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After Grand Theft Auto 3, everything Rockstar Games touched was deemed gold. Rockstar was immediately made into a top publisher and the mainstream audience looked forward to their games. State of Emergency followed a huge amount of hype, at some points it topped the hype surrounding games like Metal Gear Solid 2, or more recently, Metroid Prime and Splinter Cell. It received many awards during its unleashing in the 2001 E3. Gamers looking for Grand Theft Auto with more violence were disappointed with the game’s release on the PS2 last year. The hype has died down and Rockstar has re-released the game for the Xbox, with a wealth of improvements.
The main mode in State of Emergency is Revolution mode. You start off in Capitol City Mall and find another member of the Resistance who assigns you various missions from protecting freedom fighters to killing Corporation officers. A big arrow in your screen points you to where you have to go, and for the most part, it is accurate. As you kill enemies you’ll earn more health. Disposing of your enemies can be done using anything. Anything from a bench to a pole to a trash can be used as a weapon since the environments are very interactive. The actual weapons include pistols, machine guns, Uzis and flamethrowers. Although you are only supposed to kill gang members and officers, nothing stops you from breaking havoc to the innocent bystanders. The actual gameplay isn’t very hard but it is hurt by the camera and targeting. The camera is unresponsive for a large part and you’ll find yourself in frequent fire you can’t see. Targeting is very difficult and hampers the game. Sometimes you need to use a pistol and during those times, it is best to run. Machine guns are more generous, but the shady targeting is still present.
You’ll learn to get used to both problems and Revolution becomes some simple-minded fun for a while. After a while, the missions seem to look alike and the initial thrill of the game runs down. That’s when you start to realize that the game isn’t very fun. Worse yet the only thing you get for beating the mode is three extra characters and three extra stages. Like in GTA3, if you get stuck on a mission, you aren’t going anywhere until you beat it, which makes some of the harder missions a pain.
Kaos takes out all of those annoying objectives and lets you do whatever it is you want to. You gain points by breaking windows, and killing corporation offers and gang members. You’ll notice some objectives on the screen, but they aren’t required. Basically, if it says to smash a window, if you do so, you’ll earn a multiplier on the score. The game ends when the timer ends although you earn more time by killing enemies. You need to do whatever you can to earn points and its pretty fun. Kaos is also available for multiplayer, which is that much more fun. A single player version of Last Clone Standing can also be unlocked. There you kill 200 clones as quickly as possible
The game’s biggest savior however is the new multiplayer. The PS2 original begged for multiplayer action but VIS didn’t give it to them. You and up to three friends can take on the game. Deathmatch is the biggest multiplayer mode. You compete against your friends to get the most kills. To do this you need to take control of some of the standbys and make them make them part of your group. A multiplayer version of Kaos, Last Clone Standing (kill 200 clones as quickly as possible), Survivor mode (last man standing) round up the multiplayer package. Multiplayer greatly enhances the game and adds much needed replay value that the game desperately needed.
Graphically, the game is a mixed bag. The actual player models and environments struggle to be average at best, although the player characters are unique to say the least. Everything is very crisp and colorful, though. I wasn’t too impressed with the graphics but seeing some fifteen people on the screen, I thought this way ok. Those fifteen people later became fifty, a hundred and later there had to be several hundred people on the screen (the official claim is 250). Best of all, they all animate very well. Thanks to the Xbox, there is never a hint of slowdown, even when the screen is full and you unleash your weapon’s lighting and particle effects. And nothing can describe the feeling you get when you blow a good forty people up at once.
The game has a wealth of great sound effects for your listening pleasure. There is a lot of screaming, yelling and the sounds of massive violence are always apparent. The alarms go off in a very believable manner and the frequent gunshots level out the audio. The default soundtrack is very low and has a techno sound to it. While the choice was probably done to put emphasis on the sound effects, this Xbox version lets you use your own soundtrack. Playing while listening to some nice hip-hop or rock (or whatever music you like) certainly makes it better.
State of Emergency is a fun game, for the first hour. When you get buddies and play the multiplayer part, though, the game is a god-send. Multiplayer is non-stop action without the repetitiveness of single-player. Slightly enhanced graphics and custom soundtrack add to the list of improvements. Depending on how often you play games with others, State of Emergency could be one of those games you get at Blockbuster for a week or a non-stop party game. Rockstar was aware of this and made the game have a $20 Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). Twenty Dollars for non-stop multiplayer is awesome. While the game would have been a rental, the $20 price tag makes it an instant grab. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Apr 18, 2003
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