Stunning new graphics, great new mechanics. Sadly though, not enough to be deemed a sequel.
Emergency 2012 feels like a huge step backwards in the series; there is less freedom, seemingly less units and less fun. To its credit though; there have been a few features implemented that covered some issues found in Emergency 4; you can now re-direct pedestrians en masse as opposed to one by one and the ambulances will return after dropping off a patient at the hospital. Although the ambulance feature sounds like a great way to help the player, it's actually to cover something they removed: The ability to call in more units on scene. On the previous game; if you felt there was too much going on for your units to handle; you could call in additional units for a cost taken from the in game credits you're assigned each mission. On Emergency 2012 however, you're stuck with the units you start with. I've only played up to mission 3 so I'm not entirely sure as to whether this may change or not later in game, I really hope it changes. If you find yourself overwhelmed; tough luck because there is no difficulty options either.
Another issue I found is that the 'Emergency' spirit is actually absent. To illustrate this point; on the first Mission for Emergency 2012, the tower of a cathedral has collapsed leaving various cars trapped and people injured; you act to save lives… well… not really; you rescue two people and leave, leaving all the cars trapped under rubble as they are. In the previous titles, you'd have to have moved the rubble and try save the lives of those trapped in cars. The second mission has a similar issue; there is so much they could have done with these missions but didn't do so.
There are a few things they got right with the missions though; the maps are a lot bigger and the grand look is amplified when the environments are filled with havoc and destruction, the disasters look more like disasters, in other words.
On the note of the missions; the difficulty is very inconsistent. For example, in the second mission you rescue 3 people and put out a few fires with no immediate danger. In the third mission you have to apprehend 3 armed suspects and deal with rioters as the 3 armed suspects start fires which you have to immediately deal with to prevent explosion and further injury and – yeah. I appreciate that they put in 3 'Freemode' maps; Heat, snow and Storm. Not only do the maps give a change of environment but they also tailor to how you enjoy playing; for example, the snow maps will have fewer fires. The free play mode also has various new emergencies to deal with which is a nice change, but the difficulty seems rather inconsistent as in the main missions. Just as I started to play on free mode, I got 2 emergencies simultaneously , one being a rouge sniper gunning down innocent civilians and another of an arsonist blowing up cars on the other side of town, it really threw me in the deep end and matters were made worse when the paramedics automatically ran right into the line of fire and got themselves shot.
I can't complain about the sound effects, though some are obviously recycled from the previous titles. I wouldn't mind this so much if it wasn't so… oddly placed. For example; deploying a tape barrier makes the same metallic sound made by deploying road spikes in Emergency 4.
Overall, it's a pretty big disappointment. It's just a matter of waiting until the modding community can do something for it and make it the 'Emergency 5' I, and others, hoped for.