It used to be that every other film out of Hollywood was a disaster film. Nowadays, the only disaster movies you're likely to see are made for TV, sporting ludicrously low budgets and somewhat poor effects . Not only are they invariably weak of plot but are invariably as cliched as hell. You just know that the two lead characters are both going to survive to live happily ever after, as are any big name actors. And even though the other characters may snuff it, any animal in the film, be it a cat, a dog or some sort of robotic goat will survive unharmed. Thankfully Disaster Report - or SOS: The Final Escape as it's known in Europe, the new 'survival horror' game from Agatec and Irem, isn't quite as cliched. True, one of the main characters does go back for her dog, but it's up to you whether or not you want to with her to fetch the mutt. And there's no guarantee of a happy ending, either - there are a grand total of seven endings including a couple which let you leave your fellow survivors stranded and make good your escape alone.

'Escape from what?' you might ask. Not from zombies, or demons, or any kind of supernatural force. In fact while you do run into a couple of human foes, and have to elude them by using stealth, your real enemy is far less tangible. You play a reporter who catches a plane to Stiver Island, a man made city just off the coast of some unspecified continent. But just as he's taking a train to the capital, the island is hit by a huge earthquake and his train is derailed beneath the main bridge to the capital city, knocking him unconscious. You take control of the reporter as he wakes up and finds himself alone in the empty carriage (whether he was alone in the carriage originally or everyone's cleared off leaving him alone is unclear). Leaving the carriage you catch sight of a helicopter flying off with the few survivors who were marshalled at a roadside restaurant, pausing only to drop you a backpack and a bottle of water. Clearly you've missed the boat, so to speak, with the majority of those not killed by the earthquake having been evacuated to the centre of the city or take off the island altogether. So it's up to you to guide the reporter to safety and get off him the island in one piece. Which, as you might have guessed, is no easy feat.

The short-term problems you face are two-fold. First off, the earthquake left Stiver Island in a mess, with debris, rubble and broken buildings everywhere with many routes through the city blocked. You'll spend as much time climbing through damaged buildings and across ledges and see-sawing platforms as you will walking through the city streets. Secondly, the earthquake's not actually over - there are aftershocks which while not being as powerful as the initial earthquake, they are easily strong enough to topple already damaged buildings, bring debris crashing down on your head, or knock shake you off a ledge. The problem of being shaken off a ledge can be resolved by pressing the 'brace' button - you'll crouch or grab into a nearby object to avoid falling. But that won't stop you from being crushed by a girder or piece of a roof that's heading your way, so you need to decide when to run and when to duck and cover. If the worst comes to the worst and you end up squished, the game lets you restart from the beginning of the area you just entered so you'll only usually be sent about five minutes back at the most.

Those are the immediate problems you have to deal with - but there's even more trouble. Aside from the health-meter that diminishes when your character falls too far without dying or is hit with debris, there's a water-meter. As your character moves around the city, he uses up water and so you've got to make sure you drink regularly from the taps you come across (which double as save points) or drink from the water bottles you can fill from the taps. You aren't likely to run out of water if you remember to fill the bottles regularly but it's a nice addition to the game. Having said that, if you're not careful you'll become intimately acquainted with another source of water, albeit sea water - the sea beneath Stiver Island. Because not only are the buildings on Stiver Island being shaken apart, the island itself is sinking, crumbling from the coast inwards. There are several places where if you don't run for your life, the ground beneath you will collapse and tumble into the sea with a splash. If you do make it off a section of crumbling city you'll still get to see it collapse due to the superb draw distance in Disaster Report. While it's true that the characters don't look as good as those in Metal Gear Solid 2 or some other Playstation 2 games, and that there are occasionally periods when the frame rate dips to well below 30fps, it's all in a good cause, because from any place on Stiver Island you can see far off into the city. Standing on a ruined apartment building gazing at the devastation all around you really does send a shiver down your spine when you see just how much devastation the earthquake has caused. The sound helps a lot too - music only crops up when you're in real trouble, so for most of the time all you hear is the wind whistling through the ruins of the city, and the crash of buildings and rubble falling.

You're not entirely alone as you wander through the city, dodging debris and falling buildings - you will run into a few other survivors. There's a girl in distress, a schoolgirl in distress, another reporter, a mad transvestite and a large-faced man who's up to no good, amongst others. One of the former damsels in distress will accompany you for much of your journey though you don't need to protect them ICO-style since they generally don't get hit by things unless you end up getting crushed in which case it's game over anyway. In fact, the puzzles in Disaster Report are generally fairly simple - only a few will tax your brain, but there are enough to serve as a break from the action. Whichever girl you end up accompanying, Disaster Report will throw plenty of hazards at you, most of which are nothing short of spectacular. You'll find yourself running from falling buildings, hanging from fallen ladders and at one point you even get to flee from a giant wave.

I have only one real criticism of Disaster Report and that is it only takes around six hours to play through. This is compensated for by the fact that you'll likely discover something different the next few times you play through it. Disaster Report is a lot of fun, and it's hugely original, something that's quite rare these days. Plus, it's pretty scary, without sporting so much as a single zombie or monster and the earthquake effects are very impressive. If you live and breath shoot-em-ups then you probably won't like Disaster Report but everyone else should definitely get a kick out of this.

(originally posted by me on pregaming.com)