I\'ll start off with my impressions and you people can add, agree, disagree, or write up your own impressions as you see fit.
State of EmergencyWhen you start up SoE, you are given two different option modes called Chaos and Revolution. Both modes differ greatly from eachother, but the modes have their ups and downs.
First of all, in Revolution mode, you are given the option of two different characters, a tough hawaiian shirt wearing male lead, and a skirt wearing tough female lead. Both characters Have different attributes making them good or bad depending on what kind of player you are. The female is faster yet weaker and the male is stronger yet slower. All characters get the same sets of weapons regardless of their attributes.
After selecting your character, you are thrust into the first level of the game, the shopping mall. Here, a riot is already in progress and you start off by meeting up with a contact to prove your worthiness to the Freedom Fighter faction. Afterwards, several missions get layed out to you one after the other that are completed by following an arrow to a point and either collecting, killing, escorting, guarding, or destroying that particular area, item or person. 90% of the missions are divided up into these categories and it can get easily repetetive especially since the weapon placement is quite weak and unvaried in the beginning and tends to get quite boring.
However, in Chaos mode, the beauty of the game awaits. Here, players can run amok everywhere and anywhere dropping a piece of veritable Hell on the evil corporation. All the weapons in the game are placed here and boy are they a joy to use. The flamethrower, or what I call, the crowd calmer, is by far my favorite weapon. The rocket launcher and M-16 assault rifle is also a beautiful thing to behold. And nothing comes quite close to blowing your enemies heads off with a close up shotgun blast.
Gaining points in Chaos mode unlocks new areas and new characters allowing you to advance in the mode and choose the portion of the city you wish to fight in. This mode is times and has several other sub modes present in it, but the options are never lacking and a lot of the fun comes from just blowing the crap out of everything in site.
The few gripes that I have with the game are these:
- Poor Camera Control - It\'s too bad that such an exilerating game is ruined by something that by now, should have been mastered. How hard is it really to implement a full range of motion with the camera? A simple \'180\' turn move or a \'rear view\' mode would have done wonders with this game.
- Graphics - There is a hint of slowdown in some spots, but for the most part, it\'s quite brisk framerate wise. The problem with the graphics, for me at least, lies in the colorful cartoony style. I don\'t think that is particularly involving in a game depicting riots.
- Poor AI - Although the people react to your actions in real time, they mostly run around like headless chickens. All those rumors of police brutality and civilian beatings are purely false. For the most part, cops are about as oblivious to the riots as a tree. People get stuck on stairs and esclators and it\'s just frustrating wading through them to get there.
All in all, the game is quite refreshing. I\'m sure NOW will be up in arms over this one, but overall, it\'s a very entertaining game. The Revolution mode may become repetetive fast, but the Chaos mode will keep you hooked for hours on end. I know I\'m hooked on it. Pure mindless explosive. I love what I have played so far.
PS, sorry for the poor writing style, but it\'s 3.43AM and I need more SoE!