Urban Chaos | "DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!"

(Thanks, BrittneyGilbert!)

So, I’m working on a long post about the demise of movie theaters in the area where I live because it just blows my mind to bits that something like fifteen to twenty or more cinemas around here are gone for what seems to be good and it’s a total joke that no one seems to care or mind. Granted, those people who don’t give a crap are a big part of the reason why theaters are vanishing from this part of NYC, but tell them that and they tend to get a bit more obnoxious than they would if you told them to shut off their damned cell phone BEFORE they even bought their tickets. Anyway, mini-rant over (although it’s not really a rant at all)… Back in a bit.

I recall having to review the PC version of Urban Chaos way back when it was initially released and being really surprised at how much fun the game was. At first glance, new players will note that US is highly reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto III in that you get a (mostly) open world to play around with, hand to hand combat, driving and lots of shooting action. However, the game was released two years before Rockstar’s magnum opus and despite positive reviews and being ported to two consoles soon afterward (to mixed results), the game never really got all the recognition it deserved. Developer Mucky Foot (primarily made up of members from Bullfrog Productions) cooked up an intriguing mix of action, driving and mission based gameplay that started as a straightforward cop saga and turned into a wild post-apocalyptic mash-up that’s weird and a bit creepy (well, it was at the time for me). In a way, the game was/is also a bookend to Core Design’s 2001 action/puzzle/sci-fi/horror hybrid Project Eden, another game that started out as one thing and ended up somewhere dark and bizarre.

Continue reading →