Does this sim need the kiss of life?
Developed by the creators of the groundbreaking Police Simulator: Patrol Officers, Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator is the first simulation game in which you experience every aspect of a paramedic’s life. Your objective? Quickly reach the accident site at the wheel of your ambulance. Your mission? Take care of the injured and apply first aid. Each accident is different. It’s up to you to adapt and make the right choices while being fast and efficient.
Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator is exactly what you would expect it to be from its title. You can put on your siren and rush to the accident site, while taking the appropriate tests on patients before deciding on a course-of-action. It all sounds good on paper, but is it delivered well?
Overall, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. While the treatment and tests for patients are well done, there are a number of bugs that you will experience, even just driving to the accident sites. Being behind the wheel of an ambulance in a videogame, you are bound to run over the odd pedestrian and while its not a glitch, I did find it hilarious that the screen would flash white for a second and the NPC would vanish.
The courses of treatment vary on patient, but they are pretty enjoyable on the whole. Driving itself feels a bit sluggish too, but it’s passable. I think the main problem is that the game runs at what appears to be roughly 30FPS, which makes it look slower than it actually is. I mean, it’s hard to defend a game running at that framerate these days, unless it has something substantial like ray-tracing of top quality visuals at work, alas that is not the case.
That’s not to say the visuals are bad, they are just dated by today’s standards. The voice-acting is passable, while the soundtrack is decent overall. Like I said, it does have some bugs in its presentation and gameplay, but luckily not enough to detract from the game itself. It just needs a little more polishing, I think is the main point I’m trying to make.
The Verdict
Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator has some good ideas and are implemented well, but it is also held back by its performance, bugs and sometimes sluggish controls.