The Set Up
It's quite a bit of backstory for a shooter, but Emergence's narrative stylings are as much a part of the title as the action that follows. Blending together story elements as well the frenetic action of a comic book style shooter is what Emergence is all about. Players looking for a little less storytelling meat to their game might find that Emergence is somewhat heavy in that department.

The title certainly earns its "M" rating in the first few minutes of the extensive introduction, as you come face to cleavage with main villain. The dialogue that follows drops an F-bomb or two as Blade's protege, Jessica Cannon, tells off a few SiNTEK guards that don't take kindly to Hardcorps riding through their territory. There's also quite a bit of dialogue between several NPCs and in their reactions to you, as well as when the action starts up and the guards start screaming in your direction. While these ramblings won't win any awards, the lighthearted tone and dastardly villain feel of the game are in keeping with its 80's inspired one-man-army action which immediately guarantees a lot of gratuitous violence.

Although the voice acting is decent for the most part, with many of the original voice actors returning from SiN, one surprise was that the person that should have been doing quite a bit of talking doesn't say much at all in this outing. Blade had almost as much to say in the original SiN as his partner JC, but here he's as quiet as a mouse, saying something only when he acknowledges someone on the comm channel that he's hooked into. It's was probably done to get the player to identify more with the character they're controlling, but with the emphasis on story in Emergence, I would have thought that Blade's replies would have added quite a bit to what was there. As a result, it can feel more as if you're leading him on from one objective to the next which may be disappointing to veterans looking to hear his unique take on events.

The opening theme of Emergence is sung by Sarah Ravenscroft, fulfilling the Bond-style approach that Ritual had wanted to take with it as it really stands out.

The rest of the music sounds just as good thanks to Zak Belica, taking what Ritual calls the 'incidental approach' in playing tracks only during key sequences. The music really did a great job in matching the tempo of the scenes and of the action onscreen, helping to create the kind of intense set pieces that Emergence seems to thrive on. As for the rest of the sounds, the gun effects and environmental ambience were also done quite well with little to complain about.