State of Emergency

Big Brother, known as the Corporation is watching, repressing the people to
their will. The streets have become a place of insanity, filled with disorder,
looting, fighting, and people wanting to be free of oppression. It’s a riot,
seriously! The Corporation has declared a State of Emergency.
You fight along side the main resistance known as Freedom, be prepared for intense
combat and bloodshed as 250 characters flood the streets at once including corporation
soldiers, evil gang members, and innocent civilians. Join the uprising through
180 missions ranging from protection to punishment in 4 interactive environments
with an arsenal of weaponry that makes mass killing a snap. Let’s take a closer
look at the insanity within Rockstar Games’ State of Emergency.

State
of Emergency is a fast paced action game that borders on total chaos! The main
mode of gameplay is the Revolution mode where you start out
in the Mall and cannot progress to the other three areas until
you finish all of the missions presented to you there. There are about six different
types of mission including Kill missions, Steal
missions, Escort missions, Protect missions,
and Destroy missions. Once the missions in the Mall are complete
you can move on to the next areas; Chinatown, East
Side, and Corporation Central in that order. The missions
in each location are about the same in type, just changing a bit to suit the
area. Killing enemies within the mission will usually reward you with a health
pickup, grab ‘em before they disappear, should you run out of health you’ll
be respawned near the entrance to the level and the game will revert to the
last save point. Saves are done automatically and manually, which is a good
thing since some of the missions are trial and error.

So
how do the missions work? When you start a new game, or continue a
saved game in Revolution mode you will first notice an arrow,
this points to the nearest mission giver in the area. Head over to him or her
and find out what the mission is, if you decide to accept the mission it will
begin immediately. Most of the missions are simplistic, like going and killing
someone, retrieving documents or explosives, or protecting someone while they
do something to help the Freedom Fighters. During the mission
the arrow will point towards the objective, and once complete the arrow will
change once again to the closest mission giver. There are more than one mission
giver to each level and they are color coded so you can distinguish between
the missions and follow the storyline of each a little better. Completing missions
unlock new levels as well as new playable characters.

There are five playable characters in all and they each have their own personalities
and reasons for joining the Freedom fight; Mac, Libra,
Spanky, Freak, and Bull.
While the missions do give you a brief run down of what to do, they don’t explain
in detail how to do it, who will help you, and who your direct enemies are.
Instead this information is given to you through the use of colored markers,
different colors mean different things. A red indicator usually means that the
object or person needs to be destroyed to complete the mission, a blue indicator
means it’s a friendly object or person, and a yellow indicator is neutral.

Chaos
mode doesn’t have any missions, rather it’s a point based game. Score points
by killing corporation and gang members, destroying property, and completing
objectives. In each of the four environments there are six different modes of
play; Kaos (yeah, spelled Kaos for some odd reason),
3 minute and 5 minute timed games, Last Clone Standing
and Timed Last Clone Standing, and finally Unlimited
Time. During these levels you can’t save, but the scores at the end
are saved to the High Score Board for that level. So the main object
in these levels is destruction, you’ll gain points for killing all the enemies,
and while you can kill as many civilians as you wish, you won’t gain any points
from doing so, in fact you’ll lose a small portion of them. The action is fast,
and during the game the objective will change quite rapidly. For example, the
objective may be destroy windows where any windows you smash will be worth double
or triple points, and quickly change over to destroy game members for bonus
points. You’ll need to keep a close watch on the objectives and look for pickups
along the way.

State of Emergency also boasts an entertaining multiplayer section, with game
types including Kaos, Last Clone Standing,
Deathmatch, and Survivor. In each of the modes
except Deathmatch you can play with or against your friends (up to 3 others),
Deathmatch is every man for himself, sorry folks no Team Deathmatch here. That’s
not to say that you’re alone out there, you can recruit civilians to fight for
you by pressing the white button as you pass by them, essentially creating
an army for yourself.

