State of Emergency 2 E3 2004 Impressions

VIS Entertainment's State of Emergency was a surprise hit when it was released back in 2002. Selling more than a million copies, the game featured a cartoony but ultraviolent style of gameplay that essentially involved starting a lot of riots and killing a lot of authority figures. Late last year, the company announced that development had begun on a sequel to State of Emergency, and at this year's E3, the game's publisher, Bam Entertainment, had the game on display. We recently spent some time with State of Emergency 2 and generally liked what we saw.

The first thing we noticed about State of Emergency 2 was its decidedly darker tone. The character models, environments, and weapons are all less-exaggerated-looking, and in general, the action felt less cartoony. This is not to say the game doesn't contain the same brand of mindless, violent fun as the first, because it definitely seems like it does. However, you won't be able to just recklessly kill everyone around you without any penalty, like in the last game. Now, you'll have a riot gauge on your HUD that displays your favor with the crowd. If you step out of line and start killing a lot of innocents, your meter will drop, and the crowd will begin to fear you--and they may even attack you. If you kill only the bad guys and stick to your objectives, your meter will go up. As a result, the people around you will actually start to both cheer you on and attack the evil cops on their own. It's a bit of a stark contrast from the generally sheepish and mindlessly fleeing innocents in the first game, but it isn't a bad contrast.

Most of the same weapons from State of Emergency will be in State of Emergency 2, as well as a few new ones and an all-new hand-to-hand combat system that actually includes defensive moves and reversals. In both methods of combat, you'll have a new targeting system, which you can use to cycle through various nearby enemies. The targeting is button-activated, so it's completely optional if you just happen to feel like mowing down everyone around you.

Other upgrades to the gameplay system include the ability to give squad-type commands to gangs you encounter and the ability to use multiple characters in a single level. Basically, you'll start a level with one character, and as you progress, you'll be able to switch to the new character when you hit a certain point. Then you'll have to complete objectives with both of them. You can actually have up to three characters in a mission, and you can switch between them on the fly simply by pressing the select button.

All told, what we've seen of State of Emergency 2 gives us the impression that it should provide the same kind of ultraviolent fun that the first game did. State of Emergency 2 is scheduled to hit stores next year, and we'll bring you more information on the game as it becomes available.