State of Emergency

State of Emergency for PlayStation 2 is a 2002 action brawler developed by VIS Entertainment and published by Rockstar Games. Set in a near-future United States where the Corporation has supplanted democratic rule, it drops the player into the disorder of Capital City after the Freedom resistance takes to the streets. Rather than presenting a conventional one-on-one fighting game, this PS2 release centers on navigating dense, hostile public spaces and surviving clashes among rebels, gangs, civilians, and corporate security forces.

Players choose from five Freedom-linked protagonists: Roy MacNeil, known as Mack; Anna Price, or Libra; Hector Soldado, or Spanky; hacker Ricky Thang, known as Phreak; and former football player Edward Raymonds, the Bull. Two characters are immediately available and the rest are unlocked through play. Their differing backgrounds frame the resistance story, while the immediate challenge is more physical: move through a crowded district, locate an objective, and improvise when a crowd, an enemy group, or a security patrol blocks the route.

Revolution Mode supplies the campaign structure. Its 175 missions are spread over four areas of the city, with new assignments opening as objectives are cleared. Missions include tracking down designated targets, recovering and returning items, rescuing and escorting allies, guarding people or locations, and demolishing selected Corporation property. A directional indicator helps lead the player between objectives and safe locations, but the streets remain volatile, so an assignment can turn from a direct fight into a hurried escape or a struggle to keep an ally alive.

Combat combines hand-to-hand attacks with weapons found around the environment. Firearms and heavier equipment can be picked up, but ordinary street objects also become part of the action: the game lets players grab and throw items such as benches, signs, bins, boxes, and other loose objects. The deliberately destructive setting extends to shops and street furniture, giving each confrontation a rough, improvised character. Crowds are central to the design as well; people scatter, fight, or react as violence erupts, making the city feel less like a sequence of empty arenas than a series of public flashpoints.

For a less structured alternative, Chaos Mode removes the campaign missions and focuses on building a score through combat, destruction, and short goals. Its variants include open-ended and timed sessions, along with Last Clone Standing challenges. Progress across Revolution and Chaos unlocks further content, including characters, areas, and modes. State of Emergency began on PlayStation 2 before later Xbox and Windows releases, and its large-scale urban-riot premise, mission-driven resistance campaign, and emphasis on makeshift weapons give this early-2000s Rockstar-published game a distinct place among PS2 action titles.