Urban Reign (PlayStation 2)

CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
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Overall score: 6.6 (3.0 stars)
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Product summary

Gamespot editors' review

• Reviewed by: Bob Colayco
• Reviewed on: 09/15/2005
• Updated on:05/17/2006
• Released on: 09/13/2005

Once a staple of the arcade and home console scene, the beat-'em-up genre isn't what it used to be. Though series like Dynasty Warriors have been popular lately, urban-style beat-'em-ups haven't evolved much. Urban Reign attempts to address the void, offering a solid fighting engine and solid visuals to go along with an impressive 100-mission story mode. Unfortunately the game grows stale rather quickly and is hampered by a ridiculous difficulty level and repetitive gameplay.

Brad Hawk, are you a bad-enough dude?

The game starts off pretty easy. You play as Brad Hawk, a freelance brawler who has just been hired by the fetching Shun Ying Lee, leader of the Chinatown triad. A gang war has broken out between Shun Ying's crew and other rival factions, so you'll spend your time in Urban Reign's story mode laying the smack down on various gangbangers. The first few missions of the game go by pretty quickly as you are introduced to different aspects of the game's fighting system. With each mission, you'll earn skill points that you can use to upgrade your various abilities--such as striking, grappling, toughness, and more--so you can fine-tune your character depending on your personal style. But as you go along, you'll find that the game's story mode gets old quickly. There's no real exploration involved. You simply get dumped into various fighting arenas--such as a bar, a motel parking lot, or a junkyard--and are tasked with beating up one or more of the enemies you find there. About the only variation you get is whether you're asked to beat up just one really hard opponent or four or five not-so-tough ones. There's no city to walk around or explore, and you'll find yourself quickly beating down the same enemies over and over again in the same arenas as you make your way through the levels.

Thankfully, the fighting engine in the game is pretty good. Your two basic attacks are strikes and grapples. Tapping on the strike button will unleash a combo, while you can use the grapple button to throw or simply restrain your opponent for a moment as you beat on him or her. You can modify your strikes and grapples to focus on one of three areas of an enemy--the head, upper body, or lower region. If you continually do damage to one area, the enemy will take bonus damage and can be disposed of more quickly (you'll see each enemy's stamina bar as you target them). You also have the ability to run and do lunging attacks, run up walls and vault off them, or pick up weapons. Enemies on the ground can be pounced on and punched in the face or simply kicked while they're down. There are also special arts attacks that you can use to hit multiple enemies or to break out of combos and dizziness. These special arts moves cost you bars from your special arts gauge, which you must build up by hitting your opponents or taking damage.

The fighting animation in Urban Reign is well done and pretty enjoyable to watch.

The game gains some real depth by allowing you to dodge strikes and reverse out of grapples. If your opponents are trying to hit you, you can simply tap the dodge button to gracefully sidestep their attacks. Dodge a few in a row, and your character will automatically grab the opponents and push them aside, giving you a brief advantage in initiative. If you get caught in a grapple, you can try to quickly guess which sort of grapple (head, upper, or lower body) it is and reverse out of it to counterattack. Once you figure out how to do it, dodging and reversing out of enemy attacks is very rewarding. The result of all these options is that as you learn to play, the fights appear more varied and more exciting. There are a lot of different animations for the various attacks, so once you get used to everything, the fights can be pretty pleasing to watch, like a choreographed martial arts movie.

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store	price	in stock?	rating
	$18.99	Yes
Amazon.com Marketplace	$10.70	Yes

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Where to buy Urban Reign (PlayStation 2)

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• Amazon.com Marketplace $10.70 Yes
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