Red Cross - The Game

No, really: Emergency Response Unit is a Flash game intended to promote the Red Cross (and Red Crescent) and educate people on what they do. A tutorial and two levels are available free, with the full game $19.95. I played another Red Cross game a couple of years ago (think it was called Response Force) but that was more a collection of minigames. This is designed like an RTS, only saving refugees and distributing medical supplies.

In practice, the interface is so streamlined that it plays like Diner Dash: tasks appear at the bottom, and it's easy to move from alert to site to response by pressing the right buttons. Also, it presents the work of the Red Cross as a series of tasks to be done. It doesn't present any dilemmas that must be faced in the field - the answer is always clear. I suspect that in a real earthquake, the response to a group of wounded civilians is not as simple as 4x4 + Medical Team + Medical Supplies.

Still, this is a sophisticated offering, it shows what the Red Cross do in the field and it is a diverting game. I hope it's a success.

Areas

Areas is an abstract minimal 2D Flash-based shooter. The player controls a ship that fends off expanding white circles from filling the play space. The player completes each level by surviving for a set period of time: they lose if they are crushed by the circles.

Areas uses a no-click interface: the game is controlled solely by the position of the mouse, including all menu navigation and options. The reasons for this aren’t clear - the suggestion that it’s designed for playing on the Wii doesn’t hold up – but it’s probably artistic whimsy. It doesn’t quite work: there are moments when it screams out for a left-click (especially in the menus, which are unclear). However, it throws up an incidental quirk that alters the game from Geometry Wars and other similar two-stick shooters.

You control a cursor with the mouse. If the cursor is far from your ship, the ship approaches it a proportionate speed. At short range, the ship stops and fires towards your cursor. You can’t simultaneously move and fire. With a limited range of fire, the player must frequently consider whether to sacrifice firepower for position – the “difficult choice” that constitutes all gameplay.

2D shooters are about negotiating space. The movement and location of enemy fire defines locations you can’t go, and the smaller the safe areas are, the more likely you’ll be killed. They’re usually about controlling space too: destroying enemies creates new safe spaces, because bullets stop coming from that location. Usually everything is moving, so the player needs to think about where the safe spaces will be in the future.

In Areas, the only hazards are the relentless white circles that fill the play area (a much larger black circle). They appear randomly, and can only be checked by player fire. Contact with the circles is not fatal, and there are no lives: the player is only pushed back by the expansion. Many levels end with the player fending off the wall of white that approaches, while running the clock out. It’s genuinely claustrophobic.

Of course, with every enemy circular and expanding, it’s not obvious where the strategy in positioning lies. Enter the “magic circles”, areas left by destroyed circles that alter fire passing through them in various ways. Some split bullets in two; some expand bullets; some turn bullets into lasers, or rockets, or absorb bullets to power an explosion when they expire. But their effects combine: bullets may be enlarged, multiplied and then directed to the nearest circle. Under its frantic surface, Areas is a puzzle game. Most shooters are: spatial problems solved through vigorous gunplay. Some lie closer to puzzles (such as Ikaruga), while others lie closer to technicolour carnage (step forward, Robotron 2084), but all require a little thought to navigate with skill.

It's trying too hard to be an art piece, and it has a few balance problems, regarding its later levels and luck with the magic circles, but Areas is a game that demonstrates, more than a traditional example, what lies at the heart of the shooter.

MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction

Mutually Assured Destruction is a Missile Command clone, updated in the modern idiom: polished graphics, cities with recharging shields and the upgrade grind that so many flash games mistake for a genuine difficulty curve. It’s a well-executed but ultimately traditional interpretation. However, the sound in this game is incredible. An apocalyptic Wagnerian score conveys the desperation of your defence. The chorus loops intensify until it feels the end of days is raining through your headphones. Explosions and missiles are crisp and pleasing too. The skilful use of sound elevates a good game to a truly great experience.