State of Emergency 2 opens with a pretty impressive scene that unfortunately promises good things but fails to deliver. The storyline is pretty basic; The Corporation, who is evil, is becoming even more dictating and the resistance group, aptly named Freedom is fighting for human rights. However, this isn’t as easy at it seems because the leader of the resistance group, Roy McNeil is about to be executed in prison. Obviously things don’t go to plan and some members of the freedom group help Mac escape.
Plays as well as it looks.. If not worse.
Ironically enough, State of Emergency 2 is actually quite different to it’s predecessor. For instance, a lot of focus is put on the storyline (which is likely to have you confused within 5 minutes). There isn’t as much hand to hand combat this time either and most of the combat takes place with weapons. The weapons are a lot more powerful this time and include the likes of rocket launchers, mines, grenades, Molotov cocktails and knives. This may seem like a good idea, but unfortunately the gun play just turns out to be extremely boring. There isn’t much variation in the weapons and no matter where you shoot you’re likely to take someone out. The game really does require no skill at all and becomes repetitive very quickly.
During a mission you can actually switch between characters. Each of the characters has a unique ability. Spanky is able to issue commands to the rest of the gang and MacNeil in particular is a great sharp shooter. However, the unique abilities that each player has isn’t particularly that handy, so the only reason you’re likely to change characters is if you’re just getting bored of your current player or if you want full health. For some peculiar reason AI-controlled players can be shot but they don’t lose health.
It really does seem like the developer knew the original State of Emergency was cruddy and decided to change as much of it as possible. Unfortunately, this actually makes the game feel worse. The level design is a lot larger, so even though there are more enemies on screen there is more space for them to run around in. It’s also possible to kill enemies with stealth, by hiding around a corner. This feels out of place because State of Emergency was never about hiding, it was about the resistance fighting back, publically.
What is going on here? Who cares.
You also spend a lot less time running around than in the original title as well. State of Emergency 2 includes some vehicles such as tanks or speedboats. Controlling the vehicles are boring and more of a chore rather than an addition to the already shallow game play. The game also includes an arcade mode which includes a few challenges. The challenges are entirely separate from the story mode and include things like sniper missions and vehicle missions. The game tries to change things by including multiplayer as well. Up to four players can play in a few modes including capture the flag and deathmatch. The multiplayer is okay, (not brilliant but a lot better than the single player) but there are a lot more titles we’d rather play with friends.
Graphically, State of Emergency hasn’t really changed that much in four years. The engine was quite impressive four years ago but now it feels dated. The environments are larger, but they don’t look any better. The characters look like lego a lot of the time. The only real highlight of the visuals in the game comes from the cut-scenes which are of a pretty good quality. It’s a real shame that the attention to detail in the cut-scenes wasn’t paid to the in game engine.
Die Corporation scum!
The audio is embarrassingly bad and feels low budget. Sometimes developers make the actors sound bad on purpose and this can be okay, but this wasn’t the intention in State of Emergency 2. The voice acting is so incredibly substandard that it makes the game seem even more boring. The weapon effects are okay, but they don’t stand out at all.
The main single player campaign will take about five hours to blast through, which isn’t that long. We never really encountered much of a challenge in the single player either, because whenever you shoot you appear to hit someone. Five hours isn’t really long enough, but when you’re done with the game you will probably never want to come back to the title again. It seems like the developer thought that the arcade mode and the multiplayer would extend the lifespan of the game, but you’re only likely to play the arcade mode once and maybe the multiplayer a few times. If you really want carnage filled multiplayer then Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is more worthy of your attention (provided you've got all the required kit - Ed).
The original State of Emergency was bad enough, but the sequel went through a lot of trouble to get a release and it’s all been for nothing. Even if you were one of the minority who enjoyed the original title, the developer has actually tried to deviate from the first game and has made the sequel even worse than its predecessor. The multiplayer is boring, the single player campaign tries to make the game into a narrative and fails and the arcade mode feels like an afterthought. State of Emergency 2 has no redeeming features and we can only hope that there isn’t a sequel.
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