Serious Game Classification

With a similar point of departure as Food Force, ERU: Emergency Response Unit or The Red Cross Game aims to inform and educate about its activities through a game where the player can take over command of simulated relief operations. First released for Windows, it was later adapted into a browser game.

In this real-time strategy game players need to coordinate and plan operations in different countries of the world, dealing with earthquakes, drought, conflict and floods. The activities have been simplified slightly to make it accessible to casual players. Played on maps with different areas, tasks are presented in the bottom left corner. After setting up a base camp, vehicles with medical, relief, construction, protection, shelter, water sanitation and body recovery teams can be sent to the places where they are needed. There is no full control over the units; instead players can determine the situation, abort the action if needed and choose between different ways to handle a situation.

Vehicles such as land cruisers, Ford Transits, M6 trucks, helicopters and airplanes need to be loaded with fitting supplies. When at a location, a local hospital or a camp can be set up, victims can be evacuated or the sick can be cured. Even when people die the bodies need to be recovered for identification purposes. Aside from the base missions, there are also additional tasks when enough units are available. These are not mandatory and involve removing debris or negotiating with the local government. Solving them favours the chances of completing the main mission as navigation becomes easier of additional townspeople decide to help.

Played from a top-down view, each mission is time limited. It is possible to scroll over the map and quick navigation is provided through the mini-map, where the location of different units and points of interest is shown. Prior to each mission the available resources are shown and points are awarded upon completion. When using supplies carelessly, an Antonov cargo plane needs to drop additional resources and these are deducted from the final points. The game can be played on three difficulty levels. [source:mobygames]

Distribution : Retail - Commercial
Platform(s) : Browser (Flash) - PC (Windows)

Links

• Play it Now !
• http://www.mobygames.com/game/eru-emergency-response-unit/