State of Emergency is an original game that's fun to play and is also a technical masterpiece.
User Rating: 9 | State of Emergency PS2
Many people fail to see State of Emergency's high points. They look at State of Emergency and see it's simple pedestrian graphics and say, "Holy crap, my N64 had better graphics then that.", but they forget that there is a reason those graphics are simplistic. If they were complex then they would have needed to put many less people on screen and this would have drastically hurt the flow of the game and make it seem absurd. Now, with this being said, the actual levels are nicely done and for the most part realistic. Also, there are several buildings / shops in the game that if you throw an explosive into, collapse. This is done well and is quite visually pleasing. The audio part of the game is near perfect. The only downfall is that the character's voices don't really go with their bodies. Other than that, the explosion sound effects, riot noises, screams, and yellings of the Corporation are all done very well. Story wise, I love this game. Being an anarchist, I have a lot of resentment toward the government and this is just the game for me, save the people and kill the state. Gameplay wise, it's disappointing that there is no multiplayer. Multiplayer would have been a hug plus, and for some reason, they left it out. On top of that the controls aren't that great, but it more than makes up for that with several different modes of play. Besides the Revolution mode, the game plays very much like an arcade game. The Revolution mode is very hard, especially the end level, it'll leave you tearing your hair out. These days, you should find a copy of this game cheap, around ten to twenty dollars. Maybe I would have hesitated buying this game before, but now that it's so cheap there really isn't any reason one shouldn't buy. It's fun and cheap. What could be better?
