911 Paramedic Review

Legacy Interactive has been doing quite well over the years with its Emergency Room serial (Emergency Room 1 and 2, Emergency Room Disaster Strikes, Emergency Room Life or Death, Code Blue, Code Red, Emergency Room 3), which shouldn't be much of a surprise considering the immense popularity of some of the TV series like E.R. and Chicago Hope.

And while most of these stories focused on doctors, things changed recently and people started appreciating the hard work of the supporting staff, like nurses and technicians as well. When you're a paramedic, you frequently have to put your life on the line in order to save another... those people who can easily end up as collateral damage in a street-gang gunfight or a family fight, are the first ones to help a person in need, and it is their actions that make the difference between life and death. 911 Paramedic brings this very experience to your screen. You, as a paramedic, will have to make a series of good decisions in the shortest possible time before you transport the patient to the hospital. The patient's life depends on your speed and skills.

The game has been organized as an array of specific situations that can occur in a big city... well, at least the situations that include a patient you can help. You will see all sorts of things, from extasy overdoses to allergies, hypochondriacs, sport injuries, car crashes and gunfights.

Each patient deserves a specific treatment. You will have to provide this treatment using the easy and intuitive (yet relatively slow-responding) interface, designed as a virtual PDA. The first thing you have to do is figure out what's wrong with the patient. Some will be conscious, some won't, some will bleed, and some won't even breathe, nor have any vital signs. Some may be disoriented or in a shock, or influenced by psychoactive substances. All this makes gathering necessary data (anamnesis) very hard at times. The questions you can ask your patients are useful, but always pay more heed to objective parameters which can better help you in evaluating the situation and determining the course of action.

You will soon realize that you need super-human strength to perform all the procedures you are supposed to. 911 Paramedic does a great job in presenting this real-life dilemma: if you decide to take your time in order to do everything that has to be done in detail, your patient might simply die on the spot. Your goal here is not to use all possible resources on the patient; you simply have to patch him up so that he can survive until he reaches the hospital - as soon as possible. And as I said "as soon as possible" I remembered that all through the game you will have the "pleasure" of hearing the malevolent voices of your colleagues commenting on how slow you are. But don't worry about these too much; you will never be quick enough for them. This was also a great move on the developer's behalf, as it constantly pumps the adrenalin, and stimulates you to work even faster.

The game pretty much resembles a movie or series, and in between interventions, you will get a chance to see video-sequences (the game includes the Apple Quick Time Player) of yourself, resting in the hospital. Apart from this, there are also clips showing a doctor or your superior commenting on your work weather it be extremely good, or extremely bad.

The entire gameplay is not that hard, and (if you have seen enough episodes of E. R. or Chicago Hope) you will find your way around it in no time. You get into the routine after three or four missions. Sign outs are an unavoidable part of each intervention. They represent the summary of your work and I suggest you devote your full attention to writing those reports, as the also present the main guiding lines for the doctors that will treat the patients later.

The game can also end prematurely as a result of a single mistake you make. After each intervention, you get a certain number of points for proficiency and speed, and if you do not gather sufficient points after some time, you simply get fired.

The in-game graphics are mediocre, but that is definitely not the most important thing in this game anyway. Each intervention is introduced by a short video-clip, and takes place on a static screen showing the patient. They have been perfectly drawn, and as soon as you look at a patient you will have an initial idea as to what might be wrong with him. Their movement and voices are true to life, and will often help you determine the ailments. When you click on a certain part of a body, the screen will change into the part of body you wanted to examine.

911 Paramedic is a good game and you can feel the experience that the developer team has in making this type of realistic simulations. If you desire to see what it's like to be a paramedic, and have the stomach to try it out, this is a game for you.