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Urban Reign Mini Review
Chris Leyton
29/01/2006
The creators of Tekken and Soul Calibur attempt to breathe new life in the brawler...
"From the creators of Tekken and Soul Calibur"; quite a testimony to the lineage of Urban Reign and one that instantly sets a certain level of expectation, unless of course you were unfortunate enough to play NAMCO's previous attempt at a side-story with the disastrous release of Death by Degrees.
Fortunately Urban Reign is better then Nina Williams' attempt to branch off on her own, however those hoping for a resurgence of the brawler/side-scrolling beat-em-up will once again crawl away disappointed, as the genre continues to suffer from issues such as repetition, shallowness and an overall lack of satisfaction.
Following the self-proclaimed "tough guy for hire", players take control of Brad Hawk as he embarks through 100 missions of carnage, destruction and violence. Unsurprisingly the plot is about as thick as a Jean Claude Van-Damme flick, presenting the occasional cut-scene and textual mission briefing to provide some resemblance of a story from what amounts to a series of monotonous fights.
Thankfully the simple but visually effective combat system makes up for such inadequacies, though it's unlikely that even the most hardened of brawler fans will stay to the finish. Things start off at brisk pace and one of the game's strengths is hiding a fair number of techniques under the simple control setup, with the emphasis placed on countering attacks and using multiple opponents against each other in team attacks. Within no time at all Brad is running up walls, performing brutal grapples and lunging from one opponent to the other in a manner that someone of his size and shape should be proud of. "Extreme" is definitely the theme that runs throughout the game, whether it's the animated nature of the combat with scope for an almost never-ending juggle or characters bouncing from walls in an entirely unconvincing fashion. Even the small enclosed environments that the fights take place are there to dramatise the action, with all manner of objects getting destroyed in the process. The combat is also extremely fluid thanks in no small part to the 60 fps that NAMCO have managed to achieve, but also because of the overall simplicity of the action.
Progress through the 100 stages on offer is a largely routine affair, although players are often presented with a choice of which order to complete them. Regardless the progress through the game quickly begins to grow monotonous, which isn't helped by the inability to warm to the central character or motivated by the underlying story - it's literally a case of fight after fight after fight, a crescendo of button bashing. In a desperate attempt to provide the merest hint of variety each mission consists of varying objectives, though these rarely dare to tax the player beyond one-on-one bouts, group fights, targeting specific characters or imposing a timelimit on the proceedings. After a successful bout players can upgrade Brad's abilities in a number of areas with points, although bizarrely these don't appear to be linked to the performance in the previous battle, along with extra moves being unlocked along the way.
Arguably the biggest enticement, for NAMCO fans at least, comes from the appearance of Tekken's Marshall Law and Paul Phoenix. Putting the King of Iron Fist tournament to one side in order to help Brad and his unrelenting pursuit for violence, you can't help but feel it's a desperate attempt to gain some interest in an original title with mediocre appeal.
Although 100 missions' sounds like a substantial amount most of them are over within a couple of minutes, so those with a good sense of perseverance will be able to whip through the story mode in a little over 6 hours. If you're one of the few people to actually own a PS2 Multi-Tap then Urban Reign offers a rudimentary four-player battle mode, but given the lack of sophistication fighting fans would be better off with one of NAMCO's slightly more serious offerings.
Urban Reign is all about instant gratification to the point of being quite enjoyable for the first hour and then quickly growing stale once the sheer repetition has sunk in. Those looking for a no-nonsense beat-em-up could find some enjoyment with the fluid combat system and frantic nature of the game, however Urban Reign makes very little attempt to bring the genre back to life - everybody else should check out Rockstar Games superior adaptation of The Warriors.
Kai
Date Added:Fri 2nd Feb 2007 16:25