A great RTS-Simulation hybrid. Been playing this series since Emergency 3. Mod Friendly.


*protip*

By default, the game uses the arrow keys for camera movement, If you want to change it to WASD, Go to the following folder: steamlibrary/steamapps/common/911firstresponders/Data/Specs/ and open keys.xml with NotePad .

Search for the following actions: Right, Left, Up and Down and change the keys to this:
<binding key="Keyboard0.D" action="Right" />
<binding key="Keyboard0.A" action="Left" />
<binding key="Keyboard0.W" action="Up" />
<binding key="Keyboard0.S" action="Down" />

This is a great game, albeit with a few significant problems.

The Gameplay is the best part of it, where you have to simultaneously deploy and manage multiple response units including firemen/firetrucks, Ambulances/Paramedics, Police, Negotiators, Salvage vehicles etc.

You start in a suburban area where you respond to numerous events. The game quickly manages to scale up and has you managing multiple units at the same time, in different areas of the city, all earning you money to purchase new equipment. When you have the required equipment it unlocks a "mission" that takes you into a separate "mission map" and you get a more complex mission. When you complete the mission it takes you back to the suburban area again, to manage more random events until you have purchased the required hardware for the next mission.

This gameplay is quite fun, and even though it is the same incidents, the map is quite large and always has you thinking on "where is the nearest hydrant?", "what resources do i need for that?" or "where is that criminal running?" so each incident is still quite unique.

Now, the "significant problems" I mentioned earlier (from least significant to most significant)

Firstly: Audio is ok. It repeats a lot of things a lot of times and has some interesting things (like every vehicle you click on sounds the "ambulance sirens", even if you click on a car on the side of the road)

Secondly: Graphics are ok. It doesn't have any options above 1024x1280 and on a full HD display it is somewhat grainy, but I don't think this significantly detracts from the game

Thirdly: When doing the more complex "Mission scenario" I still haven't found a way to restart it without quitting to windows. So when you make a big stuff-up and all your firemen are dying with a wall of fire between them and the paramedics, you actually have to deal with the situation... or you quit to desktop and start the game again

Next: Each individual will not really do anything unless you have told them to. ie: A fireman will watch a fire burn, unless you have told him to equip an extinguishing device (hose or extinguisher) and is within range. If a fire moves out of range, he won't follow it. Same goes for Paramedics and Police. I'd love to see a little bit of automation, such as: tell the fire-truck to "CONTAIN" the fire and they setup automatically to stop the fire spreading, or tell the paramedics to "TREAT" the casualty, and when he is ready for transport they should automatically load him into the ambulance and take him away.

Oh, and firement shouldn't stand in one fire when trying to fight another fire... yeah this can happen.

Lastly: Traffic routing. If you order ten ambulances (yes, i made a few mistakes fighting a fire once) and tell them where to go, after the first two arrive, then the others keep driving around in circles because they can't get to the spot where the first two ambulances parked. Sometimes they'll drive around a building on fire and blow up because they are trying to get to that exact spot.

And sometimes they get "jammed" because they drove too close to a pedestrian and then you have to manually "unjam" them so they can drive again. (not too common)

But, all in all, a good, enjoyable game, just be warned that some things are frustrating

Time Disclaimer -- I have played 911: First Responders / Emergency 4 for hundreds of hours prior to the Steam release.

Emergency 4 is a Real Time Strategy in which the user is tasked with controlling a number of German Emergency Services; Police, Ambulance, Fire, and Mechanics. Using these, it's up to the user to deal with a number of disasters in the main campaign ranging from simple fires to earthquakes, hostage situations, airline disasters and more! Alternatively, the user can play an endless mode in which they must deal with random emergencies which will grant them the finances to purchase more vehicles and deal with bigger disasters. One great aspect is you're not penalized for doing a bad job so if you get bored, you can use your police units to cause havoc.

