The Game Cover.
State of Emergency is a beat 'em up video game developed by VIS Entertainment and published by Rockstar Games for Playstation 2 and Xbox, and by Global Star Software for Microsoft Windows.Plot: "In 2023, the United States government was weakened by an economic crisis. In response, the American Trade Organization, most commonly known as "The Corporation", builds a para-militaristic force and overthrows the government, taking over the United States of America and establishing a corporatised totalitarian police state. Years later, in 2035, an underground resistance named "Freedom" began a campaign of resistance and soon sparked a national riot. The Corporation declares a state of emergency. The game takes place in Capital City. The player joins Freedom in an attempt to overthrow The Corporation; they must play as one of a selection of five characters, who each have their own unique backgrounds."
State of Emergency games contain examples of the following tropes:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: Like most games released in the early 2000s, this one is no exception to this trope.
- Anarchy Is Chaos: This is what happens in the game's events.
- Anti Idling: One thing you don't want to do when playing is stand still, especially later, when there are several armed gangs and agents chasing you after the damage you did.
- Beat 'em Up: It's one of those.
- Boss Battle: All bosses in the game are almost rare, and can appear at any random time, regardless of what the player does.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: The most common boss in the game is a fat cop with a club who has much higher HP than common enemies, and can survive several shots, burns and two RPG shots.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: There are two of this type, which are very common in revolution mode, you will have to kill them before they reach a certain location.
- Cheat Code: There is, at least in the PS2 version, such as the cheat changing the character's size or having infinite ammunition.
- Criminals: That's what's in abundance in this game's universe. All levels are full of different types of criminals who run in gangs, and who seem to be completely cool with the chaos around them.
- Crowd Panic: EVERYWHERE you are in this game, you will be in a huge crowd of desperate people running around wildly.
- Essence Drop: Generally, your victims will give you HP and more time counting when killed.
- Going Through the Motions: It's noticeable, especially on NPCs. The playable characters however, have different animations and attack movements.
- Non-Player Companion: At a certain point, the player will have a minion armed with a machine gun, who will help assassinate hordes of enemies.
- Offstage Villainy: The police, military and Mega-Corp are all said to be oppressing the populace, but never shown doing anything particularly heinous to ordinary folks. The only aggression we see from them is their efforts to stop you from murdering panicked citizens or blowing up restaurants and storefronts which, thanks to the rather slapdash backstory, are suggested to be, like, really evil restaurants and storefronts, or something.
- Pre-Rendered Graphics: Unlike Grand Theft Auto 3, which was previously released, this game has promotional arts with the main characters in CGI (see Spanky in the game's cover) and the opening FMV cutscene.
- Secret Character: Spanky, Bull and Freak can be released as playable characters after completing the levels in revolution mode.
- Stout Strength: One of the playable characters, Spanky, is fat and short, but has a lot of muscle and strength.
