State of Emergency
The first State of Emergency was released on PS2, PC and Xbox in Feb. 2002. It was developed by VIS Entertainment as a budget title and published by Rockstar. This was one of Rockstar's controversial "bad boy" titles like Grand Theft Auto; the breakthrough hit GTA III was released just a few months before SoE. Melee combat was decent, but with poor animations and no interpolation. It also had online multiplayer. SoE garnered a 71 on Metacritic, just two points lower than Oni's PC release. There was a less-successful sequel, State of Emergency 2.
At a glance
State of Emergency at a glance (More pics here).
| Official trailer | Teaser trailer | Hector Soldado AKA Spanky |
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| Roy McNeil AKA Mack | Eddie Raymonds AKA Bull | Ricky Trang AKA Phreak |
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| Anna Price AKA Libra... | ||
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| ...and some more of her... | ||
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Plot
The scene unfolds in the streets and buildings of Capital City, where the Corporation (same role as the World Coalition Government in Oni) maintains a martial, propaganda-driven order. You're part of the Freedom Movement and lead a muscled fight against the Corporation to bring freedom to the people. To spice things up, there are gangs all around the city which have their own interests, contributing to the chaos you generate, but not necessarily acting in your favor.
Gameplay
- Take GTA 3. Take away the cars. Add advanced hand-to-hand combat and environment interaction. Crowd the streets with hundreds of panicking people. Shake well.
- Or, take Oni. Replace the sissy TCTF troops with an almighty Syndicate. Make the environment much more complex and colorful and interactive. Crowd the streets with hundreds of panicking people. Shake well.
Characters
You can choose from 5 very different protagonists to take on your missions.
In-game footage
For those who can't access the official Flash site, or hate it for some reason.
| McNeil+Bazooka | Re:McNeil+Bazooka | Spanky+Melee | McNeil+Melee | McNeil+Flamer |
| McNeil+Bazooka | Libra | McNeil+Bench | Libra+M16 | Spanky+Mortar |
| McNeil+Bat | McNeil+Minigun | McNeil+Flamer | McNeil+Minigun | McNeil+Bazooka |
| Libra+SMG | Phreak+Grenade | Spanky+Melee | Libra+Melee | McNeil |
| McNeil+Minigun | Phreak+Melee | Bull+Melee | Spanky+Bench | Spanky+Minigun |
State of Emergency 2
The sequel was eventually released in Feb. 2006, but has a Metacritic score of 44. Apparently it was developed by the same team as the first game until they went bankrupt — at which point development was finished by DC Studios and the game was published by SouthPeak Interactive. It didn't seem to add anything new to the gameplay of the first title.
Online resources
- Official State of Emergency page (Flash 5 required)
- IGN review of SoE for PS2 (and screenshots)
- Screenshots of SoE 2