City Crisis is a game that needs to be looked at and played knowing that there really isn’t another game like this out on the market yet. Featuring a game that takes you through the various situations throughout a large city, your main goal is to stop criminals, put out fires and rescue the deziens of the city as it starts to go up in a wave of chaos and confusion! I’ve never really seen a game like this before, in which your main goal really isn’t to kill something or blow things up, so playing through the game a couple of times has made wonder just what else could actually be out there to play that runs along the same lines. With the advanced control that you need to work with, and the various missions that take place throughout the game, you’ll find that the biggest part of City Crisis is just to enjoy what the game has to offer, and not so much the visual and audio aspects that the game seems to be lacking.
The game play is something of a strange sort in which you pilot a helicopter through a rather large and overly busy city through several different missions that encompass the following situations. The fire fighting is done through hovering around a large building while its on fire and attempt to put out the flames through the use of a giant stream of water. In order to do this, you have to keep an eye on a small meter that will let you know just how much water you have remaining and how fast you can put out the fire. The rescue feature puts into the middle of a Choplifter style game in which your only goal is to pick up as many of the different people as you possibly can before the timer runs out. The last feature that the game has to offer, has to be the most fun in which you have to chase down a police suspect and keep them within the spotlight so the cops can come along and collect them! Choosing different styles of helicopters for the different situations sets off all of these small modes, and once you’ve found the right selection, you’ll find that the game is relatively easy to complete. That is pretty much where the game stops, and you have to get into the game through these smaller modes, as there really isn’t much to do here. The only part of the game that I can see resembling anything else in the video game world, is more or less the rescuing part of the game, and if you’ve played through Choplifter before, then you really have a good line on what to do anyway!
The control in City Crisis is a mixed decision in which you have several different things that you can do with your helicopter through the different scenarios. Most of the game is played using the analog sticks, in which you have to be able to use both of them simultaneously in order to get the job accomplished. Now this is no easy feat, in which you really have to practice with the different helicopters that you receive in order to find the correct one for your skills! The game itself really isn’t that hard to play, but the learning the control sets for each of the different scenarios takes plenty of practice and patience, so anyone who has played other titles like Thunderstrike, Ace Combat 4 and some of the other well known air simulation games should have nothing more than a thirty minute trial and error time before they play like a pro. The fact that there are some other advanced moves that you can do depending on the situation at hand will take yet more practice to fully understand and use.
Visually, the game suffers from three problems, and all three are apparent from the very beginning of the game. First of all, the visuals that you see in front of you continuously pop up and they do so when you least expect it. Much like G-Police, you have a game that centers on having plenty of visuals but no continuity to them when they keep appearing out of the distance. The next major problem with the visuals is that the detailing on everything seems to be a little rushed, and when you’re chasing down criminals or fighting fires, it’s hard to tell just what direction you’re really facing! The last problem with the visuals here is the lack of camera control. Because the game is centered around being behind the helicopter for the most part, you may find that judging the distances with the fire fighting and rescuing can close to impossible and it may cost you if you’re not really paying attention. Those three problems alone will aggravate most gamers, regardless of the game play that they find.
City Crisis doesn’t come packed with a killer soundtrack unfortunately, but when you sit back and think about it, what kind of music could you really have with this title? The music as it stands tries to bring the mood and the feeling of some sort of emergency into the game, but the overall presentation of the music is nothing short of disappointing! While it tries hard, it seems to fall flat with uninspired highs and lows that aren’t memorable, but rather a forgettable experience from the moment you shut the game off. The sound effects run the same way, even though there are some instances of explosions and chatter, you really can’t hear much of a good sounding blend in with the music. All in all, this is yet another problem that plagues the game giving you hardly enough respectable audio to listen to, and bringing down the overall quality of the game.
City Crisis has one thing going for it, and that is the fact that it tries to bring something completely new to the table with the way that the game is played. In all honesty, I’ve never played a game that features three different styles of action all rolled up into one, although I have played the likes of Choplifter, Fahrenheit, and World’s Scariest Police Chases. When you take all of the elements of those three games, roll them up into one title and market it, there are just a few things that can go wrong. With the pop up visuals, the lack of action music and the wickedly difficult to use control in some points, many gamers who are new to the rescue/action-adventure genre will probably find this title to be a little too advanced for their liking! Worth a rental to experience what it has to offer, City Crisis is best left to those who like an extreme challenge.
6/10
