Review #533: Disaster Report

 Call 911, this is a disaster!

Just let her go. She is gimping the Framerate!

 Disaster Report was a rarity at the time of its release, a survival game in which the only enemies were your thirst and the environment itself. Survival games are a dime a dozen this days, but Disaster Report still has a charm of its own.

 You play as Keith Helm, en route to Capital City, a newly built city that has the oddity of existing on a man-made Island. But life ain't fair, and the entire city comes crushing down, victim of numerous earthquakes. Now Keith must make his way to the rescue choppers, and join up with whoever is willing to lend a hand. The game has impossibly narmy voice acting, and eventually the story takes a turn for the ridiculous featuring conspiracies and what not. It's a weird game, so your mileage may vary on the story. While you play the entire game as Keith, I didn't feel like the story was as developed as it was in its sequel, Raw Danger!, nor did it offer as many possibilities and choices. That said, there're two slightly different routes depending on a choice you can make midway through the game, so there's some replayability factor in here.

Not as impressive as its sequel.

 The game is very simple, you must traverse the environment, collecting items and drinking water as not to die of thirst. It's not a survival game in the truest sense, water fountains are plentiful, and double as savespots, but while your thirst gauge drops pretty rapidly, you can take water bottles with you, which can be recharged, in order to restore your thirst. And if you die you'll be taken back to the nearest section, completely healed, so even carrying healing items becomes unnecessary. Keith has a very limited storage space on his backpack, and the game loves throwing at you items that you won't ever need or you won't be needing until much later in the game, and in which case they'll have a spare lying around nearby. Regardless, most of the game is pretty simple, and you just need to use certain item on a certain spot to proceed.

 ...which is not to say that Keith isn't in any danger. There'll be moments when you'll need to hold R1 to brace yourself for earthquakes, lest you take damage. There'll be action sequences in which you'll have to run away from fallen debris or even stealthily avoid gunmen. It's not the most exciting of games, but for the setting that it wants to convey... it's appropriate.

The thirst gauge isn't as bad as it seems, water is very plentiful in the game.

 The game is very rough around the edges, controls are particularly clunky and movement is very... stiff. What's really annoying is the camera, you can't rotate it and must settle with pressing L2 to place it behind Keith's back... which isn't allowed at times. It's quite disappointing, since more control would've helped immerse the player in this bleak, devastated city. That said, don't even let me get started on the framerate... it's bad, it's veeeeeeeeeeery bad. Most of the game will be played under 10FPS or maybe even less. It can make a few of the well placed slower-paced sections unbearable, since they are already slow to begin with, but the framerate makes them lose the impact they could've had.

 The best thing about Disaster Report is how it makes me appreciate its sequel so much more. Mind you, Disaster Report is a very decent game, a great concept but just a passable execution. Everything this game does, the sequel does even better. Except the framerate, that one's bad in both games.
 6.0 out of 10