UrbanReign STORY:The story of Urban Reign follows the exploits 'brawler-for-hire' Brad Hawk, who is hired to find a kidnapped gang member by the scantily clad swordswoman Shun Ying Lee. Brad fights his way through the street gangs of Green Harbor, a fortified city in the U.S. As he does so to get some answers, the true machinations of the protagonists reveal themselves and things become more complicated. REVIEW: In early 1999, Capcom introduced PowerStone, a new take on the fighting game formula. Power Stoneintroduced 'free roaming' gameplay mechanics, interactive backgroundsand items, and fun multi-player gameplay. It appears it's Namco's turn tounleash their own take on the free roaming fighting game engine. After watching UrbanReign's hilariously awesome intro, you'll be able to tell that this isn'tjust 'any' random street brawling game you might've played before. With a tone very similarto Capcom's classic Final Fight, Urban Reign features a widevariety of fighters, ranging from random street thugs to flashy martial artists,to badass Triad members and Yakuza bosses.Some fighters seem thrown in just as 'fillers,' but quite a few ofthem show off some well-thought out and entertaining fighting styles (some based onauthentic martial arts, like Tekken). Speaking of Tekken, Urban Reign actually borrowsquite a few animations fromthe Tekken series (and Soul Calibur, when weapons come intoplay), which gives the game an instant edge over all others in the 'beat-em-up' genre. Fromthe extra 'omph' that attacks have when they connect to the waycharacters react when hit, the animation definitelyresembles Namco's hard-hitting franchises! Not to mention, there are a ton ofunique attacks that truly sting when they connect. And yes, 'ouch factor' goesa long way in a game like this.
Urban Reign doesn't just wow you withimpressive fighting animation and call it a day. The Story Mode offers anambitious amount of content,presenting you with 100 missions which can be played 1-player or cooperatively with a humanpartner! All in all, there are somewhere around 60 characters you'll run into(all of which you can unlock and use in multi-player). Urban Reign also packs an entertaining 2-to-4 playerfree-for-all VSmode, which of course distinguishes it as it's own 'fighting game' entity(in turn, giving it theright to be featured here on TFG). In this era of fighting games, Namco not only set the bar for 3D fighters, but for streetbrawlers / beat-em-ups as well (although you can't say there's much competitionout there nowadays). Back in the 80's & 90's, I loved arcade beat-em-upslike Bad Dudes, Double Dragon and Final Fight. As sort of asuccessor to those classics, Urban Reign is honestly one of the best 1-player 'beat-em-ups' I'veever played. Some players might not give Urban Reign the respect it deserves, andjust mash buttons like they do in some other 'fighting' action gamesout there. However, players that look deeper will find a surprisingly solid fighting system.There are a variety of different striking options, grapples, groundattacks/grapples, a dodge button to evade incoming attacks as well. Thecharacters themselves don't have the very deep movelists, but the abilityfor characters to freely move in the environment, pick up weapons, throw objects,co-operate with partners, and pull off moves on multiple opponents atonce makes up for the lack of complexity in some areas. Some of the fighting mechanics, include: dodges/counters, tech-rolling, double team attacks, insane combo possibilities, tons of throws and grapple/wrestling moves(which look ages better in this game than in most wrestling games) andof course, free roaming around a variety of environments. Furthermore, characters have the ability to 'runfast' while free roaming which enables special abilities like sweeping, running up walls, or evenrunning 'up' other characters. There are also unblockable movesthat make oddly you invulnerable while you attack. This is probably the biggest'quirk' of the gameplay, but in the long run, it's actually aneffective gameplay element and makes forsome pretty fun mind games. Thankfully, you can also 'lock on' to youropponents, whichis a key element in learning how to play properly.
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