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In this game you are Nick Mason, elite T-Zero Riot Cop. The city you grew up in is being torn apart by a new gang called the Burners. They came from no where and kill anyone in their path. They even killed your father Jack, a local police officer, while you were off in the Marines. Now it’s time to extract your revenge and take back the city in the process.

Urban Chaos: Riot Response is your basic first person shooter but with a few important differences. The developers decided to throw an interesting twist to the game with the addition of a riot shield. In all reality the game is built around the riot shield because without it you’d be barbeque. It allows you to work your way around levels protecting yourself from gunfire and can even be used as a weapon (and a good one at that). The riot shield delivers a very satisfying skull crack to say the least.

Another interesting feature is the ability to control other members of emergency services. In this game you are often grouped with firemen, paramedics or other police officers in a team effort. You have to protect them, though, because if they die usually the game is over and you have to start from the beginning again (which can be very frustrating in the later levels, trust me).

The enemies in this game often feel a bit recycled because it feels like your killing the same guy over and over again. There are very few physical differences between each Burner gang member, maybe a few color changes here or there but outside of that nothing else. On the plus side however the gang members have what seems like an endless supply of nasty comments to throw your way in the middle of a gun fight. More than once I wanted to kill the gang members just to shut them up, and doing so makes the game that much more fun.

There is a plethora of wonderful weapons in this game to choose from, which is always a plus. You start off with a standard issue pistol but as your progress through the game more weapons are unlocked and become available to you including grenade launchers (these puppies pack a wallop!), machine guns and shotguns. In order to unlock special T-Zero weapons and upgrades you often have to capture gang leaders in the levels (rather than killing them) then complete a timed mission where you have to save someone from the Burners. If you complete the mission in the allotted time you unlock that weapon or upgrade.

There are other goals in the game that also unlock additional content. For example, in each level there are 5 Burner gang masks scattered around for you to find. If you find all five you earn a medal which unlocks the extra content. There are also medals for being a sharp shooter (shooting gang members in the head) and arrests made (using non-lethal force such as riot grenades and stun guns). Every time you accomplish one of these goals you unlock a medal and in the process you unlock extra content.

An interesting addition to this game is before each level starts you are greeted by Lani York, a newscaster, who updates you on recent happenings in the city. The entire presentation looks just like a real newscast and is very convincing. It’s a nice addition to the game and it helps fill in storyline holes, which brings me to my next point.

The storyline, while being decent, is defiantly not the focus of the game. The entire focus of the game is your war with the Burners. The storyline simply gives you an excuse (like you need one) to kill all these gang members. Sure, it’s nice having an excuse but they could have done a bit more work on the storyline to make it more interesting.

Graphically the game is nothing groundbreaking, it’s good enough to make the game play fun and interesting. When using the riot shield you do get a glare if you are in the right kind of light (wow, how realistic!) so that’s a nice touch. Outside of that I didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary in this game graphics wise.

Is Urban Chaos: Riot Response a good game? It sure is no doubt about it. Is it a groundbreaking game? No, not really. It’s simply a solid game with some nice additions to make it an interesting game to play. There is lots of playability in this game too; when I beat the storyline I had only unlocked 26 of over 200 medals. So replayability is not an issue. If you want a first person shooter that’s different go pick this one up, you won’t be disappointed.