"Urban Chaos throws you into the heart of a modern urban jungle at the turn of the millennium. To succeed you'll need a lethal combination of stealth, physical agility and martial art skills as you interact with the city around you.
Complete freedom to explore every area is granted and this freedom extends to gameplay - the future is in your hands as you are drawn into an underlying plot featuring a mysterious cult, who are intent on evil at this unpredictable and potentially menacing millennium period."

This is a direct quote from the back of my Playstation copy of Urban Chaos I bought many years ago. It's missing its cover and the game itself no longer works like it once did, but I can't bring myself to throw it away. Published in 1999, and produced by Mucky Foot, the game seems almost laughable with its boast of being 'dubbed as the Tomb Raider of the Millennium'. It is now 2015 and the name Lara Croft is still as relevant as it ever was, with Officer D'arci Stern and Roper McIntyre going the way of the Dreamcast. Hardly remembered, and no one ever really played it anyway. Actually, this game was released for Dreamcast... All that being said, this was one of my favourite games for the Playstation. A GTA style action adventure but with its own distinct style. However, you play on the side of Law and Order which, honestly, was far more satisfying but more on that later when we discuss gameplay, story and all that other yummy stuff we gamers like to talk about. I should point out that I have basically only played three levels in this game, I can never get past the cultists.

Gameplay: We'll start here, why not, Gameplay is fun. There are nine training excercises to complete, Physical Training, Combat and Driving, before you gain a chance at some real policework. Urban chaos is difficult to begin with, the motions are laggy, the movements are slow and you can only see twenty feet in front of you which makes driving difficult as you have a very small window to avoid a head on collision. The fact that the camera is focused squarely straight ahead also makes jumping over obstacles and turning difficult as the movement is often quicker than you anticipate. That being said, the movements are satisfying and varied, with jumping, climbing, sliding and zip-lining being some of the best aspects of this game. The world seems to be in a state of eternal darkness brought on by antique computer technology, simply put, the open world levels were too big for the processing speed at that time. This means that enemies and civilians can suddenly appear, knowing where you are without any clear indication.

The game is impressive when it comes to content, there are cars, a mix of weapons and interesting criminals. The criminals range from your usual thug types, to maniacs who run around the park eating pidgins, as an officer it's your job to bring down these bad guys with as little force as possible, which is not always possible, at the end of each level there's a chart of how well you done, and just as each mission starts with a briefing more often than not you're chewed out by your captain for any flaws in your approach during your debriefing. Once a bad guy is on the ground you can arrest and handcuff him, but don't wait around for someone to pick him up, leaving them on the floor is apparently good enough and they'll spawn away after a short period of time away from them. The initial levels are my favourite, they are less serious and contain the wackier moments, you can be mislead and attacked in an alleyway, chase down the mad pidgin eater, talk a suicidal man named Barnaby off a ledge and even take down a few mouth citizens if you like. As either character you have a stamina gauge, radar and weapon slot, so you're well prepared, the fight scenes can be difficult, especially in gun battles due to the blocky movements (think original Tomb Raider movements) and the constant threat of the unknown. For me, the game became unplayable after I met the cultists who not only have advanced weaponry that shoots lightning but also explode after death, which makes dealing with them in the game's small rooftops quite difficult. The game lets you arrest, harm or kill whoever you like, so it's pretty open ended, just don't expect to keep on policing if you turn into a true murderer. What I like most about this game, however, is the lack of swearing, it's rated 15 so it's not exactly PG.

Story: The game centers around the average day of a, I wanna say Brooklyn, cop just before the millennium, y'all 15 year olds and under might not know that at the time we were all pretty much wigging out over the end of the world because 2000 was seen as an important date for machine, religious and/or cosmic annihilation, you might be relieved to know none of that happened. Urban Chaos takes a different approach and inserts a cult into the already dark, bloody urban streets. As Stern, and the other one I didn't play, you get to uncover a conspiracy in which the cult is attempting to end the world. As well as this case you get to tackle the every day problems of a policewoman, or man. I wish I could go into more detail but the story unfolds in action and a few speeches rather than cut-scenes or... actually my copy may just have skipped cut-scenes altogether due to the scratches on the disk... lets just say that the mini-stories are compelling and the need to stop the cult is just... weird and ill-fitting. What starts of as a realistic venture into the gritty streets becomes something more x-files than GTA. Have you ever played True Crime and wondered why they called it that when there's Zombies and magicians in the game? Well it's the same with Urban Chaos as well, that aspect just does not fit.

Hey, I just found out my cut-scenes are working, hold up a min while I get the introduction sequence up again. Uhuh, so storywise, it looks like a tough female cop and her hobo-looking partner are out and about defeating the random thugs that infest the city, the intro scene does immediately pick up on the mythic nature of the two main heroes but as part of an ancient prophecy. Then, just as all seems fine, some men in black suits, looking like Mr 47, crawl out from the sewers and shoot at everyone with advanced minigun handguns, then disappear in a timed explosion. Leaving everyone baffled. The game then goes straight into training and makes no mention of what just happened in the cut-scene, which again, is a bit confusing. Even when you start the main missions this whole scene isn't made mention of, which suggests that the introduction was a scene from much later on in the game. I'm just not sure...

