EMERGENCY

About

EMERGENCY is a single player and multiplayer strategy game. It was developed by Sixteen Tons Entertainment and was released on August 15, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Save lives – be a hero! Join forces against the chaos in the newest title of the award-winning Emergency series. Take up your shift as incident commander and coordinate with other players to fight fires, arrest gangsters and rescue injured civilians. Your city needs you!

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65%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,923 reviews

gameplay74 positive mentions

story29 negative mentions

The game is fun and engaging, especially when played with friends in co-op mode.
Graphics are impressive for a free game, providing a visually appealing experience.
The gameplay encourages strategic thinking and multitasking, making it enjoyable.

The game heavily relies on microtransactions, making progression feel grindy and frustrating.
Limited to only 5 vehicle slots at a time, which can hinder gameplay and make missions feel overwhelming.
The missions can become repetitive quickly, lacking the depth and variety of previous Emergency titles.

story
367 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
8%
84%
8%
The game lacks a cohesive story or campaign, with players primarily engaging in repetitive missions that feel disconnected from any overarching narrative. While the gameplay involves managing various emergency scenarios, the absence of a structured storyline or character development leaves many feeling that the experience is shallow and reminiscent of mobile games. Overall, the focus on microtransactions and mission grinding detracts from the potential for a more engaging and story-driven experience.
- “The cooperative gameplay is where 'emergency' really shines, allowing players to team up and tackle complex rescue missions together.”
- “The sense of camaraderie and the need for strategic planning make each mission both challenging and rewarding.”
- “From firefighting to medical emergencies, each scenario requires different skills and strategies, ensuring that no two missions feel the same.”
- “The game lacks a single-player campaign, there’s no mod support, the unit placement is overly restrictive, allowing you to deploy units only in preset spots, and the limitation of just 5 vehicle slots during missions is frustrating in complex scenarios.”
- “The missions do become quite repetitive after a while so you do get to know them quite quickly.”
- “There's no open world like you've seen in previous installments as everything is done in a more mission-style similar to XCOM: Chimera Squad.”
gameplay
318 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
68%
9%
The gameplay of the latest installment in the "Emergency" series has received mixed reviews, with many players noting a significant shift towards simplified mechanics and a mobile game feel, which detracts from the depth and strategy that characterized earlier titles. While some appreciate the cooperative gameplay and the challenge it presents, others criticize the repetitive nature, aggressive monetization strategies, and lack of meaningful progression without spending money. Overall, the game offers decent fun in short bursts, particularly in multiplayer, but many long-time fans feel it falls short of the franchise's legacy.
- “The gameplay is fun, challenging, and satisfying when you get everything under control.”
- “The cooperative gameplay is where 'emergency' really shines, allowing players to team up and tackle complex rescue missions together.”
- “The variety of scenarios and units keeps gameplay fresh, even if the difficulty can be a bit steep at times.”
- “Unfortunately, no more updates have been released since halfway through 2024, and the gameplay is very repetitive.”
- “Overall, the gameplay is repetitive and strongly geared toward daily logins, buying in-game currency, and constantly bombarding you with micro-rewards to get you psychologically hooked on continuing to play.”
- “The heavy emphasis on monetization, coupled with the lack of a campaign mode, a free single-player open world, and the overly guided gameplay, makes it a disappointing addition to the series.”
graphics
160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
49%
9%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players praising their quality and detail, often describing them as stunning or impressive, especially for a free game. However, some users criticize the optimization and performance issues, noting that the game can look subpar on lower settings or with integrated graphics. Overall, while the visuals are a highlight for many, concerns about gameplay and technical performance overshadow the graphical achievements for some players.
- “The graphics are stunning, and the gameplay keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
- “Graphics and attention to detail on 3D models are quite impressive, no grainy texture particles, just nice clean and crisp.”
- “With realistic graphics, challenging gameplay, and intense scenarios, it’s an adrenaline-fueled experience that tests your quick thinking and strategic planning.”
- “1/10, the game put me on the lowest graphical settings which made it look like PS2 graphics.”
- “The graphics are terrible even at the highest setting.”
- “Unfortunately, the developers of this game have lost their way; we are left with a game that feels like a mobile device game, not what I would have expected to be released on this platform, especially with the advancements in PC processing power and graphics capabilities.”
monetization
158 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
68%
28%
The monetization strategy of the game has been widely criticized for its heavy reliance on microtransactions, which many players view as predatory and reminiscent of mobile cash grabs. While some users acknowledge that the game is playable without spending money, the overwhelming presence of pay-to-win mechanics and in-game purchases detracts from the overall experience, leading to frustration and disappointment among fans of the franchise. Overall, the aggressive monetization tactics have overshadowed the game's potential, making it difficult for players to enjoy the core gameplay without feeling pressured to spend.
- “Good deal considering the game is free and has no punishing microtransactions.”
- “Yes, it has microtransactions, but as far as I can tell, it's largely just for cosmetics and I haven't felt any need to buy them or anything else in the store.”
- “There are microtransactions, but they aren't entirely necessary to complete the game.”
- “This is essentially a cash grab PC clone of the mobile game Emergency HQ, and it deserves to be called out for it.”
- “The game is absolutely drowning in microtransactions.”
- “It's disheartening to witness a once-great series succumb to the vices of modern gaming trends, tarnishing its legacy with shameless microtransactions, infuriating lootboxes like in the mobile version and abysmal optimization.”
grinding
75 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
15%
81%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being excessively tedious and repetitive, often requiring players to invest significant time or money to progress. Many reviews highlight that the gameplay quickly becomes monotonous, with a lack of meaningful rewards for the effort put in, leading to a frustrating experience. While some players find enjoyment in the cooperative elements, the overall sentiment is that the grind detracts from the game's potential fun.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “It's frankly a really good game especially if you can grab a couple buddies, I love the management of chaos with friends that this game introduces, the only real con to this game is it feels abandoned and is an unbelievable cash grab, and a lot of things require an immense amount of grinding.”
