State of Emergency

"Smacking cops with severed heads is fun... PERIOD."

Alright kids, first off, lets get one thing straight...
State of Emergency IS NOT GTA3!

Yes, it's made by Rockstar. Yes, you're supposed to practice ultra-violence with assorted weapons. That's about all it has in common with the merry-evilness we've come to love from GTA3.

Story : 9
The storyline of the Revolution mode has a very Orwellian stint to it. A new government (The Corporation) has united the world, bringing strict order to chaos, but it's not exactly a good thing. That's where you come in. Each of the characters you get to play as *two by default, you unlock the others* has a beef with the Corporation for some reason or another, and wants to make them pay. So you meet up with and get orders from fellow Freedom fighters that have figured out ways to strike back, from protecting a hacker who downloads info from the Corporation's computer system, to blowing up buildings the Corporation has dealings with, to murdering gangs that the Corporation has dealings with.

Replay/Value : 10
As fun as the Revolution mode is... Chaos is even better. Ranging from an all-out free-for-all to hunting down 200 clones in the best time possible adds a lot to the replay value, and the fun-factor as well. *It's also the easiest way to get familiar with all the locales in SoE before tackling them in the Revolution mode.*

SFX/Music : 9/1
The sound effects are delightfully gooey also, each gun has it's own distinct sound, and you'll learn to run when you hear the Corp's officers using them against you. The crowds of people scream when you wade into them with a baseball bat swinging. People yell, cops threaten, explosions roar, it's all very very good... well... EXCEPT for the music. You'll hate the bland, repetitive music, and you'll wish they'd adopted GTA3's various audio styles. Where's the voice of the resistance? A pirate radio station *manned by Lazlo of course* would've fit the atmosphere a lot better than the audio loops running for a few minutes, then changing to another track we want to ignore. (Thankfully, you can shut the music off and keep the sound effects.)

Innovation : 10
Technologically, the game is amazing. People react like you'd expect people to in a riot situation. Some loot, some run around aimlessly, most get in the way when you're trying to do something, and they will duck and cover if anyone attacks them. You will want to attack them. Anyone who finds a minigun in the mall level and doesn't cut loose on the innocent people just to see the bodies pile up should go play one of the Mary Kate and Ashley games instead. You're the wrong audience for this kind of orchestrated chaos. The generic people aren't as detailed as your character, or the Corporation's goons, but they don't have to be, they add to the gorgeous atmosphere of the game just by being there. Thankfully, there are more color variations in their attire than in GTA3, so you're not seeing mobs of identical people trundling about, but some similar looking ones wearing different clothes. The backgrounds look amazing, with all the people they have moving about, things exploding, etc... you'd expect slowdown, right? WRONG... not a drop anywhere to be found.

Gripes : 2
The hideous music, oh, and another bad thing, load times. Expect the same load time for each level of SoE that you get when waiting for GTA3 to load when you start it. It's definately a minor gripe for what you get to experience, though.

Overall : 9
Basically, if you liked GTA3, you'll dig this. It's got stuff to blow up, it's got people to kill, and lots of ways to do both.

*And there is a gore setting, just in case you want to let young'uns play.*

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/02, Updated 02/16/02