Urban Reign for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

It seems to me that Urban Reign is the action game that Namco had hoped Death by Degrees would have been had it been given a little more time in the cooking pot. And though it doesn't share the same analog-based combat techniques that Nina's 2004 adventure did, it does try and emulate traditional fighting game mechanics over the course of its 100 different stages. The only problem is that the game itself never really lives up to the promise that its development team has the talent for, and when your closest competition is the extremely disappointing Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance, unfulfilled potential seems even worse.

Now to be fair, Urban Reign is most certainly a better game than Beat Down is (even if its characters and artistic style are hard to tell apart). Produced as a joint effort by the Tekken and Soulcalibur creative teams, Urban Reign starts promisingly enough, as it follows the user-controlled muscle-for-hire Brad Hawk --- a man who has been called upon to aid Chinatown kingpin Shun Ying Lee in her effort to bring peace and control to a city in the grips of a violent gang war. Sure it may not be the most original story in the book, but at least the setup is decent and in the beginning, it looks like it could get fairly interesting.

Unfortunately, the story never really picks up after the first couple of cutscenes and its "twists and turns" are nothing of the sort. By the time you reach the final boss and figure out who was behind the city's siege, the climax is not only wholly unrewarding, but it's also unsurprising (and after playing through 100 supposedly story-driven missions, that's a real downer).

To its credit, Urban Reign does have a strong and intuitive combat engine -- it's far more complex and satisfying than most other recent titles in the beat 'em up genre, and allows you to do all sorts of cool things. With it, you can really see the development team's Tekken and Soulcalibur influences as the responsive move set borrows a lot from those games in terms of animation, technique, and juggle physics.

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of juggles, Urban Reign has a lot of them --though depending on where you are and whom you're fighting against, they can be your greatest asset or your worst enemy. When battling it out against a particularly aggressive boss who loves to pot shot you at every turn, for instance, juggles are a great way to keep him off you. But when you yourself are in the midst of three or four guys hell-bent on taking your head off with their steel pipes, getting juggled over and over again takes the fun out of it and adds some legitimate frustration.

On that note, I really enjoy Urban Reign's difficulty (Even on easy, which still produces some nice boss challenges). I've always been a big fan of games that test your reflexes and your skills, and having to figure out the best way to survive an insistent stage lieutenant is somewhat of a lost art in videogames these days. Where Urban Reign goes wrong, however, is that there's no steady ramp up to the killer bosses you'll find yourself competing. Of the 100 available levels, 90 of them aren't really difficult and should take no more than one or two minutes to beat before going on to the next one. Yet suddenly, out of nowhere, you'll eventually come face to face with a relentless man-beast that loves nothing more than to juggle your ass to the continue screen over and over again. It would have been a lot more fun had it been balanced correctly.

In short, Urban Reign really could have made use of better tuning to its AI. For the most part, enemies come in two types: punching bags and maniacs, and there is no in-between. Because of these two distinct kinds of enemies, your extensive moves list feels sort of wasted. On the one hand, you can easily down a wimpy opponent by repeating the same multi-hit combo six or seven times. On the other, your combos don't work anywhere near as well on the bosses, and you'll have to resort to a few one-two money moves to slowly chip away at your target. Of course, there can be some exceptions to those scenarios... but don't expect them very often.

The crazy thing is, Urban Reign still has some solid moments of entertainment in it. In the early and mid levels of the game when there are a lot of weaker enemies onscreen, it's safe to freely try your list of attacks with little risk -- allowing you to really show the depth of the combat engine. Team attacks, grapples, weapon strikes, special moves, and the ability to manually switch to an AI partner are all nice touches. Extra modes available after you beat the game and four-player competitive fighting were great additions too, and the hidden Tekken characters should give fans something to shoot for. Sadly, it still doesn't change the fact that the solo campaign is made repetitive and unbalanced because of its AI.

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