My experience so far

[exciteddelirium]

It's a long coming end to the Emergency series, I'm afraid.
I've been playing this game since Emergency 1, and with every new game, we've been getting more and more advanced options from the developers. I remember how much modding community contributed, when Hoppah released the breaking LA mod for the Em3, that included a new mechanic, which allowed players to connect hoses to the firetrucks (Em3 allowed the hoses only to be connected directly to fire hydrants!).

Many of the new modding community ideas were later implemented to the Emergency 4, which made us all very hopefull for what would the next game bring! This, along with the great modding support, made Emergency 4 one of the best games that ever existed, so much so, that it's still alive with an active playerbase, and a great community still creating new mods, and pushing the old game engine to its' limits.

Then, came Emergency 5, 2012, and some more titles for basically the same game, it was... okay. Nowhere near Emergency 4, with no new features, no new advanced mechanics. If something was changed- it was only becoming less and less fun, we had less control of our units. We felt like it was becoming more and more an arcade game, but modders managed to turn it all into a good thing, with Wuppertal mod, being a great example. New mechanics, such as better unit positioning (parking feature) were introduced. Again, by modders.

But with Emergency 6 coming, it's all obvious. If we could call Emergency 5 a somewhat simulative, and somewhat arcade game, Emergency 6 is purely arcade. It feels like... no, it basically is- a point 'n click. The game looks great, from a graphical standpoint, but the gameplay... It is just not there, and will never be. What it looks like now:

- you get a limited number of units you can manage... one of the worst features: throught the mission YOU HAVE TO send some units home, only so you can call an ambulance, take the patient to the hospital, and only then, when the slot frees up, you can call back the first unit
- the game introduces a thing called a chaos meter- basically- the worse you perform, the higher the chaos meter scores, and if you struggle- the mission ends as a failure... there is no fun of struggling at the beggining, and making mistakes, so that you have to deal with the consequences later like in the previous games. You can only proceed with the mission the way, developer intended.
- attribute cards- after every mission you get to choose an arcade card, that you can use later in the missions, the idea itself isn't that bad, but has some mobile arcade game vibe to it. In Emergency 4, your units were developed as you progressed through the game, with movement speed increase, etc. Here, you get cards. Why couldn't it be just a tech tree, that allowed you to research and upgrade your units this way?
- remember what I said about the units positioning that Wuppertal mod brought to the Emergency 5? You can position your units now! But only in preexisiting spaces allocated around the map. You cant just move your firetruck anywhere you want. You can select preexisting parking space to allocate it. How could anyone think it was an improvement?

This is a new era for the series. It lost the very thing it differentiated it from all other genre games- a sense of freedom. You were given the absolute freedom, and all that came along with it. You chose your units, you chose how many you need, you chose where to place them, and how to act. The series used to be what we call "open world", especially with the Free roam game mode.
Now it's just a point 'n click. Select the only appropiate unit. Click on the parking spot. Click on the fire. Click on the unit. Send it home, so you can call an ambulance. Click on the parking spot. Click on the victim. Send it back to base. No new mechanics from all the great modifications the community built. Nothing new. It's just less.

[SUPER-TANK]

Old Man Stock is dead, long live Old Man Stock.

[Purple Pikachu]

point and click with cards? no thx mate i dont play mobile games

[Money Maker Unc]

You absolutely said it best.

[MagicFlyingMoron]

And now can we hear from someone who has played it?

[Ravagexe]

“Cards”

Aaaand Im out of here. goodbye forever Emergency series and may we never meet again.

[firefighter1964]

I have played it for 45 minutes, I totally agree with exciteddelirium

[[AUT] Icepilot]

I've given it a chance right now for about an hour, just when it got released. I'm utterly disappointed by what it had become. I'd rather pay for a quality game like Em4 was than to spend one more minute in that abomination it has become.

[<<.Nighthawk.>>]

This is bang on the money.
The game in its current state may appeal to some new players potentially, but it takes so much from the 'core' which used to be Emergency.

It is not a 'sequel' - This is the start to a completely different series. The only similarity to the original games is the setting. Everything else - mechanics, strategy, game modes and even individual play styles - is all gone.

[Huns]

Originally posted by MagicFlyingMoron:

And now can we hear from someone who has played it?

I played the game during the beta testing. I totally agree with the author.