State of Emergency : Web Wombat : Games

If you took GTA3, removed the ability to drive, replaced it with literally hundreds of people ready to be mutilated on screen at any one time, and then threw in literally oodles of whacked-out weaponry meant to create more chaos than a T-bone steak at a vegan's convention, you'd get State of Emergency.

It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a nice game.

It is a mean, nasty, tasteless, harsh, seriously disturbed, utterly twisted and extremely violent game.

Not that I happen to have any problems with this, mind you, I'm just letting you know this isn't one to be putting in the kiddies' stockings come Christmas time.

The idea is basically this: The US Federal Government has collapsed; democracy is a thing of the past. The 'Corporation' has taken over, and keeps the populace under total control; anybody who attempts to combat their policies or officials gets a bullet between the eyes at best, and a lifetime as the pet project of a Frankenstein-wannabe at worst.

This is all too much for a group of subversives going under the name of FREEDOM. These guys are nasty muthas, ready to go toe-to-toe with the worst the Corporation has to offer, AK47s, M16s, Gatling guns, tomahawks, batons, planks, swords, tazers and anything else they happen to pick up at the ready.

You, as one of five new high-level recruits of FREEDOM, must beat 17 shades of brown sticky stuff out of everybody who gets in your way as you go around murdering, kidnapping, assaulting, demolishing, vandalising, burning and generally funking with everybody even remotely attached to the Corporation.

Motion capture looks good

From trashing Corporation-sponsored fast food franchises to smashing medical centres secretly trying out Corporation biological weapons on their patients and everything in-between, State of Emergency is nothing but one big brawl from start to finish.

An immensely fun brawl, yes, but still at heart, a brawl.

There's no real point to the violence, as such, beyond getting as many points as possible or completing mission objectives that do not, after the first dozen, really differ from one another.

You're still beating the shite out of riot-squads and army personnel, blowing up buildings, machine-gunning Humvees, throwing Molotov's through shopfront windows...

Actually…all of this is (while insane) quite fun. It's excellent amongst a group of mates, especially after a night out on the town. You can bung on the PS2 (and now the PC), slap in State of Emergency and be recklessly violent to your inebriated heart's content. So maybe it's not so bad that there's no point.

State of Emergency shares something with Dead to Rights: If there was a point, if you had to actually think about what you were doing, then the game would soon lose its appeal. It's not about thinking, it's about racking up the biggest high score possible before the cops shoot you down and it's about explosions and mutilation and cartoon violence.

Speaking purely from a graphical point of view, State of Emergency is not exactly impressive. Stylised would be a nice way of putting it. There's a 'comic strip' look to the game which gives it a certain charm.

Oh, it's one of those "reality shopping" games. Sweet!

The weapons are deliberately modelled to shy away from accuracy, ergo the character models, vehicles and buildings do likewise.

We all know what a Jeep looks like, and the same thing goes for an AK47. We don't need to be able to see the buttons on a Hawaiian shirt to know that it's a Hawaiian shirt.

One of the standout things on a purely whimsical level is the title soundtrack, by a group known as Smashing Machines. The lyrics, grungy beat and general feel of the music matches perfectly the gameplay of State of Emergency. It's really excellent stuff.

Unfortunately, even the most insane game loses its novelty eventually. Without its shock value, State of Emergency is nothing more than an average console port (State of Emergency was originally released on the PS2 in late 2001).

Worthy of a rental? For sure; it makes for a great time-waster and a definite party favourite. However, it is not a long-term game. A determined player can get through it in around a week, if that.

So…If you loved it on PS2, here's a chance to get to play it on a superior machine with sharper graphics and a better user interface. If you only liked it, I'd encourage you to give it a miss in the buying stakes, and go get GTA3: Vice City instead. It's a better game for your hard-earned dosh.

Game: State of Emergency
System: PS2
Players: 1-4
Online: Yes
Developer: Rockstar/Vis
Distributor: Take2 Interactive

Rating: 75%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

State of Emergency is on the shelves now.

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