Urban Chaos: Riot Response

The name Urban Chaos sure brings back fond memories. Mucky Foot’s free roaming action game (long before Grand Theft Auto ruled the genre) kicked some serious ass, but due to lackluster sales was deemed a commercial failure. It just so happens, Eidos were the publishers of that game too, so when I heard they were bringing back a game called Urban Chaos: Riot Response (UC:RR), I was ecstatic. Unfortunately, Riot Response is no sequel (spiritual or other) to the game, but it still manages to breathe some fresh air into the over-used FPS genre.

In Riot Response, players will step into the boots of Nick Mason, a T-Zero operative, who’s returned to his hometown to find it overrun by the Burners, a gang of psychos who appeared from nowhere to destroy the city. Your goal in the game is to bring order to the streets and clean up all the filth by using any means necessary. Brutally entertaining violence and loads of riot shield bashing ensue…

Unlike Urban Chaos (1999), Riot Response is a first person shooter and thanks to some extremely user-friendly controls, plays like one perfectly. You’ll start off with a pistol and a riot shield initially, but later on you’ll get to wield some impressive firepower like the sawed-off shotgun, pump action shotgun, dual Uzis and melee weapons like a stun-gun (which is the only way to arrest some one without killing them), machetes, chainsaws and more. The weapons in this game may not be as detailed as those of Black, but they pack a mean punch (and by mean I mean bloody and chunky). A well timed headshot from the shotgun will result in a beautiful (slow mo) explosion of blood and brain-matter as a result of which you may find yourself sticking to that gun through most of the game (I know I did).