Mindless briliance, or just mindless? (State Of Emergency (PS2))

Member Name: ps2update

Product:	State Of Emergency (PS2)
Date:	05/03/02 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see text

Disadvantages: see text

Ever felt so angry that you wanted to dismantle anything and everything? Felt the need to rebel against the corporate figures and show them the middle finger? Is the system treating you unfairly? Are you just a psycho who wants to kill people and smash up buildings? If yes to any of these then this is where State Of Emergency could help you. Rockstar games are now becoming infamous for their mature content and brutality. Gamers have already been treated to such delights like Max Payne, and Grand Theft Auto 3, now they can embark on a new journey in adult games, State Of Emergency. As always the question remains, is it all it is cracked up to be?

GRAPHICS

Initially State Of Emergency appears to be very similar to Crazy Taxi graphically, the cartoon-like chunky caricatures and scenery give a very arcade feel to the game. Certainly State Of Emergency wouldn’t make it into the arcades due to the content of the game, but appearance wise the game wouldn’t look out of place. The arcade graphics are probably the only thing that stopped State Of Emergency being banned in many countries. The game is detailed in a cartoon type of way, when shooting people if you aim accurately with a shotgun you can take there head off in a shot, if there is a group of people you are taking out with an assault rifle then blood gushing everywhere is the preferred graphical technique. If you are the kind of gamer who prefers to use a flamethrower your opponent will simply run around like an Auschwitz inferno.
Gamers can also marvel at buildings exploding, bins going through windows, and grenades taking out crowds of civilians, if you want to indulge in extreme cartoon violence then State Of Emergency is definitely for you.
One can’t help but think how spectacular State Of Emergency had looked if it had gone for realism…
18/20

GAMEPLAY

State Of Emergency is split into two main areas of play; Chaos Mode and Revolution Mode
; both can prove entertaining. Chaos Mode is aimed more for the “do what you want arcade style” gamer, and Revolution Mode is aimed for the serious gamer who prefers to complete missions.
Chaos Mode has absolutely no missions, the aim of the mode is to simply score points, one can score points from destroying buildings, and vehicles, or killing corporate forces and gang members. Beware...if you are to kill civilians however tempting you will be penalised and lose points.
When playing State Of Emergency gameplay is more or less the same whichever mode you play. There is a broad selection of weapons at your disposal ranging from trash cans, 2 by 4’s, and pepper spray, to rocket launchers, grenade launchers, shotguns, and machine guns, to put it simply weapon wise State Of Emergency has it all. One can create carnage in several ways; putting things through windows, blowing up whole buildings (in light of September 11th one may have thought this would have been censored), blowing up cars (or simply putting things through the window), and of course the classic killing other humans. Controversial? Definitely. One hell of a game? Maybe. The problem with State Of Emergency is that it is too damn repetitive. Yes Grand Theft Auto 3 was repetitive, and yes Max Payne was slightly repetitive but State Of Emergency is so much more repetitive. Wherever you are in State Of Emergency the principle of creating utter mayhem is always the same, although it may seem a great idea at first the novelty wears off.
In Revolution Mode there are 175 missions, and 4 levels, pretty impressive huh? It may sound it but when every mission is so similar and you only have the choice of going to one person to get a mission (as opposed to GTA3 where you could go to 2 or 3) things start to get tedious and frustrating. Although one mission doesn’t seem too bad it does when all you have to do is keep repeating it because you keep screwing up. One might counter thi
s with the argument that good gamers don’t screw up but one can’t counter that further by saying each mission is radically different because they are all largely the same.
Chaos Mode is considerably more fun than Revolution Mode as the pace is a lot faster. With the sole idea of Chaos Mode being to destroy one can really let there anger out here, taunting corporate figures, leading them to you only to mow fifty of them down with a machine gun, hugely entertaining and certainly stress relieving. Chaos Mode is a race against the clock mode, you have a few minutes to cause as much damage as you want but once that time is up it’s all over (or if you are just killed). However there is a way to make this time last a lot longer, collect golden time objects and a few more costly seconds will be added to your time, generally corporate figures will drop golden time objects, so kill them all!
State Of Emergency is undoubtedly a fun game to play with a great concept, it is too repetitive though, and not enough thought has been put behind it. State Of Emergency is a game that has the potential to be an AAA title just like Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto 3; unfortunately it is not an AAA title, as the game does not stretch the boundaries far enough. State Of Emergency is not an innovative game as there is simply not enough variation when it comes to gameplay, but it certainly is a step in the right direction.
17/25

LIFESPAN

With two main modes, characters, cities and a lot of missions in theory State Of Emergency will last one a long time. In reality one probably wont complete State Of Emergency as it will get too repetitive and boring, having said that chaos mode will prove fun until the novelty wears off. Revolution mode doesn’t last as long as one would hope, for if you do get into the game once you are genuinely frustrated by a mission you have to repeat it and cannot go to somebody else for a new mission. Although with
most games you have to keep repeating tricky parts of games you would think that you would have a few more options than just one mission at a time considering you even get the choice to accept or decline the mission. Although gameplay is repetitive there are a few other modes inside the chaos mode section, these include a five-minute chaos mode (this means you can create havoc for five missions, but once the time runs out it is all over. This is very similar to normal chaos mode but this time you can’t collect golden time pick ups as it is restricted to just five minutes), last-clone standing, and timed last clone. Despite the amount of things to unlock, mass of weaponry, and hours of gameplay crammed into this game it is just too repetitive to last that long. As State Of Emergency can prove fun for five minutes it means you will come back to it now and again for a quick blast – unfortunately if you have GTA3 in your collection, or similar games you may not be coming back to State Of Emergency as often as you would hope.
17/25

SOUND

With Grand Theft Auto 3 sound was a treat as you could change the radio stations, with Max Payne the sound was atmospheric and the whole atmosphere was reminiscent of an east end gangster movie, considering rockstar made both titles this bodes well for State Of Emergency. Sadly (as if you didn’t see it coming) State Of Emergency doesn’t match up the expectations of the other games, you have the banter of people running around, the shouts and murmurs of gangsters, and corporate figures, the smash of glass, and the shot of a gun; however nothing is particularly eye catching, or “ear” catching to be more politically correct. The gamer is treated to a very “helpful” and oh so cheesy voice over, telling you obvious things such as “you’ve been killed”. When you have been killed you really could do without some cheesy man telling you so. Music in the backgro
und is good enough, but nothing special.
12/20

ORIGINALITY

State Of Emergency is an original concept as far as games go. All gamers can see it is similar to GTA3 but all credit to rockstar for coming up with a unique idea. Smashing up a city in a desperate attempt to rebel may not be the most intelligent of concepts, or even the most spectacular of concepts, but original it is. The arcade idea gives a Crazy Taxi feel, and t he whole crime idea gives a GTA3 feel, but it really isn’t like either title. State Of Emergency is a unique experience at the moment; the idea just needs developing a little bit.
7/10

OVERALL

A little disappointing considering how great Max Payne, and GTA3 were. It is best to rent this title before you buy it, this way you can get a few days fun out of it for a tenth of the price it would cost to buy, and to be honest due to the repetitiveness a few days is all you should need!

71%

Summary: