Near perfect mechanics hampered by questionable game design decisions
Analog aiming is vastly inferior to mouse aiming. When developers are creating primarily console shooters, they must make concessions in order for the experience to be satisfactory. These games typically have over-zealous auto-aim, bland cover systems, or ADS systems that snap to targets generously.
Urban Chaos: Riot Response rejects all of these constraints. Instead, Rocksteady created a system that takes the disadvantage of analog aiming and turns it into a unique strength. How did they do this? Through the riot shield.
Urban Chaos: Riot Response plays like a cover shooter, except your cover is anywhere you want it. The riot shield is your best friend. It blocks all damage in the front from gunfire, cleavers, and even nail bombs. While having your shield up, you can block all damage and simultaneously line up headshots with the upmost precision. This system slows the game down so that you can deliberately aim without spraying. In fact, spraying will get you killed quickly in Urban Chaos. Limiting shield downtime is important because you die so quickly. Release the shield, quickly dispatch a foe, and get the shield back up. Some rooms aren’t so simple. You won’t be able to face all your opponents with your shield at once. Rooms frequently have ambushes from the side, up high, or behind. Using cover is still important because it can cover multiple sides.
Urban Chaos’ medal system plays into this as well. In each mission, there’s medals for getting a certain amount of headshots, arrests, completing the level without dying, and finding masks. Collecting medals can upgrade the amount of ammo you start with and grant certain equipment. Through these medals, Urban Chaos rewards the best way to play. Without headshots, enemies tank damage and shoot back. Arrests are the best way to take care of foes up close or that have shields themselves. Rewarding the optimal way to play is paramount for arcade-style games such as this one.
Another reward is arresting gang leaders. Upon arrest, new bonus levels unlock. These challenging levels reward the player with a new default weapon. One of the extra weapons (the assault rifle) is far too powerful. It completely makes every other gun obsolete as it’s the best weapon for getting headshots. The bonus shotgun is useless in comparison. You CAN get headshots, but it’s nearly impossible. I believe it might stun shield gang members but I’m not sure. It basically has no use because getting the headshot medal is so important.
With all these praise you may be surprised to see I’ve only given Urban Chaos a 7/10. However, as good as the combat is there’s a major problem with Urban Chaos’ design philosophy. Missions are reliant on NPCs. Every level has these people constantly talking to you interrupting the flow. You always have to escort an NPC in some capacity. There’s always a boring objective where you have to save someone while there’s no enemies around. Extreme linearity runs rampant. All there is to Urban Chaos is escorting NPCs, dialogue, and then walking forward and shooting guys. I know what they were trying to go for. You’re a police officer saving people in the depths of collapsing buildings and gang violence. It doesn’t make for engaging level design though.
Other minor annoyances include backtracking to get healing from paramedics instead of med packs being balance around the map, “hostage situations” which might as well be a scripted cutscene, limited ammo never being a factor, and level based design instead of one continuous stream of environments as in Half-Life or F.E.A.R.
If my backlog wasn’t absolutely packed right now, I’d play Urban Chaos again and again. There’s so much replay value. The moment to moment combat is visceral, meticulous, and yet still has an arcade feel that I adore. The puzzling game design decisions deeply hamper the experience, but Urban Chaos is a rare console FPS that turns the weaknesses of analog aiming into a unique strength.
7/10
Analog aiming is vastly inferior to mouse aiming. When developers are creating primarily console shooters, they must make concessions in order for the experience to be satisfactory. These games typically have over-zealous auto-aim, bland cover systems, or ADS systems that snap to targets generously.
Urban Chaos: Riot Response rejects all of these constraints. Instead, Rocksteady created a system that takes the disadvantage of analog aiming and turns it into a unique strength. How did they do this? Through the riot shield.
Urban Chaos: Riot Response plays like a cover shooter, except your cover is anywhere you want it. The riot shield is your best friend. It blocks all damage in the front from gunfire, cleavers, and even nail bombs. While having your shield up, you can block all damage and simultaneously line up headshots with the upmost precision. This system slows the game down so that you can deliberately aim without spraying. In fact, spraying will get you killed quickly in Urban Chaos. Limiting shield downtime is important because you die so quickly. Release the shield, quickly dispatch a foe, and get the shield back up. Some rooms aren’t so simple. You won’t be able to face all your opponents with your shield at once. Rooms frequently have ambushes from the side, up high, or behind. Using cover is still important because it can cover multiple sides.
Urban Chaos’ medal system plays into this as well. In each mission, there’s medals for getting a certain amount of headshots, arrests, completing the level without dying, and finding masks. Collecting medals can upgrade the amount of ammo you start with and grant certain equipment. Through these medals, Urban Chaos rewards the best way to play. Without headshots, enemies tank damage and shoot back. Arrests are the best way to take care of foes up close or that have shields themselves. Rewarding the optimal way to play is paramount for arcade-style games such as this one.
Another reward is arresting gang leaders. Upon arrest, new bonus levels unlock. These challenging levels reward the player with a new default weapon. One of the extra weapons (the assault rifle) is far too powerful. It completely makes every other gun obsolete as it’s the best weapon for getting headshots. The bonus shotgun is useless in comparison. You CAN get headshots, but it’s nearly impossible. I believe it might stun shield gang members but I’m not sure. It basically has no use because getting the headshot medal is so important.
With all these praise you may be surprised to see I’ve only given Urban Chaos a 7/10. However, as good as the combat is there’s a major problem with Urban Chaos’ design philosophy. Missions are reliant on NPCs. Every level has these people constantly talking to you interrupting the flow. You always have to escort an NPC in some capacity. There’s always a boring objective where you have to save someone while there’s no enemies around. Extreme linearity runs rampant. All there is to Urban Chaos is escorting NPCs, dialogue, and then walking forward and shooting guys. I know what they were trying to go for. You’re a police officer saving people in the depths of collapsing buildings and gang violence. It doesn’t make for engaging level design though.
Other minor annoyances include backtracking to get healing from paramedics instead of med packs being balance around the map, “hostage situations” which might as well be a scripted cutscene, limited ammo never being a factor, and level based design instead of one continuous stream of environments as in Half-Life or F.E.A.R.
If my backlog wasn’t absolutely packed right now, I’d play Urban Chaos again and again. There’s so much replay value. The moment to moment combat is visceral, meticulous, and yet still has an arcade feel that I adore. The puzzling game design decisions deeply hamper the experience, but Urban Chaos is a rare console FPS that turns the weaknesses of analog aiming into a unique strength.
7/10