Ever wondered what it is like to be an investigative journalist or a good samaritan with high paramedical skills? Accident is a simulation game where you get to be both of those, you might ask how do they even fit together? It’s more of a simulation inside a simulation with more emphasis on being a chivalrous samaritan.

Taking up the role of a journalist sitting in his cubicle office, solving the accident cases through a VR headset and finding out what actually happened at the scenes of automobile accidents all around the world is what this game is all about. All cases are directly from the eyes of vigilantes who happened to have come across accident scenes and helped out victims whose lives were in grave danger using systematic emergency protocols and medical skills. On your top left cubicle panel, you have a whiteboard, which is used to select your player profile. On the desk are a pile of case files where CD copies of accident cases are stored, a laptop where the CDs are run, and a VR headset through which incidents are replayed. And a phone from which you get the messages from the editor to review case files.

Gameplay-wise, the main task is to run the cases through virtual simulation and save the victims of the accident. Every case starts with a passerby arriving at the scene and following the emergency procedures which is more or less the same in every scenario. There are only 10 cases available and all are set in various locations across Europe and the US. For all cases, you will be following the four basic procedures: Call Emergency Services, Secure the Area, Assess the Situation and Discover the Cause. Many of the tasks in each step are mandatory such as calling emergency services, turning on the hazard lights, and putting warning triangles to mark the accident location. The difference is the way of doing those things is dependent on the situation. You might have to use signal flares found in the victim’s race car to mark the area or might have to use a payphone when your phone is dead.

The last part of the procedure is slightly irrelevant, which is to discover what caused the accidents and putting events in order. Shouldn’t it be left to the police instead of a normal passerby? I guess it’s a wise gameplay choice thrown in to make it feel less of a simulator. Here is why: at the end of the case, after successfully reconstructing the events, it shows you the aftermath stories of the victims. Not just whether they survived or died, it goes into the details of the recovery process and how the accident affected their lives. That is a very humanly touch for a game that is intended to serve a realistic simulation experience.

It’s safe to say that this is not only fun, you can also learn a thing or two about what to do if you find yourself in these types of unfortunate incidents. It teaches you how to secure the area for your own safety, how to identify whose life is the most threatened, and how to help them by ways of first aid and CPR. And of course, time is always of the essence when people are on the verge of death. But unlike real encounters, you can always rewind time to your desired stage and start from the beginning whenever you acted inadequately to save their lives.

Although it is premised on great potential, the execution part has set it back by a great distance. Some parts of the game are wonky and can’t be experienced smoothly even with a decent computer. There are certain actions that should be able to be performed without the need to complete preceding tasks, which is a real blow to a lifelike simulator game. Yet, it is a recommendable game in its genre where it neither shines nor sinks.