Canadian developer BancyCo (formerly Benjamin Rivers Inc.) has made three adventure games to date: two in the horror genre with Home and Worse Than Death, and (releasing between the others) sci-fi title Alone With You. Home has mixed reviews, while thoughts on the other two games are mostly positive. The developer is back with a fresh new IP in action drama / visual novel Neo Harbor Rescue Squad. It is also co-developed by Laundry Bear Games, another Canadian company that has worked with others on several titles for PC and consoles, including the super-brilliant Immortality, Venba, and Ooblets. Basically, there is a lot of superstar talent working on the game about being a rookie paramedic using frantic minigame action.
Brief note: I won’t harp on this further, but really, from two Canadian companies… shouldn’t it be “Harbour,” not “Harbor”?
In Neo City Harbor, the Fire Department is super prestigious. You’ll be working in its shadow, though, as a rookie paramedic in the Rescue Squad. Respond to emergencies across the city, dealing with difficult patients and trying to protect the Squad’s reputation. Use a frantic triage system to juggle multiple waves of patients, mirroring the real-world urgency, unpredictability, and critical decision-making that are all part of the job. While the clock is ticking, manage several scenes at once and use special shields to buy more time.
There are over 50 mini-games, ranging from intense to hilarious and everything in between. These treatments will help stabilize patients and prevent them from going critical. Think performing CPR, stopping nosebleeds, wrapping bandages, using a defibrillator—the exact kind of things you’d expect a paramedic to do on a regular basis. The visual novel aspect of the game features animated characters, expressive voices, and even a “smarmy” talking dophin.
The developers collected real stories from emergency workers before spinning them into an over-the-top tale of teamwork and rivalry. The city is inspired by Hong Kong’s locales; think dim sum shops, night markets, and an amusement park with a typhoon problem.
Developed and published by BancyCo, and co-published by Laundry Bear Games, Neo Harbor Rescue Squad will be released later this year for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. It might also come to additional platforms; if so, that would be announced at a later date.
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