Urban Reign

Ever had days where you feel the urge to beat up random strangers? A slightly less painful and immoral way to let out some of that inner rage has arrived in the form of Urban Reign. You play as Brad Hawk, a suspiciously red-eyed, freelance brawler (read: thug) for hire who is snatched up by the alluring Shun Ying Lee, leader of the Chinatown gang. Seems trouble is a-brewing in the form of an all-out gang war that’s been started by some mysterious out of towners. With Shun Ying Lee batting her eyelashes you soon find yourself laying the smack down on the ridiculously large number of rival gangs, under the watchful eye of your new lady friend.

Playing through the story mode, you’ll have to fight your way through 100 short but intense brawls before you can unlock the challenge and free play modes. The fights fall into a few simple categories. Take everyone down, take one member of the group down, protect your partner while taking one or more of the group down, or a random few where you’ll be directed to take a character down focusing only on beating up a particular area of their body.

A good fight engine makes most of your rumbles smooth and easy to enjoy (that is, if you’re the one who’s winning). Your attacks are made up of basic strikes, grapples, and - for the really showy - special attacks that are usually unblockable. As you progress through the levels, you’ll learn new skills that will help even the increasingly stacked odds, and earn points to spend upgrading everything from your strikes and special moves to your general toughness. Giving and taking hits will push your special ability meter up so you can dish out some well deserved pain. The fight locations do change, and you’ll be able to use your environment to your advantage, but for the most part it doesn’t make the slightest difference if you’re getting your ass kicked in a stylish dojo or a slimy underground basement. The second half of the story mode also introduces the use of weapons. Everything from a studded baseball bat to broken bottles and wrenches can be used by both you and your opponent in a fight to try and gain the upper hand.

The beginning of the game is littered with cutscenes to try and develop the story, but these disappear almost entirely as the game goes on. At first you’re given plausible-sounding reasons for each fight, but after a while, the idea is probably not to question the logic behind beating up gang members just to show them you’re not to be messed with. The graphics are stylish enough, both in-game and for the cutscenes, but aren’t a major point of interest. The sound is slightly more notable, with some solid crunches, clashes and other decent sound effects. The music is exactly what you would expect from an “urban brawler” game – gritty, thumping and loud. Quite simply, the game’s about unleashing some good-looking combos and maybe making up an interesting victory dance for each round you win.

One of the most frustrating aspects of the story mode isn’t that fact that the levels are so unvaried, but that you’ll often fight the same bosses again and again before they finally concede defeat. While this too is admittedly boring, the main problem is that these are bosses that you’re fighting repeatedly. Urban Reign uses an almost ridiculous difficulty setting to try and bulk up and draw out the gameplay. In reality, it only serves to frustrate you beyond belief. At anything other than the ‘Very Easy’ or ‘Easy’ difficulty setting, you’re likely to last no more than a fifth of the game before your opponents become near unbeatable. One mistake ends up costing you the fight as your opponent mercilessly beats you into a pulp - often not even letting you fall to the ground between kicks. Grapples and regular strikes become useless, and most of your special moves last all of half a second before you find yourself on the receiving end of an apparently even more special special move.

With a handful of unlocked characters to play with, the multiplayer mode is excellent for filling up half an hour with friends. Knockout matches, timed games and free for all rumbles are a few of many fights you can indulge in. It’s certainly more satisfying to knock out a character with your friend on the couch next to you cursing wildly.

Urban Reign is an average fighting game on the whole, but is exponentially better when played in shorter bursts. On their own, the fights are challenging and satisfying and only become wearisome when you’ve been playing for a while. If you’re a beat-‘em-up fan, or just have a free weekend, this game would be ideal to rent out for a couple of days. Keep in mind – the only people laughing at you turning the difficulty down will be the ones who haven’t given it a go yet. I mean, who ever said you had to fight fair?

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