Urban Reign
Yes, that's right folks. The critics get it wrong again. Urban Reign for the PS2 is an excellent game that has gotten poor reviews.
First, I'll start by addressing the critics' main complaints. They say the story is poor. They say it's hard to deal with being beat up on by 3 guys at once. They say there isn't much variation in the single player missions. They're right about all these things. It would be nice if these weren't problems with the game, but they don't detract from what I consider the focus of it: fighting. I didn't buy this game for its story; I wanted to fight. It IS hard to deal with being hit by multiple guys, but it's not impossible.
What makes this game good is that it is a brawling game with complexity. Yes, you can just mash circle and throw a load of punches and do okay in the first few single player levels on Normal difficulty. But to be good at the game, you have to learn how to block and reverse moves. Yes, this is also reasonably simple: press square at the right time. The thing is, "the right time" depends on the attack they do. Simple punches have a wide time of opportunity to press square and dodge them. But some grabs also require a direction input matching the one that generated the grab. Getting punched while in the air, stunned or from behind requires more careful timing. But it is almost always possible to hit square at a certain point and avoid an attack.
There are neat tricks that can be done; for example, a guy was on the ground, and I kicked him into the air. My pal caught the guy, and prepared to execute a wrestling move. But the guy hit square and got out of it. Then I hit him with a sledgehammer. These kinds of moments a just loads of fun. Are we progressing through a story? No. Are we improving our characters? No. But we are having a great time playing.
The 2v2 fights work very well, due to some subtle game design. When playing against the computer, I can imagine taking out one of the opponents, then double teaming the last guy, and feeling it's a bit easy at this point, and not having much fun. But if the computer takes out one of you, they will mercilessly (on Hard at least) press the advantage and beat the holy living crap out of you. One will floor you, the other will get on top of you, punch you in the face repeatedly, while the other kicks you. The AI can be absolutely vicious. So, when you have to opportunity to reciprocate, you will do it with relish.
Because a lone fighter has difficulty beating a team of two, teamwork is of the utmost importance. In one fight, I was KOed, and we had taken off most of each opponent 's health, while my partner had over 1/2 his health left. In numerical terms, we were winning. But the advantage they had through teamwork meant they wrecked my partner. So it's important to spread the damage you take to make sure you have access to teamwork as long as possible.
Teamwork is encouraged in several ways. You can't hurt your friend. If you throw a weapon at your friend, he automatically catches it. If someone has grabbed your friend, you can grab them or hit them to stop it. If you are both close to an opponent, and one of you hits triangle, you can execute a double team grab move thing. Further, you can't be hit by anything during this super move.
The different characters feel very different from each other, and the different weapons feel different in different fighter's hands. Yes, there are repeats, like Characters A, X, and G will all wield the Sledgehammer in the same way, but there are enough differences to be interesting.
There are enough variations of the multiplayer and challenge fights to keep me interested for a long time. Ben, the main person I play this with, has played over 30 hours of it with me already, and we still love it. Namco has again proven that they know how to make fighting games.
If you want a good fighting game, get this.
Recommended. 4 1/2 stars out of 5.
First, I'll start by addressing the critics' main complaints. They say the story is poor. They say it's hard to deal with being beat up on by 3 guys at once. They say there isn't much variation in the single player missions. They're right about all these things. It would be nice if these weren't problems with the game, but they don't detract from what I consider the focus of it: fighting. I didn't buy this game for its story; I wanted to fight. It IS hard to deal with being hit by multiple guys, but it's not impossible.
What makes this game good is that it is a brawling game with complexity. Yes, you can just mash circle and throw a load of punches and do okay in the first few single player levels on Normal difficulty. But to be good at the game, you have to learn how to block and reverse moves. Yes, this is also reasonably simple: press square at the right time. The thing is, "the right time" depends on the attack they do. Simple punches have a wide time of opportunity to press square and dodge them. But some grabs also require a direction input matching the one that generated the grab. Getting punched while in the air, stunned or from behind requires more careful timing. But it is almost always possible to hit square at a certain point and avoid an attack.
There are neat tricks that can be done; for example, a guy was on the ground, and I kicked him into the air. My pal caught the guy, and prepared to execute a wrestling move. But the guy hit square and got out of it. Then I hit him with a sledgehammer. These kinds of moments a just loads of fun. Are we progressing through a story? No. Are we improving our characters? No. But we are having a great time playing.
The 2v2 fights work very well, due to some subtle game design. When playing against the computer, I can imagine taking out one of the opponents, then double teaming the last guy, and feeling it's a bit easy at this point, and not having much fun. But if the computer takes out one of you, they will mercilessly (on Hard at least) press the advantage and beat the holy living crap out of you. One will floor you, the other will get on top of you, punch you in the face repeatedly, while the other kicks you. The AI can be absolutely vicious. So, when you have to opportunity to reciprocate, you will do it with relish.
Because a lone fighter has difficulty beating a team of two, teamwork is of the utmost importance. In one fight, I was KOed, and we had taken off most of each opponent 's health, while my partner had over 1/2 his health left. In numerical terms, we were winning. But the advantage they had through teamwork meant they wrecked my partner. So it's important to spread the damage you take to make sure you have access to teamwork as long as possible.
Teamwork is encouraged in several ways. You can't hurt your friend. If you throw a weapon at your friend, he automatically catches it. If someone has grabbed your friend, you can grab them or hit them to stop it. If you are both close to an opponent, and one of you hits triangle, you can execute a double team grab move thing. Further, you can't be hit by anything during this super move.
The different characters feel very different from each other, and the different weapons feel different in different fighter's hands. Yes, there are repeats, like Characters A, X, and G will all wield the Sledgehammer in the same way, but there are enough differences to be interesting.
There are enough variations of the multiplayer and challenge fights to keep me interested for a long time. Ben, the main person I play this with, has played over 30 hours of it with me already, and we still love it. Namco has again proven that they know how to make fighting games.
If you want a good fighting game, get this.
Recommended. 4 1/2 stars out of 5.
posted by Almo at 5:52 PM
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