The
main method of attack in every mode of play is punch and kick,
with button mashing to whip out some combos (in the point based games you
may want to keep this in mind since you get more points for hand to hand combat).
There are pickups, powerups, and weapons scattered throughout the levels. In
time based games there are little clocks that extend your time limit. Health
pickups are available in all modes and are usually available after you defeat
an enemy. There are plenty of different weapons to come across, such as swords,
meat cleavers, batons, stun guns, pistols, uzis, AK-47s, shotguns, M-16 assault
rifles, grenade, rocket, and tear gas launchers, flame throwers, and many more.
I personally like the sword and the rocket launcher,
there’s just something about decapitating someone with a sword that makes
me happy. Some of the pickups that help you out are body armor, infinite
ammo, punch decapitate, and helper, these are mainly self explanatory. In Deathmatch
an equip helper icon will appear that will upgrade your helpers’ weapons.

The
controls of the game are simplistic at best, but they suit the fast paced action
well. Move with the left thumstick, drop and throw with B,
punch with A, kick with X, do combos with X and A,
and while unarmed perform a 360 attack with Y. The right trigger will
center the camera, which quite honestly will require some attention as left
on it’s own may lead you into a blind spot crawling with uzi-toting gang members.
Speaking of gang members, there are five different gangs you’ll face on the
streets in State of Emergency. The Mall Rats, 3rd Street
Killaz, Jade Hill Gang, Skinheads,
and Muerte 13 are mixed in among the civilians and the Corporation
members. Overall the action is fast, fun, and mindless, which in my book makes
a great title for those times when you need a little stress relief.

The graphics in the Xbox version of State of Emergency are crisper
and cleaner than the Playstation 2 version which released to the public about
a year ago. The framerate runs a smooth 60 frames per second during single player,
and 30 frames during split screen multiplayer, quite an accomplishment for
250 characters running around on screen at once. The character animations
are fluid, and each character has a good amount of detail to suit the arcade
style gameplay.

The storefronts, vehicles, and environments are quite detailed
and most of the objects on screen are interactive. Smashing windows, blowing
up buildings and cars, and throwing garbage can are a must for any true rioter!
The camera does become a concern and is a noticeable issue right from the start
of the game and will often corner you into a blind area. Once your familiar
with the quirks the camera does have, manipulating it makes it a non issue,
but it’s a concern State of Emergency could have done without.

With 250 people on screen, you can expect to hear some
noise. You always hear people talking and screaming, the PA announcer making
pages all the time, bombs going off, machine gun fire . . . sounds like
an advertisement for Tylenol! The ambient sounds definitely give you the
feel of a riot situation, and gunfire and explosions are done convincingly.
The game is presented in 5.1 surround sound, and supports a soundtrack of urban
styled music, but custom soundtracks are supported so if the included tunes
don’t fit your fancy then just use your own.

There are tons of things to do in State of Emergency, Kaos
mode alone will keep you busy for days and days. Each environment in Revolution
mode has a multitude of missions to complete, and while they may get repetitive
at times and be a course on trial and error, they always seem to have the right
boost of action at the right time. Multiplayer modes are always a plus for replay
value, and while we would have enjoyed more game types, the ones provided will
keep you entertained with your friends for quite some time, there’s just
never a bad day for an uprising!

State of Emergency is a blast.
I enjoyed the fast paced action that got me into the DO mode
rather than the THINK mode. Let alone the fact that decapitation
is commonplace, you gotta love that! On the other
side of the game, Revolution forces to use your head to get through some of
the missions, and the multiplayer games are great for when you have friends
over, almost living up to a party style game. Being a port from the Playstation
2 version, I expected a good title that had some lingering technical issue,
the issues are there but pale in comparison to the chaotic action you’re placed
in the middle of. At a bargain price right out of the gates, it’s
definitely worth a closer look.

Overall Score: 8.2/10 [Not an Average]

• Official Game Site
• Rockstar Games
• State
  Of Emergency Screenshots (temporarily Unavailable, Sorry.)
• State Of Emergency Hints
  and Cheats
• Buy
  State
  Of Emergency from EB Games

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