August 3, 1999 Web posted at: 8:31 a.m. EDT (1231 GMT) by Bernard Dy

From...

INTERACTIVE:

(IDG) -- If you've grown tired of Tomb Raider's constant cave dwelling and animal bashing, but enjoyed the third-person perspective and style of gameplay, Urban Chaos might be just the dark twist you're looking for.

Like Lara Croft, D'arci Stern is a tough female character you guide through this mission-based game. D'arci even acts like Lara, running, jumping, and brandishing weapons.

The obvious differences between the two are found in the worlds where they work. D'arci isn't vacationing through jungles and the ruins of Asia: she's enforcing law in the hard streets of Union City, a dark, brooding place where crime runs like rats in a garbage dump.

After a bumpy journey through the police academy, D'arci must prove herself a worthy officer. Her temper and reputation get in the way, but she's determined to honor her father and brother, both officers killed in the line of duty.

If handling street thugs isn't enough of a challenge, there's a deeper plot brewing. The game's timeline puts D'arci at the edge of the century. Weird things are supposed to happen in 2000, and D'arci will eventually deal with the rebellious plan of a strange Year 2000 cult.

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Developer Mucky Foot's goal in all this is to make Union City a truly compelling environment, and so far, they're doing a great job. Buildings, parks, and alleys form convincing surroundings, and streets are alive with traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian.

Here's where Union City differs from SimCity or Tomb Raider's caves: D'arci can interact with almost any object in the environment. I was having so much fun exploring the city, I almost forgot there was a mission to accomplish. Just running down a street reveals surprises: you can interact with pedestrians, see your reflection in a puddle, kick a soda can, or pick up the can and throw it. You can climb ladders to get on top of buildings, go into the police station or dance at a dance club, ride a cable across two buildings, climb over fences, or look behind trash dumpsters.

The interactivity extends to vehicles, too: you can climb into nearly any vehicle on the street and start driving. In the screen shots you'll see that the wheel graphics aren't ready yet, but driving was surprisingly comfortable and realistic. The cars dip and lean when braking or making turns, have working headlights, and bump when driving over a curb. For you Carmageddon fans, the answer is yes, you can crash into other vehicles and pedestrians.

To enable such detail in the levels, the city areas are limited to a set of blocks. Mucky Foot has designed multiple locations, each hosting a set of missions, to give the environments some variety. Among the locales are a police station, a ballpark, and a large city park; another is near a beach. Across these levels, D'arci has to respond to public-disturbance calls, a suicide attempt, and manhunts.

She can handle it, though. Like Lara, D'arci can use weapons of all sorts, including pistols, grenades, and assault rifles. She's skilled in hand-to-hand combat, too, and with the interactive environments Mucky Foot is building, she can fight anything she sees. This can cause problems because the AI, while unfinished, is pretty flexible: If D'arci hits a fellow officer or an innocent civilian, she'll find they're ready to defend themselves while complaining about police brutality!

Better yet, the AI works both ways. In one mission, I had to confront a killer hand-to-hand. As we started to square off, two officers across the street noticed the scene and rushed to my aid. Three on one, we dispatched the bad guy in no time.

The fighting is neat because it has some variety. D'arci doesn't have as many moves as a character in a fighting game, but the ones here aren't bad. She's got a good basic kick and punch, plus a jumping roundhouse kick and a grab move. My favorite strike is a slide maneuver that lets her skid into opponents; this one's good for situations where she's fighting a gunman unarmed.

Mucky Foot wants to make the fighting and gameplay easy to learn, and the interface-- which supports keyboard- and gamepad-play--reflects that. The actions are easily implemented with a limited set of keys, and control is responsive.

Urban Chaos's graphics have a unique style that's cartoonish yet gritty; it grew on me as I played and got absorbed in the gameworld. Even without music or complete sounds, which are still being developed, I was addicted to this game. If the final version is better, smoother, and just as engaging, look for Eidos to win with yet another leading lady this fall.