At some point, surely we all wanted to be a firefighter. The uniforms are cool, the fire trucks are awesome, and scooshing water all over the place sounds great. Yeah it's an incredibly dangerous and serious business, but in the child's imagination fire fighting is one of the glamour jobs.
Firefighting Simulator – The Squad is a co-op simulation for up to four players, and published by Astragon Entertainment, which sim fans may recognise as the company behind the excellent (no really!) Bus Simulator and Construction Simulator. The game has been in development for a very long time: it was first announced as Firefighting Simulator, without The Squad, way back in 2016 as an Unreal Engine title. There was a 'Showroom' demo on Steam in 2017 that let you coo over the trucks and, since then, complete silence.
But something's burning...
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the game's foundation is a complex-sounding fire simulation that takes account of the fire's cause, fuel source, how it is affected by heat and smoke levels, and phenomena like backdraft and flashovers. Fires will spread dynamically, while the physics-based destruction models 'realistic' damage to a structure, and sometimes there will be civilians in need of rescue.
The game also features a singleplayer mode with AI companions, and includes a load of officially licensed firefighting gear and fire trucks from the US, which amuses me mainly because one of the latter is legit called the T3 Pumper. Firefighting Simulator – The Squad launches on Steam November 17.