The game is easy to get into but difficult to master as controlling a number of different emergency units can quickly become overwhelming. The assets have also aged well since release.

Emergency 4 is definitely a unique game and is an often looked over gem, it's a game that is both engaging and enjoyable, even if you're not a fan of Real Time Strategies.

Additionally, the game is VERY moddable. The 'LA Mod' is definitely recommended as it adds dozens of additional units and missions.

To put it simply, this game is a must play and for the price it's being offered at, it's definitely worth grabbing. There are rumors of emegency 5 being released next month (October 2014) and hopefully it's a better game than the poorly done Emergency 2012/2013/2014 games and hopefully, the release of Emergency 4 on Steam is a good sign of Emergency 5 being released on Steam sometime soon.

I just noticed this game appeared on Steam, But I have been playing it since release. An absolutely fantastic game, if you look past the very poor coding and AI spawning ETC. Has an amazing mod community and some of the best content such as the LA mod completely transforms the game. One of the only Emergency services management game and highly recommended.

As for the flaws, yes there are many. The civilians have no regard for their own safety and routinely stand close to cars about to explode, etc. When you block a civilians path say closing off the scene of an accident, it will continually spawn civilians until the FPS absolutely tanks. The AI pathfinding is poor, and even still there are a fair amount of glitches with hoses and other core game mechanics.

Regardless, especially playing the LA mod the idea of controlling the different services is absolutely intoxicating. Even taking the game online to control only one service with your friends makes for some of the best team play. Graphics are very good considering the games' age.

At first I was like: Damn Cops
Then I was like: OH ♥♥♥♥ FIRE!
Then I was like: oh it was arson
After that I was like: Cops go pew pew pew
Then it was like: FIRE STILL BURNING!!!!!
Now I'm like: Arsonist dead, so is half the city

Mission Accomplished

Very fun and addicting, highly recomend the LA mod

At first glance, this game might look like those abysmal simulator games that you find decorating the local GameStop's bargain bin and the Steam Greenlight page in equal measure. However, 911: First Responders couldn't be more different. What appears to be a mild-mannered and simple simulation is a surprisingly realistic and hair-pullingly tough game of skill and judgement that plays out more like an RTS than a traditional sim. Well-researched subject material, a lengthy and challenging campaign, and exquisite sound and music design go hand-in-hand to create this gem of a game that deserves far more recognition than first appearances might suggest.

In 911: First Responders, the player assumes the role of an emergency dispatcher in an unidentified, accident-prone urban sprawl somewhere in Europe - presumably the Netherlands, considering where developers Sixteen Tons Entertainment hail from. It's your sole duty to command and micro-manage emergency responders of all professions and roles, ranging from police marksmen to fire department marine divers to tow truck technicians. The mammoth campaign is comprised of twenty assignments that are broken up by short sessions of responding to low-level emergency calls inside the city, with each success granting the player some of the funds needed to buy vehicles and upgrades that are imperative for the next big assignment. Though they start out easy enough, these large-scale missions quickly become damningly hard and will push even experienced RTS players to their multi-tasking, micro-managing limits. A very wide range of emergency situations and responses are represented in loving detail, giving the game just enough complexity to be engaging without being overwhelming to people who aren't educated in emergency service operations - despite the plethora of vehicles and personnel on hand, most of the tools the player is given have an obvious and easily comprehensible application. The open-ended nature of each assignment is also something to be noted and applauded - though some missions may have clear solutions, others require creative use of the tools at your disposal in order to save as many lives as possible.

