Urban Reign pretty much follows this pattern the whole way through. Once they're defeated, you get upgrade points that you can allocate to improve certain aspects of Hawk's fighting ability. The game starts out in earnest with Hawk fighting two goons. But alas, this is a brawling title, and as such, punches and kicks do the talking. The absence of guns in this game is a little perplexing since it would be hard to imagine how these gangs could hold onto their territory without them.

Meanwhile, the mayor has cordoned off certain parts of the city in order to control the rising level of crime. Hawk has been hired to clean up the city armed with only his two fists and two feet. The story is based in a rough seaside town called Green Harbor where a gang war has broken out among various factions. In what comes across like an updated version of Final Fight, you start off as Brad Hawk, a guy who seems to have no day job and a penchant for beating the crap out of people. But for Namco, fighting games have been a staple of its library, which is why Urban Reign was an intriguing title, even if it came out with little hype. The brawling game is making something of a comeback these days, since Capcom released Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance and Sega put out Spikeout: Battle Street.

The Verdict: A brawler that looks and fights well, but with too much repetition and infallible AI.

Pointless storyline with little character development. Too many missions highlight repetitive gameplay.

The Bad: AI is incredibly tough and unforgiving.

The Good: Graphics and visual presentation are well done.

Urban reign ps2 tips