State of Emergency (thing)

State of Emergency

From the creators of Grand Theft Auto 3 comes a new game with mayhem and violence exceeding even the legendary Grand Theft Auto... but has Rockstar over done it?

Simple answer - yes. A game by Rockstar, the creators of Grand Theft Auto 3. It is set in the future where an evil global corporation (creatively named, "The Corporation") has eliminated Democracy in America and set up an Autocratic rule. Your job is to overthrow them - sounds promising, however State of Emergency is a tired, repetitive game with little to offer in the way of ingenuity or intelligence. If one wishes to numb their brain and increase their chances of RSI for a couple of hours of dull gameplay then this is the game for you!

First of all, the graphics are highly inferior to Grand Theft Auto 3. Where I can rave endlessly about Grand Theft Auto 3's graphics, there's not much to talk about with State of Emergency. The graphics are blocky and fuzzy compared to modern day games and could almost be launched on the Playstation platform with little difference, if the levels weren't so large that is.

Yes - the levels are large. Your first reaction would be to yell, "Great!". Mine was - however it is misleading. The levels themselves are realtively small... they just go on and on and on and on and on and on... After two or so straight hours of playing I had completely only 47% of missions on the first level! This wouldn't be so bad, but every single mission involves the same things - either protecting people, killing people, retrieving things or delivering things (quite often a mix of some or all). Combat is tired and unrealistic, guns are relatively scarce and when you get them they come with a certain amount of ammo and cannot be reloaded. Even if you find another gun you must throw away your current one to use the next one - there are no ammo pickups. The fighting moves are a sad attempt to integrate Tekken 3D Combat into a gun based game - they fail miserably as fist fighting looks crap and unrealistic, and the gratuitous violence is just over the top.

AI is to be commended on - for its stupidity. Rockstar chose to include hundreds upon thousands of mindless drones running backwards and forwards, round and round. They sometimes carry items, suppsosedly looting, but mostly are empty handed and simply run aimlessly. This is stupid, it is unrealistic - if they were running from the riot they would leave the place in short time - and it is irritating. They get in the way when fighting and they slow you down. Perhaps this was meant to make it more difficult, but as so much processing is required to map out the paths of thousands of mindless people, the "smart" people you have to fight suffer as a result. They are not difficult to beat, they are not smart, and they are quite boring. Also, spawn is highly unrealistic, as spawn points are fixed. If, for example, you kill the guard outside the information booth and then run around the corner, to return a moment later, there will be the guard. The spawn rate is is far too quick, and should be randomized to add realism.

Finally, the audio is horrid. People do not talk to you, except on the occasion when guards say "Stop! You're under arrest!" or "We're entering the building!", or when you rescue someone they say "Thanks big boy!". It sounds bad to begin with, and its the only dialouge you get. When you go for your job (unlike Grand Theft Auto 3) you do not get it from a payphone or get to see it face to face with a beautiful FMV. Instead your employer stands in one place and waits for you to walk up to him and press X, then he does not talk, rather a text box comes up on the screen. The background din is an unrealistic murmor of the people running around, which remains at precisely the same volume even if you manage to run to an area with fewer people. Punch/kick sounds and gun sounds are also unrealisticly and sometimes out of sync.

Overall, this game is not worth it. Very dissapointing after Rockstar's brilliant job with Grand Theft Auto 3. Please do not buy this game, if you must, hire it. I do not reccomend this game to anyone.

Final Verdict: