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Firefighter F.D. 18 Impressions

Konami is hard at work on a new firefighting game, and we've seen it in action.

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Though a short video was shown back at E3, Konami has now given us a brief glimpse of the game in action. While we only got to peek at the game's first level for a few minutes, this underused premise seems like it could eventually turn out to be a pretty cool action game.

Firefighter F.D. 18 puts you in the role of a firefighter named Dean McGregor. Dean is part of the front line of firefighting, meaning that he's one of the first firefighters on the scene, and his primary mission is to rescue survivors before they succumb to the encroaching flames. Failure is not an option here--letting even one of the people die ends the game. A Metal Gear Solid-like radar map is used to show the relative position of any nearby survivors, and you must save everyone to move ahead to the next level.

Dean will have an array of tools at hand to fight the various types of fire he'll encounter. He'll always have a hose that is attached to a nearby fire truck, so you'll always have an infinite supply of water at your disposal. You'll also have access to an ax, different spray nozzles that have an impact on your water dispersion, first-aid kits to heal yourself, and various other firefighting items that are designed to take on specific types of fire. For example, chemical fires don't respond terribly well to your standard water, so you'll have to use foam blasts to smother the flames. Beyond the fire itself, you'll also have to worry about collapsing buildings, explosions, and backdrafts.

Firefighter will have a story, though beyond saying that the game would feature a love interest for Dean and that there would be some criminal element behind the game's fires, Konami didn't reveal too much on that front. The game is played from a third-person perspective, and it appears that you'll have full control over the camera at all times using the right analog stick. Dean will occasionally catch on fire throughout the course of the game, and you'll have to wiggle the left stick around to shake the flames off of his fire suit.

While the game's fire is scripted and the game isn't really intended to be a realistic simulation of real fires, the team at Konami has consulted with Japanese firefighters to ensure that other aspects of the game are realistic. On the production side, the game's music has been composed by Klaus Badelt, who composed music for movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean and K-19: The Widowmaker.

Firefighter F.D. 18 is currently scheduled for a March 2004 release. We'll have more on the game as it becomes available.

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