Urban Reign
When I heard Namco was releasing one entitled Urban Reign, I just knew I had to cancel my boycott and give it a whirl. I mean, the company responsible for Tekken and Soul Calibur has to know what fans of the genre want to sink their fists into, or at least you would think so. The game takes all kinds of ideas and mashes them together in a package that soars when it connects, but crashes hard when it doesn’t.
You play as Brad, a tough as nails professional who really enjoys beating the crap out of urban gangstahs. He was hired by a token, hot and busty Asian chick from Chinatown named Shun Ying Lee to beat down the Zaps, a gang that’s giving her a hard time. It seems that a member of their group has been kidnapped and Lee has been blamed, so naturally that’s grounds for a fight. Hey, nobody ever claimed that the story was rocket science, and do you really need an intricate tale in order to smash someone’s skull into a brick wall? No, I didn’t think so.
Gameplay:
Before I really get into talking about the gameplay, I need to preface things by saying that Urban Reign angered me to such a degree that I repeatedly had to turn my Playstation 2 off, drop the controller, and walk away. This game has, without a doubt, some of the most unbalanced AI that I have ever had the misfortune of coming in contact with. I’m usually very adept when it comes to fighting/brawling games, but as soon as I got a few fights into the game, I found that my opponent was using me to mop the floor, the walls, and any nearby dumpster. It was almost as if it were preordained that I would perish within seconds and that my button presses would do absolutely nothing to save me.
You see, the game employs a nifty juggle system, which is great when you can pull one off, but just wait and see if you are still singing praises after it’s used on you. There are many times when you will be facing an opponent, get hit, then by the time you actually land on the ground more than half of your life is gone. This only gets even more infuriating when you square off against three or more opponents, who are all eager to use you as a punching bag. To say that the AI is broken would be a hideous understatement, since the game goes from being a complete cake walk to a blood pressure raising disaster. This is easily Urban Reign’s biggest flaw, and one that certainly feels like it could have been ironed out with a little more time in development. Unfortunately, release dates have to be met, so that means is only suited for those of you who have completed an anger management course.
For having a limited amount of buttons that are used for combat, Urban Reign does offer up a wide variety of attacks. The game intelligently uses the control set up and the action is extremely fluid once it gets going. With so many enemies on screen most of the time, the game does a fairly decent job of auto-targeting, though to be fair it isn’t the best. You can manually lock on to an opponent, but I found that to be a pain, and there were several times that I was trying to hit one guy to finish off a combo only to have the game decide to make me attack another guy instead.
Sometimes you’ll fight one enemy, who is usually REALLY tough, but at other times you’ll take on a group of thugs. The missions aren’t set up like a typical brawler though. From a map of the city you are given choice objectives to complete so there is a little pause between the action. This method of fight selection really breaks the game up and it feels a little disjointed. It basically feels like, “Ok, you beat them. Now go fight these guys, then once you do that fight this group over here.”
There are some nice bits tossed in throughout the game’s 100 missions, you’ll learn new maneuvers that will help in doling out the pain. These moves are really cool looking, very easy to do, and once you pull them off the game will definitely treat you with a big “WOW” factor. Unfortunately, for you and Brad, you never really learn any more defensive tricks, and this is where your frustration will begin to take flight. The main problem with Urban Reign is that you can’t block, jump or roll out of the way. Instead, when you press the square button you’ll do a little dodge if you time it right and may be able to deflect an attack, again if you time it correctly. I found myself pounding the button as if I were playing some cracked out version of whack-a-mole, but still found myself getting bludgeoned to death.
On the flip side though, you do have the ability to increase various stats, so build up your toughness as often as possible. This part reminded me of some of the RPG portions from The Bouncer, since you can apply points to various attacks and regional areas for extra defense. All of the statistic modifying in the world won’t save you once the CPU starts a mean juggle, but at least it helps a tad. Your best defense is to hit and run, which can be difficult once you get surrounded by four or five guys.
As far as brawlers go, Urban Reign is a very stylish yet flawed example of the genre. The game features some extremely scattered AI quality and a distinct lack of “real” defense. Things are a little more pleasing when you have some buddies over for a fight, but considering you can’t play the game with co-op, it’s pretty disappointing. The game does do many things right, but the frustration of getting constantly juggled and gang-raped makes it get old very quickly.
Graphics:
A recurring problem with most brawlers is that enemies tend to blend together and look the same. Urban Reign addresses this issue with some minor details like clothing, colors, etc., but at the end of the day stereotypes rule the graphics and there isn’t a lot of material to take interest with. The animations, however, are very slick and fluid with a lot of sick looking moves and painful attacks. The graphics can get a little choppy at times, but the framerate never dips so low that things become sluggish.
The environments are varied enough, but fighting in the same bar, alley, and street corner can get a little old at times. There are some nice effects that are used, such as reflections, lighting, and shadow, but they aren’t all that advanced or interesting. In the end, Urban Reign looks above average, but does little to draw you in or be creative.
Audio:
With crunching bones, breaking glass, and shattering tables, Urban Reign sounds like you’d expect a game like this to. The effects make up for the humdrum soundtrack and mediocre voice acting, though not by much. The game uses music as kind of a backdrop to the action, but the real focus here is on the fist or boot meeting the face. Overall, it’s a decent audio presentation, but nothing to write home about when it comes right down to it.
Conclusion:
Going into Urban Reign, I was very excited for several reasons. Its heritage from the guys behind Tekken and Soul Calibur, the slick presentation of fluid gameplay, and it had all of the makings of a classic beat ‘em up. Problems become apparent very quickly though, thanks to spotty AI, ridiculously difficult (and unfair) fights, and borderline no way to defend yourself. The game will infuriate casual gamers, but hardcore brawler fans will definitely want to give this one a rental. Rent It