Of course, fun as it is, the game isn't flawless. The eight-year-old graphics can't help but show their age upon close examination (though they aren't 'bad' by any means), and the pathfinding of the game's larger vehicles can become problematic in enclosed areas - which feature heavily in some assignments, occasionally resulting in Tetris-like scenes in which the player must manually guide their confused emergency vehicles out of a tight spot in order to release an urgently-needed automotive at the bottom of the metaphorical heap. The game also has a nasty habit of giving the player new tools or personnel without giving much notification, which wouldn't be so bad if those new tools and personnel didn't tend to play very critical roles in the mission in which you're given them. One notable example is the fifth assignment, in which the player must clean up after a road bridge collapse - a task in which the fire brigade's marine divers are essential for locating sunken cars in the river below. The game, of course, doesn't tell you that it's given you these divers, so they're easy to miss when you're loading up a fire engine to send onto the map.

These flaws, however, pale greatly against the immense fun that I've been having with this game so far. The surprisingly steep challenges that it offers seriously surprised me as I progressed further into the campaign, and part of what motivates me to overcome every nail-bitingly tense challenge and assignment is my curiosity over what the next assignment will hold. At the asking price of £3.99, this game is an absolute steal for its quality and a must for strategy fans and anyone who's enthusiastic about the work of the emergency services. Definitely get this game.

After two hours, three missions I dare to say it's worth the 5€.

Basically it's a real-time strategy where you're not playing a cigar-smoking general who commands armies of tanks, instead your units are medics, firefighters, policemen and other people who have anything to do with emergencies; maybe only Batman is missing.
The game has a sandbox-like campaign, where you are assigned as the man directing the city's first line of defense during calamities, and you will get - I presume - randomly generated emergencies including extinguishing fires of various sizes - from a few smoking bushes to blazing multistory buildings, catching pickpockets and restarting failing hearts. Time to time, however, a pregenerated larger scale operation will pop up which will certainly require a combined operation. For example in the first and second one you will need both medics and firefighters - with gasmasks in the second, while you need medics, criminal profilers and marksmen in the third. All in all, I have no problems with the variety of missions so far.
But the game has problems. The most important - for me - is that it lacks active pause; when you stop the time, you cannot issue orders. Many would say "it's called real-time for a reason", but I would answer: "If it was real-time strategy then an ambulance would reach its destination in 30 minutes or so, and not within seconds. So let's call these accelerated time strategy, and as such, they need active pause. Especially when you have to act for all your men and women, because they will apathetically suffocate in a smoke-filled building should you not order them outside." And with that last sentence we reached the topic of AI.
Well, it's simple, and not without problems. For example the firemen will target the nearest fire within a few a meters when they have a hose in their hands, but will gladly try to take the longer route to reach their assigned target, even if that way the hose will be too short. So don't try to send them on longer journeys unattended, which means a lot of micromanagement when your hands would be full even with a more proactive crew.
Another problem is that they just don't seem to comprehend the gravity of these emergencies. For example, in the third mission I had six marksmen ordered to riddle two mobsters with bullets. The culprits were of course running towards the edge of the map, and my unit of cold professionals, the tip of the spear, the edge of the knife, the crack of my ... eh... were walking after them. And I don't mean they did not take a vehicle or something, I mean that they simply did not feel like running. I had to order a donut-eating patrolman into the criminals path, and - luckily - they immediately opened fire on him, giving enough time to my SWAT team to finish sightseeing and catch up with them. My condolences to the widow, her husband died a heroic, although otherwise completely avoidable death. Bleh.

I think that's all I could say about the game. The sounds are okay and the graphics are, well, there. I mean you won't drop your chin, unless the most recent game you played is Defender of the Crown, but it's not bad at all. Long story short, as I mentioned before the game has its own share of sometimes hair-thinning problems, and I would hesitate to call it a good buy should I have paid 20€ or so for it, but for 5€ it's a bargain.

I played this game for years under the name of emergency 4, I love the game, and some mods where just asome. Like the los angeles mod or not so populair, wegberg mod.

Emergency let you take care of the worst situations. From a road accident to a plain crash in a airport. Fight vs rioloters and terrorist.

Emergceny 4 without the mods had some hard points, but the campain was verry fun.

