It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Plays, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. Today, we're checking out Neo Harbor Rescue Squad on Steam.
Neo Harbor Rescue Squad tells the age-old tale of Rescue Squad VS Fire Department VS the Media. If that doesn't get your blood pumping, I don't know what will. You arrive at Rescue Squad HQ as the rookie recruit, trying to get his feet wet in the department. The first person you meet in HQ is your boss, the Captain of the Squad, Queenie Tam. She may look like a tough customer but do your job and she'll come around. You'll also meet Mei Mei, who is the dispatcher for the department as well as the tech expert. For those who don't know, the dispatcher's job is to send the department on jobs and alert them of issues/emergencies. After getting to know the members of the department, we get sent on our first job, responding to a motor vehicle accident involving a bus.
Arriving at the scene of the accident, we are met with the basics of the game and taught how to handle emergencies. It reminds me a lot of Trauma Center on the Nintendo Wii where the emergencies were handled in a mini game like fashion. Think Warioware mini games if they were all about medical issues. I really think a quick tutorial for each mini game/medical procedure would have been welcomed because there were a few procedures I had no clue how to play the first few times I had them pop up as mini games. The controls are in the corner of the screen but you have a certain amount of time to perform them and if done incorrect, you lose the medical process. That comes into play for scoring at the end of the emergency. You'll also have to juggle between multiple patients and knowing how to assist the patient via playing the mini game properly can save some time.
After a little time on the job, you'll run into the Fire Department, who happen to be the mortal enemies of the Rescue Squad. I really like the character design of all the characters in the game and I found myself really disliking the Fire Department and that means good writing. Combine that with good voice acting and I was having a great time with the game. I also really like the Betty Woo, the news reporter, has it out for the Rescue Squad and is pro Fire Department. There is one other character that I haven't mentioned yet and he might be the best in the whole game. The Rescue Squad has an engineer who the rookie mistakes as a mascot. He is Finn, the Dolphin, and he's kind of a wise guy, I mean wise dolphin.
Mini game medical procedures can be as simple as listening to the patient breathing to setting up a tourniquet for blood. After you figure out how to perform each action the gameplay feels much smoother. As I mentioned before, there were a few mini games that I had no clue had to perform. I also think a little more variety in the mini game medical procedures would have been nice but overall the game is pretty fun. I love how Neo Harbor Rescue Squad looks and sounds and fans of quick mini games will want to check this out.
Make sure you check out the hands-on/thoughts video below!