Namco, the same developers who brought out the dreadful Death by Degrees have done it yet again, with the soon to be in the beat 'em up bargain bin - Urban Reign.
Green Harbour City has been overrun by gang wars and other "no-no" stuff.
How can this all be resolved? Well there is only one solution...
Call in bad boy brawler extraordinaire Brad Hawk - 190 pounds of man, wrapped in snakeskin and leather!
Ready to pound bad guys into next week, watch out Chuck Norris, this guy means business (yawn).
Hawk is hired by Shun Ying Lee, a fine looking Asian gang leader (who is almost bursting out of her little dress). Hawk`s mission is to clear the streets of these no good troublesome punks and make it safe for old ladies to cross the street again (well, something like that).
With such a weak plot I`d hoped the gameplay would make up for it. It doesn`t.
Forget about exploring the surroundings, as the player has to endue a cut scene a battle, a quick upgrade of certain stats, then back to a cut scene, a battle an upgrade, cut scene, battle - starting to see a pattern here?
Although the game has over 100 missions, the missions are over quickly. Graphics and enemies are recycled - way to go on saving costs and time, Namco.
General fight scenes are animated well, Hawk and his enemies have a decent amount of moves, combos and special attacks, but these are also reused and quickly become boring.
Game combat is based on grappling, dodging and striking; then dodging, striking and grappling; then some striking, grappling and dodging.
A nice touch is being able to pick up pipes, bottles, axes and swords to use against enemies. The best part is these weapons can be thrown at enemies, and if thrown by an enemy at Hawk, he can dodge it or deflect it. Well, when the dodge button actually works, that is.
The game fails to find a line between being too easy and ridiculously impossible. When the game begins, most AI stands around while Hawk beats up its partner, but as the game progressed, the AI becomes almost god-like, and Hawk narrowly escaped at almost fatal health, and sometimes met with death. Yay - I get to do that mission all over again, just to be killed by the same rampaging thugs, again. Fun.
There`s also the issue of when an enemy eventually does get a punch in - Hawk becomes dazed, which is enough time for every foe to jump in and kick the snake skin off our poor hero - there`s just no middle ground.
Boss fights are equally impossible, if not more so, as most bosses can regenerate lost energy.
Voice acting is lame, and it is as though the slang has been stolen from an 80s break-dancing movie. The sound track is okay, nothing that will be remembered, (much like the game as a whole).
The game is rated for teens, and it`s basically a watered down wannabe action, like most Van Dam movies. It would have been more realistic if there were more angry language and a bit more blood and gore, I mean it is a violent game - kind of.
Graphics aren`t too bad, and some of the visual effects are pretty, but when you`ve seen them once, you`ve seen them a thousand times.
This game is weak, weak, weak!
Anyone who actually plays it till the end to unlock the special guest stars from Tekken fame... I take my gaming cap off to you.
I hope my words of wisdom will save some gamers the R438 they could waste on this game.
I know this price will be dropping fast and soon the game will be given FREE with every purchase of a McDonald`s kiddie meal.
I give it a 3/10.
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