I also can recomend other games from the emergency series. Like emergency 3, and the emergency 2012 series (inluding the upgrades 2013 and 2014)

I hope to soon play also the next emergency that comes out on 14 november, becouse then is Emergency 5 back. and it has mod support again.

this game i seriosuly doubted at first but when i got into it it was uverwelmingly BRILLIANT the effects of smoke can be seen on screen THE FIRE SPREAD system in this game is remarkable !!!!!!! 10/10 !!!

for first time players its overwelming at first but got used to it quick BRILLIANT GAME

The best of the Emergency series
LA mod makes it best of the best

The best game in the series.
I guess that's why Emergency 4 made it on steam instead of 5.

This game plays A LOT better than it looks.
And it looks pretty good to begin with.
Bought it for friends who were surprised with how much fun it was.

Have logged countless hours on it outside of steam, so glad they ported it over.
Works great on my Windows 7 w/ GTX 770.

Being a US player, I've always been extremely turned off with the European style vehicles. Only a matter of opinion of course, but installing the LA Mod (introduces American Reponses Vehicles, with 4-5 other friends, getting together in multiplayer and working to keep the peace, and the city safe is quite challenging. Especially when working with each player who is specializing in one type of Emergency response. I end up spending hours playing this game with friends, as every scenario plays out differently. Though the same map can be a bit bland after many hours of gameplay, taking a small break, then popping back into another match playing a different role greatly changes things up. Definitely a must buy if you have friends to play with.

Multiplayer is a bit sketchy at best. If you can’t connect via the traditional server browser, installing Hamachi or another similar type service works like a charm, providing you and the other player have everything installed the same way (referring to mods). For $5 it is a must buy and provides hours of fun.

So I have a pros and cons list.

Pros
Every mission is a challenge.
You never know what will happen
You can lose track of time playing.
Cons
Some missions repeat themselves
If you can’t get the mod installer to work you’re stuck with the vanilla game.
Sometimes you get a failed mission eve know you’re working on that mission.
Some missions fail before your police even get to where you send them.
I still love this game and give it
10/10
100/100
Five out of five stars

A small car fire, I neglected it and worried about a bigger fire across town in a small building, the next 5 minutes the fire turns into a 3 city block fire and burned down half the town. 10/10

One of the jolliest cooperative multiplayer experiences on Steam. Unsure why they implemented the "pass the control" system where you need to use out of game VoIP to agree on who gets to order new firetrucks at a given moment, but still great.


Protip::: em4.cfg in the game folder
<var name="r_xres" value="1920" />
<var name="r_yres" value="1080" />
is how you set your desired resolution :3

For mods, check
http://forum.emergency-planet.com/files/category/38-big-mods/
http://forum.emergency-planet.com/forum/85-mods/



Don't see cursor in the menu and can't click anything? set <var name="ui_hardwarecursor" value="1" />

Want windowed mode? Hold down shift while starting the game. Of course you might want a different resolution for that than for fullscreen.

Great game, The Controls are pretty simple. I myself, enjoy the game ALOT more with a mod called The "LA Mod". Makes the game have US Style Vehicles instead of EU. the Singleplayer map with the "LA Mod" is amazing. The game is pretty simple to get into, but can be very hectic in larger dispatches. I Would recommend this game to anyone who likes RTS and/or First Responder simulators.

NIce game, lots of mods too

Personally being a long standing fan of this series I think that Emergency 4 (911: First Responders) is the best game in its series. With modern versions (Emergency 2012, 2014) being nothing but simplified copies with lots of actions and awesome things removed.
It surely has many bugs and just generally an old game but it still stands proud to this very day. Especially with mod support that, like with many games, stretches it's lifespan and replayability to new heights.
If you like hardcore (sorta :P ) rescue services simulators then it's a definitely a game for you

Great game if you are into emergency simulations. There are some issues here and there but overall worth the $5. If you do get the game you need to install this mod: http://losangelesmod.com/ The free play is so much better with this mod installed.