Protecting the Innocent

Urban Chaos: Riot Response doesn't just put you in the boots of a good guy, it encourages you to do the right thing, and rewards you with perks the bad guys don't get, like supportive allies that you can rely on to get you through your missions. Have firemen break down barriers and put fires out. Paramedics can restore you to full health and take care of injured civilians. The local police officers will cover your back and save your life on a regular basis.

The goal? Keep yourself and your allies alive. This often means taking out a gaggle of gang members with nasty weapons and worse attitudes. Each mission you undertake gets you closer to escaping th escalating riot horror, and you're going to have to show some trust to make it out in one piece.

A fireman rescues a wounded civilian.

Trust Your Allies
The use of allies in this game adds to dramatically to the draw of the storyline. Each character has an identity and a personality. Almost immediately, you start thinking of these people as individuals, rather than as tools for you to use.

Instead of using unrealistic checkpoints or floating symbols to give you health boosts and weapons upgrades, Rocksteady, the developers of Urban Chaos, have built these elements into the storyline, often using support characters to deliver them to you.

For example, Paramedic Jane Delaney, a courageous and no-nonsense young woman, stands by to deliver first aid to you. A police officer leads you to the room where you acquire your riot shield, and you get new weapons from downed gang members. Even the missions are designed to teach you how to use your skills, earn medals and maximize your efficiency. A news anchor from Channel 7 gives you televised reports on events in the city, providing information on the situation you're about to tackle. All in all, the realism in Urban Chaos makes the game captivating and smooth.

You're the hero of this story, and as such, you're
expected to play by society's rules—mostly.

Kill When Necessary
You're a member of a police riot task force, specially trained to take on the nastiest of urban guerillas. You carry a badge. The game doesn't miss an opportunity to remind you what your responsibilities are, and what you owe to the public. You're the hero of this story, and as such, you're expected to play by society's rules—mostly. There's plenty of killing, don't worry. You'll have no choice but to shoot to kill in many instances.

You are, however, rewarded for those times when you make an arrest rather than killing. In some situations, you may fail if you take a life. For example, the police department wants all the gang leaders captured so they can be interrogated. You're under direct orders to arrest them, not to kill them. This makes gameplay more complicated and entertainning. It challenges you to get close to the gang leader in order to zap him into incapacitation with your stun gun.

Your riot shield stands between you and chaos.

Keep Your Shield Up
Early in the storyline, you receive a riot shield to carry with you. It adds a whole new dimension to the strategy of a first-person shooter. Your shield protects your front, but not your rear. It blocks almost anything that hits it. The more you use it, the more your visibility becomes hindered as it gets damaged and stained with blood. This makes it progressively less useful as more opponents come at you.

You can bash with your shield, performing a surprisingly effective close-up attack. You can only shoot, however, if you lower your shield first. One strategic way to use you shield is to rescue hostages the gang members have taken. Step into the open and draw their fire, taking it on your shield.  When he pauses to reload, he will be exposed. Drop the shield and take him out. There are a number of ways like this where your shield can provide you with a tactical advantage. The ability to get in close without taking damage provides choices between the usual stategies of rush and attack or snipe from a distance.

Urban Chaos heats up.

Take On Special Missions
Although the storyline in UC runs a specific, linear course, the game has surprising replayability. Aside from the main mission you undertake in each chapter, you also have a set of special objectives that earn you rewards such as unlocking extra missions and equipment upgrades. You won't often be able to meet the requirements for all the special objectives on the first try. You can, however, go back and replay a mission after you have learned new skills or earned new equipment.

Each time, you can tackle a different special objective or a combination of them. If you successfully complete the mission's special requirements, you'll earn a medal and the rewards that go with it. This makes for variety and longevity in the gameplay. You can develop strategies for achieving the objectives easily by taking them one at a time, or challenge yourself by attempting to do as many of them as possible in one run-through.

Rocksteady put a lot of thought into making this an entertaining, challenging and logical game. It shows in the gameplay, the storyline and the characters. The game draws you in and makes it difficult to walk away. You start to care what happens in this city. You want to put these sociopaths behind bars. Why? Because, like Nick Mason, your character, you're one of the good guys.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy