We know that 2025 is going to be a pretty crazy year in terms of video games, with very big titles coming one after the other, starting in January. Of course, our attention is often focused on AAA, or conversely the small indie games that stand out from the crowd. But there is also a genre which is experiencing a certain popularity, particularly in Germany where it has become almost a national hobby, namely simulation games. And the first one that comes to mind, the one that dominates the charts every episode, is Farming Simulator of course. But the genre has expanded en masse over the last 15 years, with improbable games like Lumberjack Simulator, Chasse-Neige Simulator, Excavator Simulator, Toilet Tycoon, Lawn Mower Simulator, there really is something for everyone, even the worst. As a result, in 2021, the German studio Aesir Interactive decided to ride this trend and launched Police Simulator which had some success on PC, with the help of numerous streamers who shed light on this title at the same time. original and fun. Generally, in video games, we play the villains, not really the cops. Following the success of Police Simulator, the Aesir Interactive studio offers us the opportunity to play field paramedics this time. The objective? Arrive quickly at the scene of the accident behind the wheel of your ambulance. Take care of the injured and administer first aid. Each accident is different, it is up to us to adapt, to make the right choices, while being quick and efficient. But you will see, unfortunately I couldn’t save everyone, I even had to make choices.
NACON’S ANATOMY
First thing to know about Ambulance Life is that it is a game that puts players face to face with multiple situations, ranging from a simple discomfort in the street to major disasters with many injured, including minor incidents or road accidents. The game also uses a procedurally created mission system to never offer the same thing and thus avoid falling into routine. Beyond the medical simulation that must be managed each time, Ambulance Life also bases its gameplay on driving, which represents no less than 30% of the game. We therefore find ourselves in the city of San Pelicano , located on the west coast of the United States and which is strongly inspired by San Francisco. Be careful though, this is not an open world, but three large areas that you will unlock as you progress. There is a historic district, a business center and an industrial zone. Each neighborhood therefore has its specificities, and each of these places can be the scene of accidents or major events. Developers told us that residents have lifestyles and activities specific to each neighborhood, which leads to very different types of incidents. But to be honest, we didn’t see any of that…
That said, during our gaming session, we were able to test two types of intervention, the one where we are behind the wheel of our ambulance and the Catastrophic Event. For traditional interventions, you have to wait for the alert to sound, and once the information is given, you have to go to the scene of the tragedy, taking care to turn on the flashing lights and the siren so that other vehicles will let you pass. . Well, it doesn’t always work and I won’t hide the fact that I tended to drive like in GTA, hitting other cars, driving on the sidewalks and acting like a fool. If the first missions are rather chill at the start, very quickly, the tension increases, sometimes with serious accidents and you are asked to arrive on the scene as quickly as possible so as not to let the victim die. Knowing that the streets are often crowded with traffic, you will have to zig-zag between vehicles to find the best route. If we play it in RP, we obviously have to avoid running over pedestrians, but at this stage of the game build, we still ran over certain people without being penalized.
“AT VELPOT HOSPITAL?!”
Once we arrive at the scene of the intervention, the first step consists of establishing an initial prognosis of the victim before taking them to the hospital. We have a choice of several questions to try to find out what happened, find out if the victim has a medical history, and of course reassure them. Then comes the part where we can scan the victim via specific points on the body in order to identify symptoms, spot if there are hematomas, wounds, bleeding and other suspicious injuries. It is also recommended to look around to find clues and again, to better understand the situation. Once this preliminary examination has been carried out, you can write everything down on your tablet, in order to create a medical file for the patient and make your first diagnosis. Only once this step is completed can we get the stretcher to place the victim in the ambulance and provide first aid. Depending on the diagnosis that has been established, first aid must be given and it is through a drop-down menu and medical indications that we can begin to take care of the victim. Setting up a blood pressure monitor, a finger oximeter, an oxygen mask, use of the stethoscope, bandage to be placed via a QTE system which is not super interesting or even very intuitive, we can also intubate the patient if necessary. You can even inject morphine, ketamine, or insulin depending on the needs and the game will not hesitate to zoom in on the arm during the injections. Beware of people who have difficulty managing the penetration of needles into the body, there are regular ones in Ambulance Life.
Each patient manages himself differently, depending on his condition, the situation and the established prognosis, knowing that the game uses procedural methods to avoid systematically doing the same thing. Besides, a little clarification, you will notice that when providing first aid, we can and must undress the patients, whether men or women, but that there is an option in the game not to see them naked. It’s up to everyone’s discretion. Then comes the 2nd phase of the game, more interesting and above all more intense, since it is the dramatic event, or catastrophic event. It could be a shopping center on fire, a highway collapsing, a shopping center on fire, or during our session, we were treated to the explosion of a gas station, causing many injured, deaths too and above all a crisis situation that will have to be managed. The firefighters are on site, or so we think, but it’s up to you to do all the work. First thing, we must already sort the victims, between the people who have already died and who are given black tags and those who are injured and who can still be saved.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Time is short and we have 10 minutes to locate all the victims, carry out rapid diagnostics to assess the level of danger, provide first aid and then send them to a medical camp set up on site. This is where we will be able to treat each patient one after the other in more depth in order to stabilize them and then lead them. It’s quite fun to do, even if at the moment, it lacks staging and dramatic situations to feel completely invested. We don’t yet know the game’s release date, but a lot of things were missing for the immersion to be total. In the disaster event for example, we would have liked to see firefighters working alongside us, but apart from their vehicles, the disaster site is completely deserted. Apart from us the paramedic, the corpses and the victims waiting to be treated, it’s pretty empty. It really lacks impact and we hope that by the time of release, the developers will provide a little more substance.
UE 5 POWERED
For the rest, you should know that Ambulance Life is a title developed under Unreal Engine 5, which is a guarantee of quality today in terms of visual rendering, provided of course you know how to use the latest 3D engine from Epic Games . Quite honestly, Ambulance Life has decent graphics quality, nothing more. We are obviously far from the big names of the genre who use the engine wonderfully like Black Muyth Wukong, but that is not shameful either. The game is an AA and we are an AAA and let’s say that the Aesir Interactive studio is doing well, even if at the moment, the game is still full of bugs and does not shine for its animations, which are still too stiff. Likewise, facial expressions lack life and naturalness, which can harm immersion. We hope that all of this will be corrected by the time the game is released.
