State of Emergency

"Underrated"

I've seen a lot of people complaining about this game on the board and I think it's really been exaggerated.

Presentation: Well the presentation of the menus and such, is not that great. They are static except for a couple sub menus and the background is a boring blue color.

Graphics: This, and the gameplay is where the game shines. You have 250 players running around on screen at once. Some are fighting each other, others are looting, running around with TV's, Stereos, I even saw one running around with a trashcan.There seem to be a dozen or more character sets too, so not all of them look the same. All this is achieved without a hiccup in the frame rate, which is quite a feat. The Cartoony buildings and characters make the game seem surreal but almost realistic, whether you're doing a mission or playing chaos you're filled with a sense of urgency, or a sense of panic.

Gameplay: Many people on the board have complained of the ''shallowness'' of the gameplay and that it gets repetitive, well yes it can get repetitive, but not to the point you won't want to play. The two gameplay modes are chaos and revolution. Revolution is a mission based mode with over 185 missions. Chaos mode is basically a race against the clock to get as many points as possible. Revolution is the largest chunk of the game, whereas chaos seems like an afterthought, though an extremely fun one. Revolution can get repetitive very fast if you have a meager attention span, but if you're like me, you'll like the fact that each mission has a different reason or helps explain your reasons for taking down the corporation.

Sound:Many people complained about the annoying sounds in the game. I actually really liked the sound, the music was has a great beat to get you pumped up, and if you don't like it you can turn it off. The character voices are ok, but seem as though they were recorded at a lower bit rate, making them lower quality. The crowd voices, explosions,screams, and gunshots sound amazing. It's almost like each character is talking or making some sort of noise.

Replay Value: Revolution should take you quite a while to finish, and after that there are new modes of chaos to unlock. The replay value is high if you like beat-em ups. If you didn't like the game in the first place(how could you not?) then you probably won't want to play it again, if you liked the game chaos is a way to keep it fresh.

Presentation: 5
Graphics: 10
Gameplay: 9
Sound: 8
Replay Value: 7
Rating: 8 (not an average)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/02, Updated 02/16/02