Imagine your favorite beat-em-up from the 16-bit era. You know, the ones where you fought off legions of gang members to get your girlfriend back. The ones where you smashed open telephone booths or trash cans, and were rewarded with an apple or roast beef that could restore your health. S.O.E. takes that game you envision, adds blood, guns, and throws it into 3-D. The end result is the best damned variation on the genre in a long time, and proof that Rockstar's success with GTA 3 was not a fluke.
The story's sole reason for existence is to give a half-assed reason as to why you are shooting blindly into crowds of 50-200 people with an M-16. (Or rocket launcher, or Molotov cocktails, etc…) In the near future, a giant corporation takes over the government, and controls all aspects of life. Individual freedom is a thing of the past. A group of rebels known as "Freedom" recruit you to help them in their struggle. You do this by rioting in a big, unruly mob, and smashing/killing stuff in the process.
The game has two main modes: Kaos and Revolution. Revolution is a story-based mode where you complete over 150 missions in your war against the corporation. The problem is that most of these missions are mindless, and easy enough to beat through the first time. Sure there is the occasional exception to the rule, but half the time you are essentially told something to the extent of "stop death squad 'A' from reaching target 'B'. Then return back to base." It's fun for a while, but by the time you reach China Town, the second level, you are ready for a break from the mission mode. While both games are published by Rockstar, you must remember that GTA 3 and State of Emergency were developed by different companies, and are therefore two completely different games. This certainly shows when you contrast GTA 3's well thought out missions to the somewhat repetitive ones contained within S.O.E.
The REAL fun is in Kaos mode. In Kaos mode, you fight against a Crazy-Taxi type clock in an effort to stay alive and score points. After you obtain so many points, you unlock the next area, where the point minimum increases. And *surprise* the only way to replenish time, life, or raise your score is by being violent and doing naughty things. Kill corporation forces or gang members with a pistol or AK-47, and you will get a few thousand points, as well as small boosts in your time and life meters. Kill them in hand-to-hand combat or with a non-projectile weapon, and you'll get even more points, and larger time/life boosts. Need to rack up some quick points? Complete objectives such as killing a corrupt executive, or lob an explosive into a window of a building for a cool 20,000 points.
Kaos mode seems mindless, but a few things add quite a bit of depth to the sprees of bloody violence. First, your character's life is replenished when you complete an objective or when you gain 100,000 points. When you take into account the fact that you are almost always being shot at, there is always that constant feeling of "I have to reach the next point bracket!" You may even find yourself planning your attacks around this strategy. If you only have a third of a life meter remaining and can choose between attacking that 15 man death squad with an M16 or blowing a couple of buildings first to up your health, you'll probably find that the latter is the smartest course of action. Another is the inclusion of special conditions that switch on and off randomly. You may get 3 times the points for destroying cars one minute, and be penalized for killing civilians the next. For a beat-em-up, State of Emergency is actually pretty deep.
It should be noted that while you never really gain anything from killing civilians in any of the game's modes, you aren't ever penalized all too heavily for it either, even when the "civilian penalty" modifier is active. Sure, the cops may come after you, but they are certainly easier to deal with than they were in GTA 3. In short, while there were considerable consequences in GTA 3, and any ultra-heavy rampages almost always ended with your death, there isn't really all that much incentive to keep from unloading into a crowd in S.O.E. This in itself makes the violence much worse than in Rockstar's other masterpiece, let alone the fact that you can behead people with a katana or hatchet, or use amputated body parts as weapons. Actually, the violence is really the only thing that is harsh about the game. There is hardly any coarse language, and no sexual innuendoes to be found. Still, most parents will find that the mayhem alone makes this game more than unacceptable for little Timmy.
Graphics, while not terribly detailed, are certainly not anything for the developers to be ashamed of. Especially when you take into consideration that the game frequently displays impressive explosions, as well as hundreds of people onscreen at a time with little to no slowdown.
The sound is a disappointment, especially coming off of the game that S.O.E. will most assuredly be unfairly compared to. Sound effects are very well done, but you are forced to listen to the same cheesy techno music track throughout each level. Voice certainly could have been used much better in S.O.E. than it was. There is a notable lack of speech in S.O.E., and that's a damn shame.
You play as one of five characters, two of which are available at the start of the game. The others must be unlocked as you play. Sadly, the only difference between them seems to be in their fighting animations. In fact, replay value seems to be the area that the game is a bit lacking in. Sure, there are a few extra modes. Each of the 4 levels has a timed Kaos level where you can set the level at 3 or 5 minutes. Hidden modes include a level where you must kill 200 unarmed clones in the fastest possible time, as well as a mode where you can kill, maim, and destroy for as long as your life holds out, without the shadow of a clock hanging over your bad self. However, much of the replay value that S.O.E. has can be accredited to the fact that in a perverse, sick, twisted way, unloading a loaded weapon into a crowd of people is extremely fun. Especially when the pesky death penalty/jail/human suffering thing can be avoided with a push of the reset button.
S.O.E. doesn't quite possess the replay value of GTA 3, nor does it quite reach the level of perverse fun that its carjacking, old lady mugging, cop-killing, woman-beating cousin did. But S.O.E. is a different type of game developed by a different company. It just so happens to be published by the same label that brought us GTA 3. At the same time, it proves that Rockstar is certainly no one hit wonder. To the Nintendos and Miyamotos of the world, and to the legions of stubborn individuals who refuse to acknowledge the end of the era when all gaming was strictly for the family, Rockstar Games has officially put you all on notice.
-George
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