State of Emergency is the craziest and only riot game brought to you by Rockstar. State of Emergency (S.O.E. for short) is not, repeat is not anything like Grand Theft Auto 3. Now that that is out of the way S.O.E. is a frantic, crazy beat-em-up game. Does the game live up to the hype?

Gameplay: S.O.E. starts of with you either choosing Revolution mode (mission and story) or Chaos (free for all). Picking Revolution, you then decide one of the two characters to select and join the freedom group. You are then thrown into the mall level and the action begins. Throughout the game, you take on various missions that range from escorting important people to blowing up buildings (ranging from extremely easy to insane difficulty). During your missions, they will lend you various weapons like flamethrowers and rocket launchers to AK-47's. There are lots of variety in the weapons. Also signs and other things on the ground can be picked up (including body parts) and used, but when worse comes to worse use your fist. While creating all this mayhem, there are tons of people onscreen running about. You really feel like your apart of a huge crowd. An amazing feat indeed. As you get further into the game you unlock three other levels and other characters. Chaos mode on the other hand is just a free for all where you just beat up and destroy anything you want in a time limit, trying to beat the high score. This is the mode people will be coming back to after beating Revolution, because who doesn't love causing complete chaos?

Graphics: The graphics have a somewhat cartoony look to them but other then that, they look pretty good. They tend to look a little more blocky then most games nowadays but considering all that's going on in the game (mass of people running all around, explosions going off, and fights breaking out) everything still stays at a smooth and steady framerate.

Sound: The sounds effects are top notch. From the blows that your fist make to the sounds of guns shooting off. Everything sounds like it should. The music on the other hand is a mix of rock and techno and there is about four different songs that play over and over so after awhile they get old but you can turn it off thankfully.

Control: The action is fast in this game and if the controls weren't so easy it might make the game harder, but thankfully they're a piece of cake. With the ease of the controls, pulling off combos is a cinch and mowing people down with guns couldn't be easier.

Bad: First off there really isn't any story to be found anywhere in this game. It's pretty much do the missions and destroy the corporation. Now since this is a beat-em-up game, it's exceptible but for some it wont be. The music in this game is really repetitive and its nothing spectacular, either. Well and for some the game will just be too repetitive.

Overall: This game had alot of hype and for the kind of game it is the hype was worth it: the most unique beat-em-up in years. For people expecting a GTA3 (like some were), it will disappoint, but for the people who went in knowing what they were gonna get I'm sure most will be pleasantly surprised. I was. So go into it with a open mind and enjoy one of the craziest games ever to grace a console, period.

- - Justin Celani