Flash Point Fire Rescue 2nd Edition

I got Flashpoint not with the greatest of expectations. I had heard of the game before but never really looked into it. Then saw the game being reviewed on Youtube a few times and thought I would order it. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this game was and Flashpoint has since become my favourite cooperative game that I own (and I have Pandemic & both Forbidden games). None of them, for me, beat Flashpoint.So what makes Flashpoint great? Well, the theme is fantastic. One of my problems with Pandemic is the theme doesn't suck me in. Whereas in Flashpoint when my firefighter gets knocked down by an explosion or a door blows up in my face I feel completely immersed in the theme. The fightighting theme is one we are all aware of and it works really well. The design of the game helps with this. For example, the way the fire spreads each turn makes sense in terms of how you would expect a real fire to spread (I am not a firefighter so I wouldn't know). Smoke leads to fire, fire leads to explosions, explosions lead to dead victims and damaged walls. It all makes a lot of sense.Other pros:- works very well from 2-6 players (all my other coop games are 4 player, so to have a 6 player game is great for those larger gatherings)- special firefighter abilities means working together doing what you're best at doing (whether that be firefighting or rescuing, everybody has a job to do for the team)- Great family game and even has family game rules to make things simpler- variety of difficulty levels which can be customised completely to suit your own ability- quick games (30-45 min)- double sided board which gives you 2 buildings to fight fire in (one a little harder than the other)- randomness of how the fire spreads really makes for an unpredictable challenge (you may think you have things under control and two turns later half the house is on fire)Cons:- set up can take 5-10 minutes depending on what difficulty you are playing (you have to follow a step-by-step set up routine which becomes familiar but initially will take a few min to go through... not a big issue really)- board is busy (there are lots things on the board which can make it seem quite busy at times but again, not a big problem)- Sometimes dice rolling to spread the fire may result in an easy game, or the opposite can happen (but this is quite realistic of fires I would imagine and I've only had 1 easy game where the dice were very helpful)- the action points each firefighter has vary depending on their skills, and you can save action points for next turns (this takes a little bit of getting used to but again, is not too bad)This is a really great game. The fire theme presents a very realistic danger that needs to be put out and you genuinely feel like you are in a building doing your thing as a firefighter. Great family game, kids would likely love this game. There are already 3-4 expansions out there to get if you want more challenges too. I've just got a few of them. Each brings new boards (new buildings), some new equipment and things like second/third floors to buildings which makes fighting that fire even more challenging. Excellent game, if you're interested in it I would fully recommend making the purchase!

Fantastic game suitable to introduce people to co-operative games. Even 5 year olds would be able to join in and grasp the basic concepts. Great game.

A good simple game, easy to get to grips with and very enthralling.It's cooperative nature makes a pleasant change and because it is a 'real world game', everyone can relate to it easilyYou do not have too make Nee Naw noises when you drive the fire engine but it does add to the fun

Flash Point: Fire Rescue (FP) is a co-operative game where players are a team of fire fighters working together to stop a building from collapsing and rescuing enough people & pets to save the day.To win the game, players must rescue 7 victims caught inside the burning building. You lose if 4 people die or if the building takes so much damage that it collapses.The set-up depends on difficulty setting (this ranges from family friendly to very hard) and leaves the building in a state of chaos as you place fire and place damage to the structure. Each round players take a number of actions (usually 4) plus any specialised actions their character can do e.g. the paramedic can treat victims making it easier to carry them out the building. After which you then roll to determine where smoke goes. Smoke next to fire? It becomes a fire. Smoke on top of an existing fire? Then you have an explosion and fire spreads throughout the building blowing open doors, damaging walls and potentially killing trapped inhabitants. It is this balance of keeping the fire under control and rescuing victims that makes FP such an engaging experience. I've had as much fun losing this game as winning it; and you will lose a lot. This game is tough to beat, especially at the hard and very hard setting. Ignoring the family rules, the standard game is pretty tough.Luckily you have a range of characters to help you from the fire captain down to the driver who can operate the fire truck on the perimeter of the building to (hopefully) dowse those flames. With additional features such as hot spots, hazardous materials and false alarms, it really does make FP an exciting game.The board is double sided with a plan of a different building on each side, which is great for variety. The rules are fairly straight forward to understand and after your first couple of games you will have gotten to grips with the more nuanced rules; it's not a difficult game to learn, but certainly hard to beat, which is no bad thing in my opinion.After close to a dozen plays, I'm not sure if FP is a "Pandemic killer" but it's a superb game in its own right and deserves a place on your shelf, especially for all you co-op lovers out there.

Very good game, appeals to people of wide range of ages in the family, including those who usually prefer competitive games. High replayability as it's different every time. It also has a good range of difficulty levels and is very hard to win perfectly (get all victims out) at a high level. It works well across the various numbers of players. The one thing I don't like is that two of the victim tokens are a cat and a dog - and you're not allowed to throw the cat out of a ground floor window (as I at least would be perfectly happy to do in a house fire!) and get on with rescuing the people. Sometimes I leave out the pets on purpose (you don't use all the tokens every time) but the younger children like the animals and don't find them irritating. We've played it loads of times, and it works for solo play too.