Anyone who even remotely enjoyed the original even a little bit will dispise this sequel.
Now it's been 4 years since the release of the original game and we now get the sequel, State of Emergency 2, which was NOT (I repeat) NOT developed by Rockstar. Sure the original wasn't that great, but Rockstar managed to put some quality into it that made it somewhat worth checking out.
Unfortunately, the sequel was developed by another developing company, and it shows. The game feels like it was made to appease the mainstream audience, to rip off naive casual gamers who will look at the box, think it looked interesting, try it out, than relize that they got rip off at trying out such a bad game. So dear reader, I ask you to look at my list of my reasons why you should avoid this game like the plague:
1. The controls are very flawed, more flawed than the original. The game tries to have a Max Payne inspired control set up, but they fall flat into mediocraty and they end up being boring and uninspired. The shooting elements fall somewhere along the line between boring and bland to frustrating and hard.
2. The graphics are unforgivably outdated. IT's 2006. This game came out in 2006. If it was 1999, I would think these graphics are amazing. Unfortunately, the graphics are a little bit glitchy and not good.
3. THe story sucks. The original game didn't win points for its story, but at least it didn't TRY to have a story. The main focus of the original was the gameplay. Here, the story is just dumb. It's been a few years after the original game and the Corporation has retaken over the US. The game now has a sad excuse for a story where you uh... Aw who cares? The Story is not even worth mentioning.
4. The characters are just complete stereotypes. Seriously, all the characters are just complete stereotypes that lack a real personality whatsoever. The renegade ex-cop; the black ex-football player; the obese mexican gang leader; the hot female lawyer; and the geeky hacker. There just wasn't enough effort at all that was put into the character development. Yeah the original game had the same problem, but at least it knew that and didn't even focus on developing the characters. This game trys to make you care, and it fails miserably.
5. There are even some lowsy stealth elements in this game that is not worth mentioning about other than... They are horribly put into the game as if they were an afterthought.
6. The enemy A.I. is just stupid. Not once do they act like they are fighting with you. IT's just laughable.
7. There are times where you can co op with a computer control buddy at certain parts of the game, but there is one small problem with this: If you run low on health, you can simply swith with the other buddy. The other guy won't even loose health when taken damage.
"But jerico6", you may be asking," Aren't there any redeeming qualities of this game?" When I thought about it, not really other than that you do get to control vehicles which control good, the sound effects are okay, and (best of all) I don't ever have to play this game ever again.
So dear reader, do yourself a favor and avoid this game. Save your money for a better game. Better yet, check out the original game instead. It is SO much better than this garbage.
Oh yeah, I would to point something that was completely ridiculous: When you are controlling a character, the character automatically points his gun out. This looks a lot more silly than it sounds. This is fine for shotguns and rifles, but it looks completely goofy with pistols and mini machine guns.