24 Years Ago, Rockstar Games Tried To Have Its Own Grand Theft Auto Killer

In 2001, Rockstar Games (then known as DMA Design) changed the video gaming landscape forever by releasing the ground-breaking, open-world epic Grand Theft Auto III. With the immediate success of the genre-defining game, it’s understandable that many developers were looking to develop their own “Grand Theft Auto Killer,” trying to put their own spin on the incredibly popular game. What’s a little weird is that Rockstar actually published its own GTA Killer just a year after releasing GTA 3. Partnering with VIS Entertainment, Rockstar released State of Emergency in 2002, looking to add some beat ’em up flair to the chaotic violence players loved in Grand Theft Auto 3. While State of Emergency didn’t change the world like GTA 3, it was a solid follow-up that has essentially disappeared from the public consciousness.

New Genre, Same Old Controversy

As mentioned, State of Emergency differentiated itself from Grand Theft Auto by focusing on beat ’em up combat. Instead of the freedom of combat enjoyed in GTA, players are getting up close and personal with the bad guys, using a variety of weapons to blow through the hordes of enemies. That said, if you were thinking Rockstar might’ve asked VIS to turn down the violence, given the media and legal response to GTA 3, you would be mistaken. If anything, State of Emergency is even more over-the-top.

In fact, some might argue that the only real connective tissue (outside of the publisher) is the controversy it created. State of Emergency‘s preview cycle included the state of Washington denouncing the game with claims that it was too similar to the real-world World Trade Organization riots and protests that took place in Seattle in 1999.

To be fair, State of Emergency is about players joining a freedom group to fight back against a totalitarian corporate regime called the American Trade Organization. The group kicks off a national riot, and the ATO declares a state of emergency. As you dive into the game, you’ll wade through massive hordes of people to try and topple the ATO.

That all said, you can easily see the inspiration VIS took from the success of GTA 3. Each level is filled with hundreds of NPCs, which leads to all kinds of chaos. The violence and visuals look like they’d belong in a GTA game of the era. Though being able to kill people with dismembered body parts might be a little far, even for GTA. And the personality that shines through some of the characters could easily join your list of cohorts in the next GTA game.

Personality Over Everything

Speaking of State of Emergency‘s personality, one of the other ways it differs from GTA 3 is that it has several different characters to choose from. There’s Mack, the former cop, Spanky, the hardened gang member, and several others. Each of them has a distinct reason for joining Freedom to fight back against the ATO.

You start with two characters unlocked, and add three more to your group over the course of the game. It’s not just to give you variety, because one last change State of Emergency makes on the GTA formula (at least at the time) is adding multiplayer. It wasn’t great, especially on PC, but it was an important step for the genre that helped push Grand Theft Auto online in future releases.

That’s true of State of Emergency in general. It wasn’t ever going to topple Grand Theft Auto 3 as the hottest game on the planet, but it did do well enough that it sold nearly one million copies and earned a sequel. And while everything doesn’t quite come together, it’s easy to see how it helped pave the way for future additions to GTA.

That’s not to say GTA wouldn’t have gotten there without State of Emergency, but it did help get us there a little faster. It’s also fair to wonder if the two universes were ever planned to collide. VIS and Rockstar were working on a sequel to SoE, but decided to give it a rest. Then, DC Studios took over and dropped a poorly received State of Emergency 2 in 2006 that essentially killed the series.

Rockstar hasn’t given fans too many callbacks in future Grand Theft Auto games, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating. GTA has never shown us its version of Washington, D.C., but many fans believe it would be called Capital City, which is where State of Emergency takes place. That’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. After all, GTA 3 directly references Carcer City, which is where Manhunt, which was released a few years later, takes place.

Either way, it’d be fun to see Rockstar use some of the State of Emergency characters. All five have personalities that would fit right in with the GTA style of humor. It’s probably safe to say that if it hasn’t happened by now, it never will, but we can dream. I’m just saying that I would pop off if Spanky or Bull somehow appeared in GTA 6 later this year.

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