Urban Chaos: Riot Response Impressions

When Eidos put out its press release announcing Urban Chaos: Riot Response yesterday, the game's premise sounded a lot like that of the upcoming first-person shooter Zero Tolerance--formerly known as Roll Call. Sure enough, they're one and the same, though after checking the latest work-in-progress version of the game out at an Eidos press event earlier today, we're pleased to report that the title isn't the only thing that has changed since the last time we saw it.

We weren't able to get our hands on Urban Chaos: Riot Response on this occasion, which was particularly disappointing, not only because the game looks to be almost finished, but also because the level that we got to watch being played for most of our presentation was the same one that we've seen on no fewer than three other occasions since September 2004. Fortunately, this gave us a good opportunity to see exactly what improvements the development team has been working on since then. Although we most definitely had a sense of déjà vu during the demo, we could tell that the Rocksteady team has clearly been busy.

For starters, the level in question is now preceded by a live-action TV-style news broadcast in which the female anchor talks about a terrorists' armed attack on the police station where the controversial T-Zero riot-response unit (of which you're a member) is based. The Hope Street police station, then, is where the first level takes place, and where you'll encounter members of the notorious 200-strong "Burners" pyromaniac gang for the first time.

In keeping with the T-Zero unit's zero tolerance policy on law enforcement, you'll start the game with a veritable arsenal of firearms at your disposal, and you'll be accompanied by a number of colleagues, who are every bit as deadly as you are, in addition to regular cops. Since we were watching Urban Chaos: Riot Response being played by a member of Eidos' QA team for the game, we were treated to an occasionally spectacular (and speedy) play-through of the level that was clearly designed to show off some of the noteworthy features. Shortly after entering the parking garage below the police station, for example, the Eidos representative threw a number of meat cleavers retrieved from the bodies of fallen gang members into a wall that he knew he'd be passing by later on. The point? To highlight the fact that they'd still be there a few minutes later, at which point they could be pulled back out of the wall and reused.

Our Eidos representative also took out a gang member on a ledge high above the garage with a pretty spectacular headshot, at which point we were treated to a slow-motion close-up of the head disappearing amid some kind of ketchup explosion. It was shortly after that that Nick Mason, the game's lead character, took possession of his T-Zero riot shield, which protects him from practically all frontal assaults when he holds it up and can be used to beat criminals down as needed. The only drawback of the shield as far as we can tell is that you won't be able to use any weapons while you're behind it, but that seems like a pretty small price to pay.

Shield in hand, Mason's next assignment was to escort a fireman on a rescue mission through the police station. But before doing that the Eidos representative took the opportunity to show us how the T-Zero-issued Taser (which is intended for non-lethal arrests) can be used to "barbecue" criminals simply by squeezing its trigger a little longer than necessary. You won't necessarily want to make a habit of doing that, though, because arresting a certain number of gang members on each level rather than killing them is one of the ways that you'll unlock bonus content.

Inside the police station, the Eidos representative had to be on the lookout for other gang members and for the realistic-looking fires that appeared to be consuming many of the corridors. En route to the station's cell block, which was Mason's goal at this point, he was also tasked with protecting a paramedic who was attending to a patient from Molotov-cocktail-throwing gang members, and with apprehending a gang leader using non-lethal means.

The level reached its climax when Mason was confronted by a gang member who had taken a policeman hostage, and who was threatening to kill him if anybody got too close. What followed was a boss battle of sorts, in which Mason had to hide behind his shield and keep a safe distance until an opportunity to shoot the bad guy without harming the hostage arose. At the end of the level, Mason was awarded medals for meeting five different objectives, which included making five non-lethal arrests, scoring five headshots, getting through the level without having to restart at a checkpoint, locating five hidden gang masks, and for arresting the gang's leader. On this occasion, arresting the gang's leader was the achievement that unlocked one of the six "emergency situation" bonus missions, which will be scattered evenly throughout the 12 regular missions.

Emergency situations will be played against tight time limits and, if the one that we saw is any indication, will give you an opportunity to unlock previously unavailable weaponry by proving its effectiveness in the field. The mission on this occasion was to rescue a city official who had been captured by members of the Burners gang in a downtown area. With only three and a half minutes to complete the entire mission, the action was fast and furious, but our Eidos representative still found the time to show off a little by shooting Molotov cocktails out of gang members' hands and, on one occasion, by making two headshots only fractions of a second apart.

When the three and a half minutes of new content were over, so was our presentation. We came away pretty impressed with what we saw, but somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to see some more new levels or at least get to play through the first mission ourselves. Eidos will surely give us an opportunity to play Urban Chaos: Riot Response in the near future, though, so stay tuned.