Graphics: The graphics, even at the time, were - hold on a sec I'm just gonna pop the disc in and have a reminder on those graphics - ooo I do have cut scenes - Anyway, yes, for the time the graphics are pretty decent, if you don't mind the constant blur whenever the camera moves in a cut-scene. The human characters are quite realistic and the action scenes are impressive and well animated. As for the actual game graphics, they're ok, if you don't mind stick figures and jagged edges. We're so spoiled these days I almost wanted to take points away from this game due to the unnatural stances and lack of ambient movements such as breathing, or unnecessary animations which make modern games so realistic. They stand like dolls, and talk like dolls, some officers don't even have mouths, it's off putting, but not something to complain about because the actual movement animations are seamless and well controlled, even if a bit over dramatic, the punches and kicks in particular are well animated.

Sound: This is one area where the game is brilliant, except in cut-scenes, the cut-scenes in this game have very poor sound quality and you can't quite hear what people are saying. However, in the game there's a use of house music which adds to the 'chaos' inherent in this game, causing excitement and building on the 2000 death to us all hysteria with a mix of techno, house and pixel punk. In terms of natural sounds, like punching and kicking, the noises aren't too different from early Tekken games, but at least they're not overly cartoonish. The cars sounds are a little off, and don't make you feel like they are coming from the vehicle, but the sounds of the guns, chain fences, zip-line and other environmental aspects are very realistic for a game of this age. Thugs make the appropriate, if annoying sound, of being punched and groaning, and this can get tiresome after someone groans the same way in a fight that can last a very long time. The music, however, is very good, lets not forget how good that music is, it's the main reason I put sound so high.

Depth: I'm writing this as I play through the first mission, which is about a mugging crew and a crashed car. You can speak to the 'Ladies of the Night' in the police office and leave the room to the outside without a loading bar, where there's cars to drive, cops to talk to and random citizens. One citizen I spoke to said, "Hi Officer, Bye Officer!" and ran, my first arrest, he was a drug peddler. Walked down an alleyway and immediately get a new mission, a murder, and a man to chase down. You can search downed people to evidence. One fella had health and a gun. Pick ups are the main source of gaining better skills. You can climb some buildings. Start fights with anyone. 3D platforming aspects. A new mugger was ID'd and I have to chase him down, saved a civilian, he thanked me. Driving around now. Arrested a minor offender for urinating against a tree and parking his van in a public park. I've just met one of Stern's father's drunk, old friends. Deeks. Neat, now I have an informant. I take back what I said earlier about this game not having much swearing either, yeah, it's got a lot. Zip-lined down the tallest building. Walked into some fire and died instantly... had to restart. But I did find a new place by the police station which led to a rooftop secret area, which I got to zip-line to, another area with a health pick-up. This is just the first mission and I haven't even finished it yet, so you get the idea, each mission is different and varied with lots of minor arrests and interesting characters, such as the pidgin eater and suicidal Barnaby. Eventually it becomes more difficult and quite focused but doesn't lose sight of these small, fun, side-quests.

Addictiveness: I would rate the addictiveness quite high, this is a fun game with many pleasing aspects to it, and doesn't take itself too seriously. There's not much stress involved, beyond the actual gameplay itself, and there's a light, playful attitude taken by most of the citizens and characters you meet. The varied missions, side-quests and pick-ups are another interesting way of getting you to explore and hone your skills, the graphics aren't too off-putting and the villains offer some witty comments, as to the various on-lookers and sociopaths. You might find yourself playing the same level over and over again, trying to get the best possible score. You are a rookie cop, after all, do your best to impress the brass.

Difficulty: I put the difficulty to a high level because of two aspects, the advanced weaponry of the 'men in suits' and the platformer aspect. Really this game shouldn't be too difficult but the odd camera angle, and quick movements, so that you might find yourself falling off of buildings constantly. The advanced weaponry of the 'men in suits' can rip your health to shreds in a matter of seconds, making getting close to them hard. The driving can also be difficult with so little of what's ahead shown, meaning it is easy to crash, the controls are also quick, making it easy to over steer. 

So for a quick wrap up, the game is great quality for its age, it offers a lot of different things to do, lots of events to be a part of, and a several missions which offer a challenge to those who love to collect, arrest and beat up offenders. The sci-fi aspect allows for something which is perhaps more interesting to those who aren't a fan of the nitty, gritty of police work, but that aspect of arresting perps and shooting down the badguys, and dealing with the weirdos, is also there for those who love that side too. The gameplay is similar to early Tomb Raiders, the music is entertaining and exciting, the action is pretty engaging as well, and even though you're likely to fail time and time again, the shortness of missions, and the variety will keep you entertained over and over again. Is there room for improvement? Sure, but what game is perfect?