State of Emergency

"PS2 finally has its Fighting Force"

Well let's get a few things straight right off the bat here. There are several misconceptions about this game and more importantly the people who dislike it and I'm going to clear that up right now.

1. I did NOT expect this game to be like Grand Theft Auto. I don't even own that game.

2. I've been playing video games for 20 years and I appreciate a good beat em up as much as the next guy.

With that said here we go.

State of Emergency takes place in the ''near'' future where the government has collapsed and a large corporation is apparently in control of the world. Or at least the city you're in. Then there's a riot. They never say WHY there's a riot. There just is one. And this riot is the perfect opportunity for an underground resistance group, Freedom, to destroy the Corporation and free the people from their tyranny. Not that we see the Corporation actually do anything bad. Makes you wonder.

That's the premise. You play either an ex-cop or a framed female attorney who has fallen out of favor with the law for various Corporation-related reasons so you opt to become the new recruit in Freedom's struggle for independence. Using the riot as cover you perform various missions to help Freedom and eventually topple the Corporation. Starting from a mall locale you go through town, adding members to Freedom you can use later and eventually attempt to destroy the Corporation headquarters. Sounds great right? That's what I thought.

First of all this is no riot. Only hundreds of people running around on the screen. It might as well be a marathon. Riots are about random chaos and destruction. But there is none. The only one doing anything is you. If you stood still all there would be is an obscenely amount of people in a mall at one time. There is no fighting, no screaming (until you start shooting), no beatings, no nothing. There are people apparently looting but we never see it. Just people pop up every now and then with boxes in their hands. We never actually see them break windows and take anything.

There are police on hand but they are ridiculously stupid. There are hundreds of people with boxes stealing and gang members running past with semi-automatic weapons and they do nothing. Yet you run by with a baseball bat and 50 cops beat you like Rodney King.

No one does anything unless you start it. There's a riot going on and you can have a ghetto thug and a Skinhead stand right next to each other just doing nothing. But if you look at them the wrong way they'll beat you down totally ignoring their own differences. If they start beating each other it's only because your attacks got crossed up between them. Makes no sense for a game with such ''great'' AI. This game has ''rushed'' all over it.

But enough of the vague gripes, down to the nitty gritty.

Graphics - Disappointing. I understand there are hundreds of characters on the screen but graphically this looks like something the Playstation could handle. I will give it some credit as the flamethrower effect isn't TOO bad. And even with all the characters on the screen, most of them are just palette swaps and similar space-saving character designs. There is no slowdown which is a plus but these days even if the time was spent keeping the frame rate up, without looks it's not going to get far.

Sound - A little better than graphics. The only real problem is lack of music. The whacks and thuds are standard and the weapon sound effects are nice. Screams and panic sound authentic even if after an hour or so you'll start hearing the same ones over an over. Same for the cops and thugs who will yell at you or say whatever mean things they will before you beat their heads in.

Gameplay - Hoo boy. Here's the real bad part. Many fans of this game like to say that they compare this game to the old days of Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, and other such greats. Well it's obvious that they never played any of those or they'd know better. You have a punch and a kick and a grab with 2 kinds of throws. Button mashing at its finest. But no technique at all. After a while you'll just opt for grabbing every single person doing the same throw over and over. But that's OK because just like the real police the game will wait until you stop moving or hitting someone else before resuming its attack. While I respect trying to make this game work like the old games it's not. In those games you'd have 3 or 4 guys on the screen at once. But when there's 12 - 15 armed cops on you, being able to beat them all off with your fists is just too farfetched. Not that weapons help. Because the second you pick up a weapon you are at a disadvantage.

There is no way to lock onto any opponents and strafing is useless when you're being attacked on all sides. You'll spend half your time trying to run, turning around, and firing your weapon the wrong way. Plus the camera is so tight on your position you can't properly see your surroundings. And when 5 guys open fire on you you NEED to know where they are. You can control the camera angle with the right analog stick but you can't do that, dodge attacks, and protect some skinny hacker who's getting beaten by cops at the same time. You can't even swing a bat properly half the time. And while it's possible to beat people who are on the ground, it's odd how when there's no one around it's almost impossible to get that proper angle but when you're surrounded by gang members you'll start stomping on dead bodies for no reason.

Replayability - That all depends. If you like it there's tons. Because it's the same thing over and over and over. Repetitive? That's not the problem. ALL games get repetitive. But it needs to be FUN. And the control is so bad at times that it's not. Besides the regular story driven Revolution mode there is the Chaos mode which is just blowing and bashing for points and opening up options. Which is a moot point because if you don't like the controls playing Chaos mode, while not as irritating, becomes incredibly boring. Not because of content, but because it's too much of a pain to deal with as far as gameplay is concerned.

The Revolution mode has several missions to do from the mundane to the ridiculously cheap. Personally I'm appalled that the game claims to have 185 missions when many of those can be completed in several seconds.

''Run over there.''

''Beat up those guys over there.''

''Break that window.''

Those are ACTUALLY ''missions''. That's a stretch.

Wrapup - Look. I've heard all the complaints since I don't like this game. And I've heard all the excuses for liking this game.

1. You were expecting Grand Theft Auto and didn't give it a fair shake.

No. I don't LIKE Grand Theft Auto. I wanted something with the same attitude but not the way it played. (I get the same angry looks when I say I like Syphon Filter over Metal Gear Solid) This game has NO attitude. There's NO speech most of the time except for the yelling. Very little difference in the look of the ''rioters''. No kids, old people, nothing like that. Just generic men and women. Just wearing different clothes.

2. You don't appreciate the old school gameplay.

Wrong again. I LOVE that kind of gaming and own even bad games of that type like Fighting Force, Gekido, and The Bouncer. ALL of which I'd rather play than this.

3. You just think it's repetitive.

I played Smash TV once for 10 hours straight. Case closed.

4. It's just not your cup of tea. You're probably offended by violence anyway.

See Smash TV comment above.

5. Sure the Revolution mode sucks but it's all about Chaos mode.

I played that mode first. When the game is this bad it doesn't matter what mode you're in. Besides I definitely wouldn't have spent 50 dollars on just the Chaos mode. Even if I liked it.

6. You only played it for a half hour anyway. How can you judge?

The same way others can play for a half hour and praise it. Besides when I got this home I played it for 6 hours straight and I'm about halfway through Revolution mode and have almost all of Chaos mode completed. I have NO desire to finish.

This game didn't have popular hype but it had plenty of insider hype. Much like PS's Fighting Force and PS2's The Bouncer. And like both they fail to deliver. It's just another game proving that all genres necessarily do NOT work in 3D. They promise total interaction and complete freedom and we get a few trash cans through the windows and molotov cocktails and a RIDICULOUSLY moronic AI.

And for those saying not to compare it to GTA 3? GROW UP! This game may have not been ''created'' by the same people but it's OBVIOUS that the Revolution mode and its mission based concept borrows HEAVILY from GTA 3 whether you want to admit it or not. This game was just a rushed product trying to get some extra bucks from the Rockstar name and GTA popularity. Which it sadly will. All they see it the mindless violence and nothing else. And in that case maybe the game SHOULD have been banned. The fact that a mediocre game gets such high praise due to the violence alone is sad. In which case I recommend all these people to bring SoE back and buy Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. It does the same thing MUCH better than this game does.

I give this game a 4 because it WAS fun for a little while. But the longer it went, the worse it got. This game is a rental at best. I MIGHT keep it just to finish it the one time but if I do it'll be at the very bottom of the pile of games I have. Right underneath The Bouncer.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/16/02, Updated 02/16/02