*Urban Chaos - Riot Response* ** ( Unit T - Zero ) **
- The title acts as a backdrop for gamers to kill a whole bunch of gang members, in a glorified way. Players will take on the role of Nick Mason, a member of the New York City anti-gang initiative known as T-Zero. A group designed to have “zero tolerance” on criminal activity; it is up to Nick to stop the high rate of gang activity currently circling the city.
- The Burners, your standard clan of baddies, have been attacking hot spots and taking hostages throughout the entire city. And they are called the ''Burners'' for a very good reason. you’ll have access to both traditional, and non-traditional weaponry during the fight against the Burners.
- Most of the “traditional” weapons have secondary fire functions, such as pistols, sawed off shotguns, and the specialized riot shotgun that can pack a mighty punch. There are some other unique weapons that can be picked up along the way also, such as meat cleavers, Molotov cocktails, and the taser for bringing in the bad guys alive.
- The riot shield. Picked up very early on in the game, this baby serves a wide set of purposes. It is the perfect line of defense against a shotgun blast from an up-close and personal Burner, to protecting Mason from a meat cleaver that was thrown from across the room. It is the perfect tool for advancing on a hostage situation as well, and can even be used on the offensive with a small melee attack. The game was designed with using this shield as protection, and it even upgrades later in the game.
- This little tool proves invaluable. The controls for Nick Mason are as surprisingly smooth as butter. They feel like a traditional shooter on the PS2, but character movements are well polished and don’t stutter at all. players will run into characters that will stick with them for short bursts of time. Most of these characters are made up of paramedics and firemen, and while it is your job to make sure that they don’t make the journey to the great beyond, commands can be issued to assist the process.
- Firemen can take down blocked passages or put out fires, and paramedics can heal players as well as other NPCs in the environment. There are some cool moments with these characters, as some pop-up at multiple disaster situations, reminiscing about past attacks that had happened in the game.
- Essentially, anything capable of blowing up probably will. This fits the style of the game, as do the occasional slow-motion moments. Often times shooting an enemy so they fall off of a building, results in said death being shown in a slow motion camera view. This is cool, but definitely earns this game an M rating, as does the adult language, buckets of blood that is spilled, and gory headshots.
- Objectives such as number of headshots, collecting evidence masks in a level, or bringing in gang leaders alive, all play into how many medals are earned. There were many things that we did like about the visual look of the game, however. Reload animations are amazing, and look incredibly cool. Certain types of explosions pack a visual punch and feature an interesting heat blur to boot.
- The unique approach the developers took to move the events of the story along. A real life news anchor was brought on to take over the role of Channel 7 reporter Lani York. Through her briefings, and real footage of riots, players can keep tabs on the actions the Burners are currently taking.