Its "The man". Quick, take him down!

I have been waiting for State of Emergency for quite a while now. From the first time I read about it, over a year ago now, I couldn't help but think how much fun a game all about rioting and "taking down the man" would be. So it is with these pre-conceptions in mind that I sat down to play the game that I had so eagerly anticipated, and I'm sorry to say, I was severely let down. Its not so much that State of Emergency is a bad game, it sets out to be a game all about chaos and rioting and it achieves that very well, its just that it is incredibly repetitive and rather mind numbingly boring. I realised this when after I had been playing the game for just over an hour, I realised I had seen absolutely everything it had to offer.

You control one of 5 characters (initially 2, but you unlock the other 3 as you progress through the game, if you play it for that long) through a number of various locations. All hell as broken loose and a State of Emergency has been declared, so you take it upon yourself to cause as much chaos and mayhem as possible by punching, kicking, stomping, shooting or beating up anyone you come across. There is a number of weapons lying around the place you can use to achieve your goal of mayhem, including bats, pipes, guns, chairs, tables, TV sets, and pretty much anything which isn't bolted down or can be pulled out of shop windows. This actually sounds pretty fun doesn't it, and that's what I thought too, until you realise that fighting (whether it be with fists, a gun, or a melee weapon) just involves pressing the same button over and over and over and over again, and pointing yourself in the right direction. You can also beat people up on the ground, and to do that all you do is stand over their body and press the same button over and over and over and over again. You can do a special 360 degree spin attack which can be used to knock down all the people around you (if you're being mobbed by police or something), but this is so weak and takes so long to charge up and actually pull off that you wont find yourself using it too often.

As for the 5 different characters, the only thing that really differs between them is their physical appearance. While the game may try and tell you they have different strengths and weaknesses, I couldn't notice a single thing different between the characters I played. Admittedly I didn't play the game long enough to unlock all 5 because my brain was starting to turn to jelly and I just couldn't submit myself to any more. There is also a nice selection of levels, but guess what? They all pretty much work exactly the same. While the location changes, the gameplay doesn't in the least.

There are two main game modes you can play State of Emergency in, Kaos and Revolution. Kaos is a timed game, using the same sort of idea as Crazy Taxi, except you have to beat up people to get time bonuses. The more people you beat up, the more time you get. But you also have to balance this with scoring points, as this is what will advance you to the next level. You can score points by causing physical damage to shops, buildings, cars and whatever else you can find to destroy. Occasionally bonuses will appear on your screen that give you bonuses points for destroying specific items for a limited time.

Bust some skulls fatman.

  One of the most annoying parts of Kaos though is that at times a Civilian Penalty will be activated and you will actually lose points for killing Civilians. This really annoyed the hell out of me, as there can literally be anywhere from 50 to 100 people on the screen at once in State of Emergency, many of them civilians, and its very hard to not kill them sometimes. Also, considering the whole drawing point of the game is the "mass slaughter and mayhem" angle, it seems kind of strange to implement a game mode which makes doing that a bad thing. Maybe it is meant to be some sort of torturous test of skill, but to me it just took all the fun out of the game.

The other mode is Revolution, which is a mission based mode, much like Grand Theft Auto 3's mission mode (well, in theory anyway). Unlike GTA3's missions though, State of Emergency's missions are bland, boring and unimaginative. You get your missions from generic mission givers dotted around the various levels. When you walk up to a mission giver, a text screen will pop up telling you what to do. The missions basically fall into three categories: kill a person/destroy property, pick up an item and deliver it, and guard a building/person. Occasionally a few of these mission types will be combined together such as kill a person who drops an item you have to deliver, but it does little to break up the monotony. All items you have to deliver usually look exactly the same, and all mission givers pretty much look exactly the same. Most of the people you have to find and kill generally look the same also, as do the people you deliver items to. Revolution mode fails to capture any of the personality of individuality of the GTA3 mission style gameplay, and after a while you will probably just give up playing it as you do the same basic mission (with of course, a different name) that you have done 50 times already.

SoE is rather disappointing, as are these.

Graphics and sound are generally not bad; the engine is actually rather impressive since at any one time there could be almost 100 models running chaotically around the screen. This is one thing State of Emergency manages to do very well, to get across the violent, chaotic feel of a real riot. With people madly running all over the place screaming, looting stores, and beating each other up, you really do feel that you're in the middle of a full blown riot. If you like the idea of participating in this sort of bedlam and don't mind the repetitive nature of the game, then you will probably get a real buzz out of State of Emergency. Considering all SoE ever really claimed to be was a game all about rioting, it has actually achieved its goals rather well. Why I viewed the game so harshly was the fact that it tried to be something more, and just failed miserably. If it had just stayed simple and been a game all about mindless violence and just rioting and causing destruction on an unprecedented scale, I probably could have really enjoyed it. As it stands, State of Emergency is not going to appeal to everyone. Anyone who expects a real game out of it is going to be sorely disappointed, and anyone who expected a good, no-strings-attached rioting game will probably also be disappointed. Those people in the middle who enjoy a bit of repetitive violence with a half-assed attempt at being a real game might get a kick out of State of Emergency, but I would definitely recommend hiring it first.