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The thing about me is that I love video games, and I love a good story. These facts led me to jump at the opportunity to write a Neo Harbor Rescue Squad review. A visual novel at its core, this game puts a new twist on the genre with a series of minigames to break up the usual click-fest.

Once I learned that the developers at BancyCo had offered us a code in exchange for our honest opinion, I took a peek at the Steam page and watched the trailer. It didn’t take long for me to recognize that it would be right up my alley! If you enjoy story-heavy games that aren’t too demanding, you’ve come to the right place. Neo Harbor is strangely addicting. Keep reading to find out why!

Story – Welcome to the Team, Rookie!

In Neo Harbor, you play as a young man who has just joined the Neo Harbor Rescue Squad. I’m sure he has an actual name, but he’s just referred to as Rookie through the whole game, so that’s how I’ll be referring to him as well in this review. When you first arrive at the Rescue Squad HQ, you barely have time to meet your captain and coworkers before an emergency is called in. Just like that, your journey as a brand new paramedic begins!

Pretty soon, you learn that the Rescue Squad isn’t exactly recognized for all of their hard work. In fact, they have an astonishingly negative reputation with the public. However, it’s not because they aren’t doing their jobs. One of the most popular newscasters in Neo Harbor seems to have a vendetta against the squad. She often broadcasts negative opinions, and sometimes even outright lies, about the team. On the flip side, the Fire Department is widely loved by seemingly everyone in the city. Your job is not only to become a competent paramedic and help during emergencies, but to repair the Rescue Squad’s reputation with the citizens of Neo Harbor!

Gameplay – Minigames Galore

As I said above, Neo Harbor Rescue Squad is primarily a visual novel. It relies on minigames in between scenes to help keep the player engaged. There are easily over a dozen different minigames, which helps ensure that you don’t come across the same one too many times in a row. The minigames are related to whatever health issue your patient is suffering from. For example, if there was a fire, you will likely have to use an ice cube to soothe burns before bandaging them up. Or if someone is choking, you’ll have to open their mouth wide so you can easily reach in and remove the object blocking their airway.

On top of completing the minigames, you’ll have to be able to properly assess a scene and work quickly. If you don’t make the right choices in terms of who to treat in which order, things will get out of control faster than you think. Luckily, the game does a pretty good job at showing you what needs done at a glance. There’s some leeway, but if you fail too many patients, you’ll have to start the whole emergency over again. Make sure to pay attention to all of your patients, especially if you’ve got an emergency taking place in multiple rooms! You’re graded on both speed and your success in the minigames.

Clarity Never Hurt Anybody

Most of the minigames in Neo Harbor are very straightforward. They take very little time and effort to master. Some people might find that a bit disappointing, but I think it works well with a game that’s largely focused on the story. I wasn’t playing this game to challenge myself or use a ton of brainpower. I wanted to enjoy the story and lose myself in another place for a while.

Unfortunately, there were a few minigames that took an unnecessary amount of time to understand. The instructions were simply too vague for me. Within this particular group, a few of them only required a bit of practice or trial and error to fully understand what the game wanted from me. For instance, there’s a minigame where you’re using a self-inflating bag to help your patient breathe. It took me a few tries to realize that I had to continuously hold the button down versus press it regularly.

In the ~10 hours it took me to totally finish Neo Harbor Rescue Squad, I managed to figure out all of the minigames except one. If a patient is unconscious, you’re supposed to use smelling salts to help wake them up. The instructions only tell you to ‘wave the scent under the patient’s nose.’ I tried every combo of speed and movement I could think of, but I never cracked the code on this one. To help minimize these issues, I think it would be great to either make the instructions much clearer or give players a way to practice the minigames outside of emergencies. It’s frustrating to not understand the minigame, especially when you’re on a timer.

Audio & Visuals – A Mixed Bag

When it comes to the audio in Neo Harbor, I think that the team did a great job, for the most part. Balancing the sound effects and music to compliment each scene was probably more difficult than you’d think. However, if I’m honest, the music faded into the background about 80% of the time for me. The only time it stood out was when I was in a particularly intense emergency. Of course, that’s the moment my brain chose to recognize the frenzied music, adding to the panicked nature of it all.

I can’t exactly pinpoint why the music in this game didn’t grab me. If I had to guess, it’s likely that my brain was simply occupied with everything else going on, and the music wasn’t able to compete with it all for my attention. On the bright side, it also didn’t stick out to me in a negative way!

Sound effects are very prominent in this game. Every minigame has it’s own set of sounds to accompany what you’re doing. I really enjoyed most of them, and even found some of them oddly satisfying. When you mess up in a minigame, the related sounds felt appropriate and certainly conveyed that you made a mistake.

Lastly, we have the voice acting. The actors did a great job! Still, there were a few times that I felt like the voice lines didn’t quite fit what the text or tone was for the scene. For example, sometimes the Chief would be saying something serious or slightly stern, and the voice line would be ‘How dare you!’ It just felt a bit strong for what was actually going on. Overall, though, it brought a lot of life to the characters. I’d rather have voice acting that’s off sometimes than none at all!

Visuals – Simple, but Effective

Outside of the minigames, most of the visuals in Neo Harbor Rescue Squad are just static images. Personally, I think it fits the game well. Although I didn’t find anything particularly stunning, the art was charming and there were a few settings that stood out to me. I really enjoyed any time we went to the Subway Station or an outdoor space in the city, especially at night. The colors in these scenes really spoke to me and gave the city some personality.

In the minigames, I found the visuals to be oddly satisfying a lot of the time. If you’re placing something onto a patient like a bandage or a splint, the item will snap into place in the best way. Or when you’re taking glass out of a patient’s arm, watching it come out in one piece and slapping it onto a tray really tickled my brain. The movements are all really smooth as well, from performing the Heimlich maneuver to injecting medication. All of this comes together to create a super rewarding experience in the minigames.

Verdict

Neo Harbor Rescue Squad is certainly a unique take on visual novels. Adding in minigames to help engage the player and break up the story periodically was, in my opinion, a fantastic choice. A lot of people stay away from visual novels due to the lack of true ‘gameplay,’ but this game addresses that issue in a simple yet gratifying way. It’s a very casual game, but sometimes we need a break from the fast-paced action games or games with a heavy storyline.

If you’ve been looking for something a little more lighthearted that you can pick up for a few minutes and leave feeling accomplished, Neo Harbor Rescue Squad is the right choice. As I said before, I finished this game in roughly ten hours. For those of you searching for a game to invest dozens of hours, this may not be for you. Overall, though, I really enjoyed my time with this game. It was a nice change of pace from what I’ve been playing lately. If you’re a more casual gamer, I’d say to give this one a shot!

What do you think of adding something like minigames to visual novels? Will you be purchasing Neo Harbor Rescue Squad? Share your thoughts with our Facebook community or tweet to us on Twitter!