The premise for Urban Chaos: Riot Response is very simple. You take the role of Nick Mason, a one-man army for a (new and expensive) riot enforcement squad known as T-Zero. The same day that this unit was put into action, a terrorist group known as The Burners attacks the city and you're on hand to jump in and save the day. The story unfolds through a series of news broadcasts and it reveals an conspiracy driven plot that needs you to go out and slaughter terrorists. However, we found it annoying that our one-man army was being constantly patronised and at times, it feels too manufactured and fake.
So what does Urban Chaos: Riot Response do to set itself apart. Well, nothing that hasn’t been done on a console shooter before. However, the game bases itself off a simple design and it actually comes off quite well. The first level walks you through the game’s basic functions and you learn a few more in the following levels. As the last line of defense before the military, you’re given access to a fair amount of powerful artillery and useful accessories. Apart from a nice array of firearms that include pistols, rifles and shotguns, you’ve also got a stun gun, different kinds of bombs and grenades, a riot shield and a device called a BREATHER.
Terrorist Vs. Magnum. No prize if you guess who wins.
By putting all these items to good use together, you’ve got yourself a lot of mayhem. Whenever you enter a level, your faced with a primary objective such as “Eliminate the Terrorist threat from the area” but your actions throughout the level will be driven by secondary objectives. These objectives will have you running throughout the area, killing off terrorists and rescuing civilians and other emergency personnel. This opens up a fair bit of variety as you’re virtually always on the move and there are many different situations. Sometimes you’ll be teamed up a fireman, policeman or paramedic and you’ll need to guide and keep them safe. In turn, they help you around obstacles, with firemen putting out fires and paramedics healing you. There are also hostage situation that play out a bit like a mini-game and even shooter sequences where you jump into a helicopter’s rail gun.
Further objectives come are achieved when you get a certain amount of head shots, disable a certain amount with your stun gun, survive the level without any continues and by finding five masks hidden through out the level. Completing the objectives rewards you with medals, which in turn unlock weapons, armour and other useful objects. In each level, there are “gang-leaders”, who if they are captured alive (stunned) will unlock “Emergency Scenarios”. These are small levels that require you to rescue someone in the time limit and unlock prototype (re: powerful) weaponry.
The game has a very simple control scheme. On the PS2, the R1 button is to shoot and for single-handed weapons, R2 is for a torch while for a two-handed weapon, it’s the secondary fire mode. L1 is the riot shield, which is super handy without making the game too easy and L2 is your BREATHER – an infrared visor and oxygen mask. The weapons are placed in three categories and you can flip through each category, as it is assigned to each of the three face buttons. The remaining X button is used for the reload button and context actions such as flipping switches. Within the scheme, you’ve got options such as reloading while the riot shield is up. It’s simple, effective and surprisingly tight, even on the PS2. Whenever you have a teammate, you can ask them to follow you or hide with the d-pad. When you’re confronted with a situation that they can handle, such as a fire or a blocked door with the fireman, you can ask them to take care of it.
Brendan's way of punishing naughty staff.
You’re given a lot of firepower and endowments but at the end of the day, you’re still playing as a one-man army and these terrorists aren’t going to play easy. They aren’t that smart, most of them will either charge you head-on with cleavers and chainsaws or stand and throw molotovs and grenades. These guys are simple enough to deal with and early on in the game. However, as their weaponry gets bigger and better, they get a lot harder. They’re still not that smart but they are disturbingly accurate and often heavy in numbers. in the very least, it makes for a very intense experience.
The game is very linear and heavily scripted. Levels play out in a fairly elementary fashion and virtually everything is running by the clock. If it weren’t for the heavy and intense nature of the sequences and the very aggressive nature of the enemies, the experience would tire very quickly. Unfortunately, when you do replay a few of the levels or sequences, the experience does wear thin, especially in the second half of the game or by the time you've memorised the enemy movements. Even though your environments change, from streets, to sewers, to trains, to incomplete skyscrapers, you’re essentially riding the same rollercoaster.
Once you’ve tackled the fifteen or so missions, taken care of the emergency situations and collected enough medals, there is an option for online or LAN multiplayer. It’s not particularly fleshed out but it’s serviceable if you can get the numbers to play. There are nine levels and you fight it out as either the Burners or T-Zero and one has to take control of the area. We don’t know why there is no split-screen multiplayer in the game but that’s just the way it is.
Sometimes, you don't know who's the bigger crook.
Graphically, the game looks somewhat aged but is backed by an impressive presentation. The news broadcasts aside, within the game you have an impressive amount of bang and boom, as well as some slow-motion replays of key actions. Yes, slow-mos are overused but here is happens to be implemented well. The main thing that the game gets right is the scope and atmosphere. You really feel like you’ve entered an area that’s been sent to hell. Otherwise, the usual culprits including the frame rate, the texturing, modeling and animations are all a few years too late.
From an audio perspective, the game adds some very impressive touches. For example, when a bomb goes off close to you, you can hear the ringing coming across as well as muffled voices. The sound effects are pretty much up to scratch, but the weapons could’ve used a bit more bang. The voicing is good and serviceable but doesn’t particularly reflect the mood of people in that situation and the in game dialog gets very reptitive. There isn’t much music in the game but it pretty much reflects the self-patronising nature that is exuding throughout the experience.
Urban Chaos: Riot Response provides a lot of bang but not quite enough to put it in the top bracket of shooters. OK, so it doesn’t do anything revelational or new but at least it does it reasonably well in providing an intense and enjoyable experience. If the idea of playing a modern day Rambo and engaging in mass terrorist elimination, this game has something for you.
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