Looks, sounds, and feels like an arcade game. Wet and wild fun until the fire dies out.
Armed with a hose and an ax, you're sent into tunnels and cubicle farms a la flambe to rescue any and all trapped dudes. You can toggle between a strong stream for long range or concentrated aiming or a blast of water to push flames away from you as you walk about or for small fires at short range. To rescue someone, you simply walk up to them and they become fireproof. Sometimes obstacles will be in your way so press right on your d-pad or equip your ax via menu by pressing select to hack away at boxes or cracked walls. You might have to hose down an obstacle before hacking at it, however, and there are areas where you'll have to crawl vents, avoid backdrafts, and make detours to get to people in need. Some boxes may have items and some halls may have citizens not on the radar to rescue or lost possessions of the people. At the end of a level, there is a "boss fight." This consists of fighting a massive fire in a makeshift arena covered in flames. These encounters range anywhere from impossible I'm on fire help me Tom Cruise to just stand there and aim down.
The real reason why difficulty varies is because you move sluggishly. Yes, it could be because you're weighed down with firefighting equipment, but why settle for slow realism when you're playing a game in which electrical fire mid-bosses groan like damned spirits and flicker away once you "kill" it? And, also, why would there be only one ~hidden~ fire extinquisher on a company building's floor when the interior seems to be solely made of flammable? You put out a fire and walk two steps and the fire returns, only this time it's directly on your back. Unfair, I say.
And what Konami game wouldn't be complete without a blockbuster action story to accompany a game about fighting fires? Seriously, you could skip every cutscene and not miss a thing. Snotty new reporter looking for scoops, serial arsonist loves talking to himself, you're a hero, the usual. Something about a senator, someone keeps scratching his scars and has "party tricks." I don't know, I was trying not to pay attention since the acting is terrible and you're not playing F.D.18 for its story anyway.
Overall, the in-game voiceover is staticy Virtua-style, the action is non-stop even if it is a little slow altogether, and the concept is truly original - something you can only really see in an arcade game. Firefighter F.D.18 made me feel like you could easily play this as a rail... fire... shooter with a light-firehose in an aracde. You know it's something it's not a bad game when someone you save tells you to go back into the flames to get their cell phone and you laugh because it reminds you of House of the Dead dialogue. Ha, good times. Too bad the controls are slow and all you do is watch **** cutscenes and fight the same fires in the same badly-designed computer parks, but then again I'm reaching for bad things to say about it. It's not a bad game and it's rare as hell too, so if you see it, pick it up.