State of Emergency

A corporate-controlled city erupts into full-scale revolt, turning shopping districts, streets, and public spaces into chaotic battlefields packed with civilians, gangs, police, and armed security forces. State of Emergency is a loud, rough-edged arcade brawler built around the fantasy of surviving—and exploiting—an urban riot that has spun completely out of control. Its near-future setting is grim, but the action is deliberately over-the-top: crowds stampede through stores, alarms blare, and nearly anything nearby can become a weapon. Choosing from five fighters, including an ex-cop, a former gang member, a prisoner, a lawyer, and an orphan, gives the campaign a different face even as all roads lead into the same violent uprising.

Missions range from protecting civilians and eliminating marked targets to planting explosives or smashing key corporate property. Combat favors constant motion over careful duels, with the player punching, kicking, grappling, and scavenging weapons from the environment while enemies pour in from every direction. Pistols, machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, Molotovs, knives, and tear-gas weapons all appear, but improvised tools are often more entertaining: benches, cones, signs, bins, boxes, TVs, and other store merchandise can be lifted and hurled into the crowd. The main Revolution mode adds objectives and progression through the city’s unrest, while Chaos mode strips the structure back for score-chasing survival against an ever-growing mob.

What makes it memorable is the sheer density of its crowds. Rather than presenting a few opponents in a closed arena, it creates a messy public riot where combat, collateral damage, and panicked civilians constantly overlap. The controls and visuals show their early-2000s origins, and its repetitive missions can wear thin, but the destructive sandbox spirit remains distinctive. Players who enjoy the unpolished arcade aggression of classic beat ’em ups, or want a more anarchic counterpart to the crowd mayhem of Dynasty Warriors, find the most to enjoy here.