! [Huge Sarcasm]
This 2nd stage introduces us with
this tall fire that leaves trail of small flame along its way. Turns out the
burning floor is harmless. It only blocks your way but still need to extinguish
because -you know- it's my duty as firefighter.
You see the life detector on
top-left HUD besides the timer? It will shows wave that varies in height depend
on how close we're with a survivor. There's one on left, see? Strangely when
we're very close, the detector goes flat as if there's no heart beat detected
on the survivor. But don't worry, this lad is only knocked out cold!
This section introduces us with these flying fireballs that homing at me. One can argue that they're fire ghosts. So maybe they're like lost souls in Ultimate Doom. By the way, nice water effect on pools there.
There's a section where there's
overlapping balcony on corridor like this. As you can see, our view isn't
totally obstructed. Instead, we see small radius around Pete. Thankfully, this
is the only section that we have slight vision like this. As far as i know,
that is.
Once we reach this staircases,
explosions happen and this stairway is no longer passable. This scene is most
likely get Michael Bay's attention.
The explosions don't stop there.
These pipes also explode and will falls on me if i'm not careful. The explosions
are too much for Daniel that he becomes lemming wears very shocked
expression. Poor lad.
On next section, there's flying
container that explode if it reaches our altitude. You see blue thing on bottom
between us? That's the container and it will make explosion in slightly above
me. These containers are -so far- the most threatening hazards in this game. I
died a lot here. Their explosion are quite large and deals hefty damage. Not to
mention, they fly fast. But you can predict where they're exploding but i
prefer use memorization to know the explosions.
After several minutes of walking,
i encounter another boss. This time it's fire with low height that means i have
to spray it in low angle that really lacks on range and Daniel can't chop it.
But he can hack any fireballs that come toward me. The real problem comes from
that accursed explosive container! They're still here and will wreck you if
you're not careful.
Finally, we make contact with the
architecture Frank Weller. Pete questions where the architect studies
architecture as he witnesses the windows break everywhere, the emergency door
is jammed and the water sprinklers are malfunctioning. I don't think either the
architect's school or his competency that responsible for this failures. I
rather suspect he's corrupt. He cut off those safety equipments below standard
so he can rolls some dirty dough into his pocket. Don't get me wrong about me
badmouthing the architect's morale. I'm structure engineer, myself. I aware
that it's not uncommon that there's opportunities for the likes of us to do dirty
trick like that. But a teacher in my university, taught us to do design that
meet with standard requirement so we can sleep peacefully without moral burden.
Anyway, the architect sod tells us that we can control the water tank from the
control room in 3rd floor. Off, we go!
I find another survivor in Data
Room. She informs us that his boy is in 4th floor and need rescue. His name is
Matthew Shorter. That gives me idea about naming my boy Werdito Younger. :I
In the same room, there's roombas!
Everytime i go between the desk (in horizontal gap), i got sandwiched with the
roombas and the flames spawning from thin air. What a sly trick!
In this trying time, there's a
glimmer of hope. Max (who's another firefighter in our unit) informs us that
there's a chance that a rainfall will come in here that hopefully put out the
entire flame. Medic_positivevocalization01.wav
Suddenly, some floors begin to
crumble and i fell on one of them. Luckily it's not insta-kill pit and Daniel
pulls me up as soon as he can.
Not only R2-D2s and roombas that
gone haywire because of the fire, but also this robotic arm. Apparently, wild
fire can replace virus to make the robots go crazy. Duly noted.
Because the door is jammed, we
have to take detour...via this aerial platform that's provided from our
friend's truck below. Flying fireballs come from all direction but i can spray
water in arc like this although the water spray travels substantially slow. It
seems Daniel has fear of height and he can only crawl here. :p
When i break the windows with
water spray, backdraft happens and hurt me so bad. Heavy_negativevocalization05.wav
I was about to complain about no
health refill item but rescuing people replenishes my health and that's fine
enough. Besides that, i get healing whenever i finish a stage. This guy warn us
about impending stage boss which reminds me of Richard Aiken of S.T.A.R.S in
first Resident Evil who told you about Yawn the giant snake.
As been told by that guy, the
boss stage this time is a security robot that goes crazy. That laser line isn't
the projection of the boss' ranged attack. It's the travel line which the droid
will run over to. While running over, a flame will be spawned along the way. I
think this is the perfect time to use the strafe feature but there's something
strange about it. If i press and hold 'R' button to strafe, i can't go up. And
if i press and hold 'L' button to strafe, i can't go right. It's quite peculiar
anomaly on strafing in top-down shooter game that i have ever played. Maybe
this is because of emulation error.
With some tricky strafing, i can
defeat the boss but wait! It has second phase! The 80% of its upper body may be
gone forever but its bottom part still run amok! It constantly burn the floor
while running around. As i told you before, the burning floors are harmless and
only block your move. That leaves the boss itself that do the harming and you
have to spray water at low angle which mean avoiding damage could be impossible
but you can prevail anyway. Perhaps, the boss doesn't do much damage if
compared when it's still a whole crazy droid.
With the droid forcefully shut
down, we can operate the water tank but alas! The operating panel is broken.
Therefore we have to break the water tank with force but it's made of steel how
we can do that?
Oh, right! We can use the volatile
chemist like the narration said. So it's not mission briefing but rather it's story
that's told in the future, then.
That's my thought. I better stop
playing before i get blown again.
Human Corporation's The Firemen (1994) is -i'll be honest- top
down shooter game with firefighting setting. If you replace the walking fire
(or burned robots) with generic mindless evil minions, the gameplay won't
change significantly. Nonetheless it's good effort by Human Corporation to make
a game about firefighting. The game captures the feeling of how dangerous
firefighter's job can do in most occasion and without leaving the core of it
being decent game. The gameplay works well and tight. No unnecessary complicated
game element involved but the difficulty is demanding/challenging. You only get
3 continues and there's no password or saving between stages. In addition to
that, this first 4 levels take place in same place or setting perhaps
indicating that there's only 5-6 levels in total. Adding some level about
fighting forest fire could be nice. But perhaps it's for the best as the game
may become oversaturated. I like to point out that there's no new gameplay
element throughout my playthrough besides new enemy type. There's water bomb that
can clear fires within vicinity like flame-extinguishing gas grenade in The Lost World. But i don't know how to
get another bomb besides dying. Rescuing survivor and finishing stage will get
you health refill but i want Pete to be able to rummage first aid box around
the premise for health restoration items. Just saying. Pete's movement is kind
of too sluggish to nimbly avoid enemy's attack plus he must struggle in narrow
space most of the time. He's also not so tank-y but thankfully there's decent post-hit
invincibility. On the other hand, Daniel (who's controlled by rather decent AI)
is invincible but sometime he flinches when he gets hit and spacing out for a
second or two. Meanwhile, the enemies don't have a reaction or feedback of
being hit whatsoever. They will keep doing whatever they want uninterruptible. Luckily,
they can't take too much damage to go down. But that doesn't apply to bosses.
They can absorb lots of hits plus their actions can't be interrupted. Quite
often, their attacks gives you only small margin to dodge. The music is
standard good for SNES game. The graphic also the same. The way they draw the humans
reminds me of Ball Bullet Gun that
also on SNES too.
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