- “The game is very grindy, and almost impossible in solo in mid/high levels unless you've paid for tons of upgrades.”
- “After 12 hours grinding the same missions over and over again, I gave up; it got so boring!”
optimization
34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
44%
38%
The optimization of the game has received overwhelmingly negative feedback, with many users reporting severe performance issues, including low frame rates and high resource usage even on high-end hardware. While a few players noted smooth performance, the consensus highlights significant optimization flaws that detract from the overall experience, often likening it to poorly optimized mobile games. Overall, the game's optimization is considered a major drawback, leading to frustration among players.
- “This game is well-optimized and detailed.”
- “The performance of this game is excellent, very smooth with constant 100+ fps on my 3070ti (laptop version) + 12900h.”
- “After reading the reviews I was hesitant to try it out, but I honestly don't understand any of the reviews.. the game runs smoothly, not a single hiccup or desync.”
- “Then we have the optimization... honestly, I think it doesn’t exist... a graphics card at 100% and 20 fps in the tutorial (1080 Ti), but the same thing happens with better generations... not even Crysis pushes it to that extreme.”
- “Dont play this game if you don't want to mess up all your graphics drivers. Not only is it the worst optimized game I've played, it also breaks all your virtual setup.”
- “The game's performance is all over the place - sometimes I get 30 fps, other times I get 90 fps.”
stability
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
83%
The stability of the game is mixed, with some players experiencing smooth gameplay while others report frequent bugs, glitches, and lag, particularly in multiplayer modes. Although some users have not encountered significant issues, the matchmaking system and unit selection can be problematic, indicating that the game may require further optimization and bug fixes. Overall, while it is playable, the presence of various stability issues detracts from the experience for many players.
- “It is playable, and I have had no glitches, bugs, or breaks in the game.”
- “They are smooth, crisp, not buggy, no lag, and just overall feels really good.”
- “It has its moments when everything is fine and then it gets buggy, laggy, before eventually becoming unresponsive.”
- “Buggy can't select the units to complete tasks.”
- “It's pretty buggy as far as I can tell.”
music
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
28%
27%
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the quality and ambiance it provides, while others criticize its repetitiveness due to a limited number of tracks. Although the soundtrack is noted for its nostalgic value, many users express disappointment over the lack of variety, with some even mentioning the absence of music in certain contexts. Overall, while the music complements the game's graphics and sound effects, it falls short in diversity.
- “The graphics are stunning, the animations and music are pretty good and there's a decent variety of emergencies.”
- “I love the music too.”
- “Graphically everything just works really nicely, with sound effects and music to complement although I did find some of the siren sounds a tad repetitive, the ambience is pretty good and sets a good overall tone.”
- “There is no music in this game.”
- “It has the same exact music as E3.”
- “Only one music track, yes, just one.”
replayability
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The reviews highlight a mixed perspective on replayability, with some players appreciating the potential for infinite replayability through mission bonuses and simplified gameplay that appeals to casual gamers. However, others criticize the lack of depth and customization compared to previous titles, leading to a diminished sense of immersion and limited replay value once objectives are met. Overall, while some elements enhance replayability, significant limitations remain for others.
- “Give out bonuses for completing a mission with zero chaos or 10% or less chaos, which would help with the replayability of missions.”
- “Emergency 4 with a few mods continues to blow these newer games out of the water, with more customization, more content, and more replayability.”
- “Emergency's strategic depth ensures replayability.”
- “This omission severely limits the game's replay value and the sense of immersion that previous titles provided.”
- “Not gonna lie, there is no replay value to this game.”
- “Where is the replayability here, if, once you’ve earned whatever you wanted, you’ll go right back to playing the same preset scenarios again?”
humor
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as dark and twisted, particularly in relation to its achievements and the overall experience, which some find amusing despite the game's grindy nature. Players appreciate the comedic elements, especially in co-op play, noting that the communication and mini-games contribute to the fun. However, there are mixed feelings about the humor's effectiveness, with some finding it less funny upon deeper reflection.
- “As a mini game, it's funny and good ”
- “The communication makes it very funny.”
- “Played this game with friends and it was very funny!”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
25%
50%
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its intensity and immersive quality, although it is marred by a toxic community stemming from the developers' profit-driven approach that compromises fair gameplay. Overall, while the atmosphere effectively conveys thrilling situations, the surrounding community dynamics detract from the experience.
- “The game's atmosphere is top-notch.”
- “Furthermore, the developers' apparent focus on profits at the expense of fair gameplay has led to a toxic community atmosphere.”
- “It is meant to be a simplified quick game where you still get to feel the atmosphere of intense situations.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
While "Emergency" excels in high-stakes strategy mechanics, it falls short in character development and storyline depth compared to similar titles.
- “Compared to similar titles, Emergency impresses with its high-stakes strategy mechanics, but lacks depth in the storyline and character development.”
- “The characters feel one-dimensional and their growth throughout the game is minimal, making it hard to connect with them.”
- “Character development is almost non-existent; I found myself not caring about the characters or their fates.”
emotional
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players express deep emotional distress over the game's current state, feeling that it has strayed far from its potential and legacy. The overwhelming sadness and disappointment, likened to personal loss, highlight a strong emotional connection to the franchise, exacerbated by the presence of microtransactions and changes to beloved mechanics.
- “The overwhelming sadness this game has made me feel is worse than when Barb left me and took the kids.”
- “This game had the potential to be perfect, but it feels like a heart-wrenching disappointment that tarnishes the reputation of a once-beloved franchise.”