State of Emergency

"Not Bad At All."

All right, I'm a little bit pissed off because I just made my first review for GameFAQ's here on this game and it was erased. So bare with me because it won't be nearly as good as the one I just did. ARGH!... Anyway... You're wondering why I gave it a 6 and said it's not that bad? My comment is most likely due to my appreciation of the game and what's hopefully to come. Read.

Story line:6
What can I say? There's just about none. Flat characters and one straight forward objective. However, this doesn't mean I don't love the story line, because I do. It's extremely unique and interesting, but the game itself doesn't take full advantage of it. A good comparison would be Grand Theft Auto. The first in the series was unique but just not that good. After a while we were given GTA3 and blown away because the story line was unique and the game was good! In essence if there is a sequel to SOE I'm going to be extremely optimistic.

Graphics:7
I don't like them. Period. Although I do appreciate them. Two hundred and fifty people WERE put on the screen at once. So certain aspects of the game need to be sacrificed. Plus the little fat guys are funning around a bit TOO fast... as is everyone else. All in all though it doesn't seem like the graphics could've been much better than they are.

Controls:8
Really good. People might argue that the camera makes the controls annoying, but it's just a matter of you knowing how to operate the controls correctly. Not bad but I would have liked have seen an aim button for the guns. And a jump button... More about that later though.

Sound:5
Just like the graphics I believe some sound needed to be sacrificed. Therefore there is no speaking... that's not good. I thought we got passed that after N64. Cursing would've been oh so much more realistic... We ARE beating people to death in the game. The music is good, regular game music, and the sound effects are great. In short. Add speaking and cursing from civilians.

Gameplay:3
This is where I go on a rant. There are two modes of gameplay, Kaos and Revolution. Kaos comes off feeling like Crazy Taxi in which you have to gain points and put more seconds on your timer. This can get repetitive quick because all your doing is trying to get a high score in four short levels. Revolution comes off feeling like that game I've tried to forget, Driver 2... Do the same objectives in a small area for a long, long, time. Please God in Heaven tell me why there was no multi player. WHY!?! It could've been the saving grace! Bah! Oh well, hopefully next time if there is one. Back to this jump button I said I would've loved to have had. I can't stress enough how much I would've loved to have jumped off the second floor of the mall on to a crowd of enemies, or climbed to the top of a building in the East Side level and whack some baddies off the top or simply go suicidal. Instead where cemented to the ground and every level seems to mirror itself. After the first decapitation nothing awes you anymore because you've seen it all. The last thing that bugged me was that there are 3 characters to unlock... I hate unlocking characters, I would have much rathered unlocking levels and like 50 other weapons. All the weapons were just too quickly introduced into the gameplay. Hopefully a sequel will correct all of this. Gameplay = repetition, but it's still a lot of fun to rocket people's as#'s.

So to conclude, this game was not bad, and I don't think you should be afraid of buying it. When you have SOE3 someday in your hands you'll think back to the original and say: ''why the %#@$ wasn't there a jump button.''

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/02, Updated 02/16/02