Urban Chaos (Windows)

What is it about the millennium that attracts crazy people? At least now that the proclaimers of global meltdown have calmed down and most people seem to be confident their toasters will still function on January 1, the public is able to concentrate on the real point of New Year's Eve - drinking as much as is humanly possible. But Eidos has decided there is still some mileage in the 'millennial angst' concept - hence Urban Chaos.

Urban Chaos is a refreshing new direction for third person action games. The ex-Bullfrog boys at developer Mucky Foot have seen fit to make the heroine of their first outing a realistically proportioned, loud-mouthed Afro-Caribbean. D'arci Stern is cast as a front line cop with the Union City Police Department, in late 1999. But, as issuing parking tickets, arresting drunks and beating up homeless people could get boring, the plot is spiced up with the antics of Union City's very own gang of millennial nutjobs - the Wildcats.

Mucky Foot has been developing this game simultaneously on PC and PlayStation - and it shows. The simple and intuitive control system is the first sign; a handful of buttons are all that is needed to send D'arcy spinning around the levels. Next, the tightly focused, level and objective based mission structure gives more clues. Finally, and perhaps annoyingly for certain PC gamers, the absence of a mid-mission save facility makes it obvious.

It is the latest of a rash of games aiming to combine the graphical style and controls of Tomb Raider with more satisfying combat and novel features. Messiah has possession, Soul Reaver has gothic style and Shadow Man was just plain unpleasant. Urban Chaos's gimmick is the sense of personality the designers have given the city. As D'arcy runs about, the leaves, cans and discarded litter strewn over the streets fly up in her wake. Little interactions with characters are triggered from time to time. These generally have nothing to do with the plot, their purpose simply to create atmosphere, or raise a smile. And the voice acting deserves a mention; it is excellent and varied, much better than the usual B-movie tat we have come to expect from today's games.

Steam gets in your eyes

Graphically, Urban Chaos is sumptuous and there is no chance the Playstation version will be able to touch it. The engine uses some novel techniques to create the post-apocalyptic, decayed feel of Union City - light-sourcing, proper reflections and shadows, and superb volumetric fog techniques make it demanding on PC's. Even with the resolution turned down to 800x600, I was experiencing some major slowdown whenever the camera flew through one of the - admittedly beautiful - clouds of steam rising from the drain. This was easily ignored, though, and certainly didn't detract from the overall fast and flowing feel of the game.

Combat scenes in Urban Chaos are frequent. The control method changes subtly when D'arcy approaches an enemy, making the game feel much more like a traditional beat 'em up than a PC title. Combo moves can be built up with the kick and punch buttons and finding a knife or baseball bat will increase her attack power. Firefights with the Wildcats occur often and are easy to direct - the enemy will usually come in greater numbers, though, meaning speed is just as important as accuracy. You get pistols, shotguns and M16 machine guns to deal with the gang, and even explosives in the form of grenades and timed charges for mass destruction.

More explosions!

Mission objectives are enjoyably diverse. You will be called upon to blow up the Wildcat's stash of drugs, save suicide victims, clean up car wrecks and generally keep Union City as law-abiding as possible - achieved with a combination of exploration, combat and platform leaping. A few missions have tight time limits, but generally you are free to roam about the city as you wish. In hurdling about the rooftops chasing the bad guys, you will sometimes come across silver icons - picking these up gives D'arcy a permanent skills boost, although they don't really seem to affect the gameplay all that much.

It is possible, too, to steal one of the cars or vans that cruise the streets. From then on, everything goes a bit Driver - but Urban Chaos's driving sections are realised much better than Driver's. It is a shame, then, that the sections do not integrate into the mission structure as well as they could, and the city environments are small enough to make the speed of a vehicle unnecessary. I wish my town was this small.

Nice handling

Urban Chaos can be a lot of fun to play. There is enough variety to hold the interest, and the difficulty curve is spot on. Later on you will get the chance to play other characters, adding yet more lasting appeal. D'arcy can be thrown around the city very quickly - the controls respond fast and although they seem to have a mind of their own from time to time, it is obvious a lot of testing has gone into her 'handling'. Combat can be a little samey, although the gang members guarding important points usually have enough hardware to provide a challenge.

So it is a bit of a shame a few niggles prevent this game from achieving classic status. Sometimes the mission objectives can be very difficult to find - the radar points the general direction, but often the only way to get there is by taking a rooftop jumpfest. It can be irritating trying to find the right route with no guidance. But, all told, gamers looking for something a little different to the usual PC experience will find this a very rewarding title.

Review By GamesDomain