Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator Review

Simulator games are my guilty pleasure, although the genre as a whole seems to range from “absolutely broken” to “enjoyable time wasters”. In developer Aesir Interactive’s latest title, Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator, players are put into the role of — you guessed it — a paramedic, as they drive to and from emergency callouts in order to save lives. With the developer's previous title (Police Simulator: Patrol Officers) being relatively well-received, can they create another fun simulation experience based on another emergency service?

The basic structure of Ambulance Life is similar to that of Police Simulator in that you work shifts (ranging from 15 to 45 minutes) and respond to emergency callouts when they come in over the radio. After your shift is over, you’re graded based on how well you performed and given experience points that, once enough have been earned, unlock more medical equipment, new scenarios to get called out to, and more districts to work in.

It starts out with basic issues that can be treated easily enough, with several optional tutorial missions added the more you play. This was helpful to slowly introduce new mechanics when treating patients, as opposed to just dumping everything on the player in one go and hoping that they remember it all.

I did feel that Ambulance Life would have benefitted from more of a story. The premise is simply that you’re a new recruit to San Pelicano’s highly skilled EMTs… and that’s about it. Now, simulator games aren't really known for their ambitious narratives, but there should have been something to keep the player engaged. Going from shift to shift with no short or long-term goals aside from earning more XP did cause the tedium to set in fairly quickly.

If there’s one thing that simulator games are commonly known for, it’s janky mechanics and less-than-stellar visuals. Ambulance Life is certainly no exception, though the general environments are quite detailed and the districts of San Pelicano are varied. The character models aren’t half bad, either, though the dead-eyed stares and practically non-existent lip-synching don’t do them any favours. The biggest issue with the overall presentation is that it’s constantly let down by technical issues.

For starters, the opening cutscene looked like it had been animated using stop motion and was incredibly janky, not setting a good first impression. Thankfully, the gameplay ran smoothly, and I had little issue with slow down, but wow, did that opening scene make me feel like I was watching some kind of surreal Wallace & Gromit film. I encountered numerous bugs throughout my time with Ambulance Life, although they were more immersion-breaking (and humorous) rather than game-breaking issues. My partner would often be seated outside of the ambulance, floating along as we raced to the next patient, and many NPCs had clothing issues that would have their bodies clipping through (practically any NPC lying down had their feet sticking out the bottom of their shoes, which was genuinely amusing).

Then, we have the pedestrians and drivers, who are by far the biggest annoyance in the game. When you're driving with your sirens blaring and lights flashing, this should tell the vehicles ahead of you to get the hell out of the way. This works on occasion, with lanes of traffic making space for you to squeeze through. The issue lies with the fact that the space they give you offers no option other than to trade paint with a row of cars or mount the pavement and hope for the best. I also felt like practically every traffic light was eternally stuck on red, so I was constantly having to slow to a crawl or swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid collisions. Equally, the pedestrians act like they’ve never seen an ambulance before, and will more often than not just run straight into the road, and hitting someone forces an instant game over.

The main gameplay loop of Ambulance Life is always the same when working through a shift. You’ll enter your ambulance, respond to an emergency call, drive over to the accident, treat the injured as best you can, and drop them off at the hospital. Whilst that may sound monotonous, the actual treatments will vary depending on the type of incident you arrive at.

From panic attacks, gunshot wounds, traffic accidents, and more, each one has a certain way of dealing with them. For the less serious cases, you can speak to the patient and try to get a sense of what’s happened to them, while others will rely on eyewitnesses or checking various parts of the injured person's body. This is called anamnesis (a word I’d never heard of before playing this!) and is crucial to figuring out the next steps to take with treatment. If there are multiple people in need of aid, then this initial assessment — as well as obvious things to watch out for, such as blood spurting from a wound — also lets you prioritise patients in urgent need of medical attention.

Once you’ve finished this and the victims have been stabilised if needed, it’s time to wheel out the stretcher and get them into the back of the ambulance for a more thorough checkup. Certain patients may only need a blood pressure check, some that are unresponsive may need an oxygen mask or an IV drip, while others with obvious injuries will need bandaging up before they die of blood loss. It can be a bit frantic when treating those on the verge of death, but this is a paramedic simulator after all, so it shouldn’t exactly be a leisurely afternoon treating someone with burns on 50% of their body. That said, the mini-games are pretty basic and will grow tiresome rather quickly.

Finally, it’s back in the driver's seat as you attempt to reach the nearest hospital without killing your patient with your reckless driving. Those victims not in urgent need won’t need to be rushed to the ER, whereas those suffering from more life-threatening injuries will need you to put your foot down before they end up dying. As previously mentioned, the NPC and vehicle AI is almost rage-inducing, so you may end up losing a few people in the back of your ambulance after all that hard work.

Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator isn’t a terrible simulator game by any means, but it’s still not the best. The simple gameplay loop, whilst offering some variety in terms of the medical emergencies you’re responding to, does grow stale far too quickly. It’s a shame really, as Aesir Interactive’s previous sim title Police Simulator was an enjoyable game, but as it stands, this isn’t one I can fully recommend based on the current price point.