![]() You do this in an expansive story mode, encapsulating a good 100 missions (read: fights). Your mission? Clear Shun Ying's name by, it appears, beating the living expletive out of the Zaps and pretty much every other gang roaming around downtown. Shun Ying Lee, the sultry Chinese woman who the Zaps suspect to be behind the kidnapping, hires you instead. Someone's kidnapped KG, a member of the Zaps (one of the local gangs) who frankly has the words "pummel me, I'm a walking target" written all over his face. Urban Reign puts you in the shoes of Brad Hawk, tough-as-nails street brawler and Matrix-wannabe who may or may not have a heart of gold. Part wrestling game, part old-school beat-'em-up, part Tekken meets Boyz n the Hood, Urban Reign is a textbook example of a game trying to be too many things at once and ending up as very little of anything at all. On the other hand, it also tries to be "hip" and "edgy," causing the whole effort to fall relatively flat on its face. My point is: Urban Reign, for better or worse, hearkens back to the days of games passed, days where "Winners Don't Do Drugs" was emblazoned proudly on the attract mode of every game in the arcade. Games like Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, and 80 other games all inevitably made by Rockstar personify improper behavior, endorsing violence and drugs instead of, for example, fighting drugs by punching them in the face with a rocket launcher. Nowadays, the focus seems to have shifted more towards pure violence, sex, and shock value, leaving behind the subtle, sometimes confusing or cheesy nuances of games like NARC (the old arcade game, not the recent PS2 mess) and Streets of Rage for games that, instead of fighting the bad guy, allow the player to become the bad guy. Additionally, the characters from Tekken, Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law, are unlockable characters.Long ago, the big offenders in video games were drugs and gangs, especially in the early '90s, when anti-drug awareness was at its peak. ![]() Initially, it is not possible for two players to play through the single player missions together (unless unlocked with a cheat code at the title screen), but once unlocked, the game includes game modes for multiplayer action, including four-player brawls with a PlayStation 2 multi-tap and extra controllers. The meter is expended when a move is pulled off, and increases when characters take damage, successfully dodge attacks, or strike their opponents with attacks. Characters have a "special arts meter" that must be at a certain level for a move to be attempted. Special arts cannot be countered, reversed or dodged except by another special move, and they can be buffered. Finally, "special arts" can be pulled off with a press of two buttons. ![]() Even when cornered by multiple enemies, it is possible to dodge all oncoming normal attacks. Also, if the player presses up or down on the keypad while pressing dodge at the correct time, his character will reverse an attack, if possible. Neutralizing attacks by opponents is done with a single button press that must be timed to the moment of the attack. Then the player has the choice of an air grapple, special move, simply continuing the combo or running away to pick up a weapon or reposition. Although characters have optimal combo strings, most combos start with three presses of the attack button, the third of which will juggle an opponent. There are low and high grapples, air grapples, counters and recounters each with its own animations for each character. The characters can move in the environment, pick up weapons, throw objects, give instructions to AI partners, and pull off moves on multiple opponents. Gameplay Urban Reign features both single player and multiplayer action with both multiple AI opponents and human controlled characters on the same screen fighting at the same time.
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