Urban Chaos manages to be an engaging FPS in the overpopulated genre by keeping the gameplay simple and straight forward
The gameplay is about as average as they come without being bad. Honestly, the game is way too linear for it's own good, the weapons are all weapons we've seen before, and the scripted events are too obvious. But the game manages to create some amazingly intense battles in each and every orifice of each level that it's forgivable. Besides the regular machine guns and pistols, you also are equipped with a riot shield to protect you from enemy fire. This is a very useful tool because without it, you'd be mince meat in no time, especially on the harder difficulty settings. But the main draw of the riot shield isn't protection, it's the way you can use it to bash your foes skulls in. If you can manage to get close enough to your enemy, you can unleash a devastating melee attack with your shield which will usually take them down in one, sometimes two hits and it's satisfying every time. Besides this one difference in gameplay, the game plays like every other first person shooter out there. But what will draw the player to this game is the copious amounts of violence. I've seen violent games before, but Urban Chaos takes first person shooters to the next level. The gore is over the top and sometimes darkly funny, but it works perfectly. Believe me, every single time you shoot someone's head clean off with the magnum and tons of blood comes pouring out of their bloody stump, you'll be laughing maniacally. With that said, the game is just too unbalanced, repetitive, and obvious. Although the magnum will kill someone in one hit, other guns tend to take a whole clip. The scripted events are always during a hostage situation, where you'll shoot the bad guy and he'll fall back on an electrical fence, hook, grinder, etc., and it's just way too obvious and it takes away all the fun of surprising random events.
If you are one of those people that just can't get enough out of this game, then there's plenty to unlock. During each level, there is usually only a few mission objectives that you must pull off to successfully end the mission. But there are also extra objectives that unlock medals and extra levels by doing them. They are always the same: arrest the gang leader, get a certain number of head shots, get a certain number of arrests, find incriminating evidence, and things like that. Since they are all the same, it does tend to get repetitive and I doubt most people will bother with it. If you do try to unlock everything, it will take a lot of time and effort. There are over 200 medals in the game that you unlock across all difficulty settings. The unlockables usually upgrade your already existing arsenal, like increasing the strength of your guns or making your riot shield lighter to carry and since it's possible to get through the game without them, it's not necessary to bother with the extra features, but some will love accomplishing everything.
The graphics are usually colorful and cartoony and it works great. Since the game is so over the top and it obviously isn't meant to be taken seriously, the less than par graphics aren't really bothersome as in most games. Most of the areas do look exactly the same though. They are all drab and boring to look at. But almost every single second in this game you will be in an intense firefight, so I doubt you'll be paying much attention to the sacrificed details. The fire manages to look rather good through all of the bland designs, probably because it's the main offense for the enemies so you'll see it a lot. The developers most likely decided to make it look better because of that, but regardless the fire looks great. Also, this game manages to avoid the "recycled enemies" problem. Don't get me wrong, they still all look the same, but by having them be a gang and having them all wear identical masks, it works. They are supposed to look the same and it was a great idea to design the enemies the way they did.
The sound is pretty lame all across the board. The guns don't sound nearly as powerful as they should, the voice acting is pretty bad, and the various one liners you'll hear from the gang are laughable and repeated far too often. The explosions sound rather good and the nice little touches they threw in like the slight coughs the characters have in a burning building help add a little to the game. Overall though, the sound seemed to take a back seat to the rest of the game.
A lot of first person shooters these days seem to focus around one gimmick to promote their game and it usually doesn't work (I'm looking at you Black), but this game focuses on the core combat and intensity of the gunfights which makes for one of the most entertaining (albeit unoriginal) first person shooters I've played in a while. This isn't a game that will go down in history as a great game, probably not even a good game solely because of it's lack of exposure to the gaming population. But for the ones fortunate enough to play this game, they'll know it's one of the best games that nobody played. Although the game is short (it clocks in at around 4 or 5 hours in one playthrough), it's undeniable charm and over the top gore make it a blast to play. Though unremarkable, too linear, too cliché, and too short, Urban Chaos: Riot Response is an enjoyable game that packs in a whole lot of bark with it's vicious bite.