Before I begin my preview of Fire Department 3, I would like to make a statement. There are three consoles, two of which are more popular than the PC. Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's Playstation are therefore favoured by developers. The number of games released on both platforms diminishes each day. The number of good games released on the pc, diminishes even faster. Publishers, in their good right, tend to send us only review copies for the consoles. Ergo, when we do get a PC title sent to us, the game is mostly of sub par quality. I therefore ask myself why I still bother with the PC and don't go out and buy a console... Anyhow, after getting this off my chest I believe it's time to get on with my preview.

Fire Department is - you won't believe it - a fire-fighter sim. That means you'll take control of a number of units with different capabilities and will have to guide them in their heroic fights against one of nature's most horrific elements. Among those units, the medic, who'll be able to patch up the wounded civilians, or the technician, who can fix generators, and the run-through-the-mill fire-fighter, who takes care of obstacles with his axe.

Generally speaking, Fire Department is a very nice game. The concept and the wide variety of scenarios are well-thought off, but the game lacks a finishing touch.

It starts with graphics. Graphics that would barely do two years ago, will recently not be sufficient today. But after all, we're talking about an Real-Time Strategy title here, so we'll be lenient on that matter. Unfortunately, graphics isn't the game's only issue.

My biggest point of critique is the fact that you're not able to adjust the difficulty setting. In your first mission, yo'll have to find a way to enter a lit hangar and put out the fire before the Russian aircraft inside the hangar explodes. However, by the time you've figured out what to do, the place is lit up like a Christmas tree and you'll have no clue which fire to put out first. Furthermore, you will have to extinguish fires in two separate places, which makes you lose control almost instantly. So be sure to expect a huge amount of trial-and-error before you will be able to complete a mission. During the missions, you'll get a brief summary of the goals that need completion, but unfortunately the goals are not illustrated, which means you're still somewhat left in the dark.

And finally, there's the controls and interface. These too, leave somewhat to be desired. A simple click on the right mouse button, for instance, will not be enough to make your men step into the fire truck. After a while, you get used to the controls, but before you reach that point, I fear you will already have given up hope.

Conclusion: