Urban Reign



Urban Reign is a Beat'Em Up from Namco for the PS 2 released in 2005. In it you play as Brad Hawk, a "brawler for hire" in the city of Green Harbor. He is hired to find a missing gang member, who has become the catalyst for gang wars across the city. However, the more gangs he beats down, the more answers he gets and the more complicated things become.

Urban Reign provides the following tropes:

 * Anticlimax Boss:
 * Batman Gambit:
 * Beat'Em Up
 * Book Ends: The game opens with Brad arriving in town and gaining the ire of two thugs who of course are the opening mission. At the end of the game, we see the two wondering what gonna happen after everything settles down and cross path with Brad again, but this time they stay out of his way.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: After you beat certain bosses a number of times, they'll eventually join your side and become available to use for partner missions.
 * Excuse Plot: Very little in the way of plot, and most of it you're only told through voiceovers.
 * Enemy Mine: You start off beating down gangs just for information and the like. While they're rough costumers, they were hardly evil. Once the psychopaths start to run amok in the city and cause riots, you soon team up with former adversaries to protect the city.
 * Guest Fighter: Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law from Tekken.
 * Nintendo Hard: This game does not play around. Some of the specific mission don't exactly help matters.
 * Needs More Love: Very unappreciated game that hardly got much notice. A real shame as the game has a variety of fighting styles and some of the most brutal combat in town.
 * Ruthless Foreign Gangsters
 * The Smurfette Principle: Shun Ying Lee is the only female seen within the game story. There are other girls whom you unlock with the challenge missions.
 * Steve Blum: Voices Brad
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Trust us, you'll be yelling foul a lot at the AI.
 * Zerg Rush: More often than not you'll find yourself surrounded and getting beaten from every side.