Around the time the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox launched, the games that seemed to serve as the optics test for visuals and performance was the detail in sports games. Action titles were not too far behind, and some examples were pushing the very new hardware in its early days. The engine in Volition's Red Faction, for instance, tinkered with physics and destructible environments. Then there's State of Emergency's "let's see how many active character models we can get on the screen at once before we overclock?".

Published by Rockstar Games (who was beginning to really heat up), State Of Emergency was developed by the now-defunct team that gave us Earthworm Jim 3D British developer VIS Entertainment. This really fit the mold of the renegade edgy mentality of the early 2000's, and it's remarkable how well the synopsis of this game has aged here twenty years later:

In 2023, an economic collapse cripples the United States, leading to a para-military known as the American Trade Organization swooping in and overtaking the weakened government, and establishing a corporate police state. So the game foretold Amazon? *rimshot*. So...yeah, to say the social commentary in State of Emergency initially being incredibly tongue-in-cheek to being so on the nose two decades later really speaks volumes about how far we've fallen as a species.

The gameplay is pretty chaotic, State of Emergency is your prototypical brawler, I believe the first effort since the original Fighting Force on PlayStation 1. You take control of one of several avatar player characters they don't have distinct traits gameplay-wise, just some mild backstories for substance. The fighting kinda feels similar to the hand-to-hand combat in Grand Theft Auto 3, but with a little more polish and tighter responsiveness.

Still sucks that there's no dedicated lock-on button, so the flying fists are just going whereever the hell you're facing, same applies to the long-range weapons like RPGs you pick up. It's a time-tested genre, yet can still run the risk of getting a little repetitive once you've run back and forth between similar locations within Capital City. The carnage and mayhem has its thrills, as short-lived as they may be.

The graphics and performance of the game is its most triumphant feature, having seemingly hundreds of character models running around at once with no slowdown. Most PS2 versions of third party games generally lag behind the Xbox counterparts, but this one runs fairly well.

The bright-colored textures and exaggerated character models compliment the chaotic atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek violence and carnage. Admittedly, it's a little tough to revisit this period and not witnessing the bright spaghetti-splosions without laughing. Close-ups highlight the weakness of the mangled character models. The various locations also are merely set pieces, not really changing much in how State of Emergency is approached.

State of Emergency does have multiplayer and that might preserve some entertainment. There's nothing inherently bad the game does, there just isn't enough meat on its bones once you've blown up enough rioters. The missions and tasks feel the same, seldom varying from running from checkpoint to checkpoint, and the herky-jerky combat suffices in a very short-term means. It's got a decent amount of unlockables for the time, I'll give it that.

From a technical aspect, State of Emergency may be one of the stones that get painted over on the road to get games where they are today when it comes to performance and detail, but it's there nonetheless. As a video game on your spankin' new sixth gen consoles, amusing, but bare bones.