Firefighting Simulator: Ignite gives the player a taste of putting out fires, rescuing victims and driving to and from incident scenes. GiN was given a review copy of Ignite, and it delivered on its promises of simulating many of the tasks a firefighter does. Being a retired firefighter, I was asked to review the simulation for both accuracy and entertainment value. This is not meant to be an arcade title, so it needed to be realistic. Thankfully, for the most part, it is. In fact, the part that I was most pleased about was how Ignite leaned into the flavor of teamwork that the job requires unlike some other firefighting titles that I have seen.
The game begins with a tutorial on how to pick up tools such as a Halligan Bar or a hose line. I was impressed on the way it shows how a Halligan tool must “shock” a locked door first, so it can get a purchase point and then pry to open it. This multistep process is given some great actions so as to drive home that forcing entry on a locked door is a skill, rather than just brute strength blindly beating a bar of metal against an obstruction.
Just like in real life, using the hose line to put out a fire takes time and isn’t a magic bullet. The fires in the title can only be put out with a well-aimed hose stream that sweeps a room and extinguishes any flames in the next room that are feeding it. This is a great detail in Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, and it shows that any fire will continue to extend from one room to another if you don’t extinguish it in all its locations.
Now, being a simulator and not a “replicator,” you can pull the hose all over and through a burning building while also calling for multiple hose lines from your other firefighters. What Ignite doesn’t do is show players how you actually need other firefighters to help pull the hose around doors and climb upstairs or over ladders while you drag it through a succession of rooms, all of which can have hazards that might try and snag your line. There is a multiplayer option in Firefighting Simulator: Ignite, which may have added some of those elements, but I didn’t get a chance to use it. So, this review is all about the single player experience.
Now, I could see how something like what I just described with the hose line might over complicate the game. This is a simulation but also needs to be fun. Firefighting Simulator: Ignite thus keeps most of the action from one firefighter’s point of view, and adding helpers to the trailing end of a hose line to pull it around sharp bends and advance it would be an afterthought to the main action of putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.
Rescuing victims is another great aspect of Ignite. This is done in two different ways. The first is finding someone who just needs help walking out of the danger zone. The second method of rescue is carrying an unconscious victim away from smoke and fire. Both scenarios require you to turn the rescued person over to an ambulance crew. This matches real life scenarios where the process of getting a victim out of a burning building doesn’t stop at their front yard. The goal is to save the victim from both smoke inhalation and any burn injuries, which requires both on-scene EMS care and a trip to the hospital.
The firehouse that the game uses as a staging area and headquarters has some other firefighters walking around either training, eating, cleaning or talking to each other. You can choose to wear your station uniform or put on your turnout gear while in the station. There isn’t lots of interaction allowed with the other characters, but it does show the different activities firefighters do in the time while on duty but not on a call. I would have liked to have seen a cut-scene where the firefighters are all at a table eating dinner when the tones go off for a call. Seeing them turning off the stove, pushing their plates back and quickly getting dressed in firefighting apparatus would have been a good addition.
Firefighting Simulator: Ignite allows for the use of different trucks and tools, which is a nice touch. This includes things like the Stihl chainsaw (a real name brand tool used in many fire services) and numerous types of fire trucks. There are also many different incidents that you will be responding to, with the most complicated ones unlocked as you complete the less complex ones.
For example, there are single family home fires, commercial fires and apartment fires. There are also electrical fires that require you to not only put a fire out with a hose line but to also turn off the power source.
Firefighting Simulator: Ignite does not replicate every aspect of firefighting, but it’s a fun simulation that allows for some enjoyable hours and strikes a great balance between accuracy and fun. Also, Astragon Entertainment, who is publishing this title for the Weltenbaur company, begins their game with a very nice homage to the fire service and a call to the public to respect the job firefighters do. That was great to see.
And if you are interested, Astragon is also publishing similar fun and informative titles in the same series as Firefighting Simulator: Ignite. They cover the jobs of police officers and park rangers. Both of those titles, as well as Firefighting Simulator: Ignite are available for the PC through the Steam platform. Ignite is also available for the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, where we reviewed it. Check it out if you like simulators (this is one of the best), or if you simply want to learn what it’s like to be a heroic firefighter.
Developers: weltenbauer. Software Entwicklung
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox Series X