When the concept was released it was just as awesome as the hype that surrounded the ever tabooin' GTA3, but this touted an all new engine and idea. Riots. Now, eventually "revolution" became more the theme as the game evolved, but publisher ROCKSTAR introduced us to a game of inciting rebellion in the 100 people rushing about each area looting, fleeing, fighting at any time. Violent, chaotic and... cartoony? State of Emergency shows that while real riots are far from funny, this game is far from being realistic. But is it really even worth rioting about?
Why it sucks: While a big thing mentioned before its release that Rockstar mentioned was "inciting" other rioters to join in on your attacks on the corporation... they just kind of stand there and cower, usually. When they're not busy cowering, they'll occasionally belt you or someone else in the face once and go right back to running around like a gerbil with its tail engulfed in flames. You have only one real objective in REVOLUTION mode which is to obey the orders given by the guys with bandannas over their faces as you basically go around doing their dirty work like the tool you are. As you can imagine, having to follow the orders these twits bark out gets old REAL quick! By the third or fourth mission where you have to guard some stupid computer hacker, the game gets REAL cheap and frustrating. This is where many people I've found stop doing revolution, because it's not fun to watch yourself lose constantly against a huge group of guards as they swarm around you and all it takes is one of them to get inside for you to screw up. If Revolution isn't any fun for you, you can try chaos mode which basically is like some bloody slaughter race... you run around one of the areas you would otherwise play revolution(Mall, downtown, etc.) in and mow down corporate police (or civilians ^_^) and get points for your corporate and gang kills. If you can achieve the ridiculous goals set by the announcer who blathers on about which kills are good at the time and what you should be doing now, you keep your timer going otherwise it runs out and you get a game over. It would make an interesting way to kill time waiting on a decent game in an Arcade, but otherwise it is just plain boring. How to make things better? Cheat! Using cheats, I went through all of revolution with Spanky and completed all the missions... well half of them since there's a code which allows you to skip a mission. :) Invincibility, infinite ammo, blah blah blah. And while the cheats don't necesarily make the game fun, but they can get you through some of the really stupid missions or the pointlessly frustrating ones. As fun as pointless violence is, I've never seen something make it seem so tired as this game. It's sad when I punch someone's head clean off their neck and don't even blink! And I still find it hard to believe it's all over, 4 levels don't seem so big with such shallow gameplay.
Why it rules!: State of Emergency is rather charming in a wholly bizarre way. Choosing among gangsters, ex-lawyers, football players and ex-cops you pick the revolutionary to be and lay to waste all that stands before you... sometimes. Well, honestly not enough. Mowing down people left and right is something games have tried but never really accomplished. State of emergency is outright disturbing in its spectacular violence and the numerous possiblities for wanton mayhem and destruction. So if you want a game where you can mow people down mindlessly for hours on end... THIS is the game for you. And when I say "mindlessly" I mean it in the strongest possible way.
Overall: This game had way more hype than it ever deserved behind it before it was released. While it was pretty cool as it starts out... by the third or fourth mission you begin to regret buying the game in the first place. I would recommend getting GTA3 before you ever consider getting this. Traded mine in for Blue Seed DVDs ^_^