BACKGROUND STORY
The game takes place in a fictional world called Dream City. Dream City is a metropolitan city country which has a double side image on it. On the south part of the city lies South Metro, an important economic hub in the region. It has one of the busiest port in the world serving the entire region. Because of this, many business across the region set up their office in the city to take advantage of the logistic facilities provided by the port. There are also lots of office buildings scattered in the area.
On the west part of the city lies Star Hills which houses many movie studios, recording companies and fashion houses. This is one of the glamorous part of the city and serves as tourist attraction throughout the region as it houses lots of commercial shopping complexes. There are also lots of luxury condominiums scattered in the area.
On the north part of the city lies Old District, the bad images of bad neighbourhood of which several triads operates shadowly without alerting the attention of authority. The triads operates many illegal activities such as movie and album pirating, drug dealing, illegal gambling and prostitution. There are a lots of old flats scattered in the area and cemetery.
On the east part of the city lies Aspire Park, a well known intellectual city which houses many well known universities and academies.
Chronologies
The game year starts at equivalent 1988. Toward 1990s, economic activities are booming which attracts a lot of foreign direct investment (FDI) to the city. But due to the vulnerability of global financial market, several unscrupulous major traders take advantage of the market which bring global financial market downfall. Since Dream City is an open market, it feels the effect.
Recession starts around 1996 and will continue until year 2000. During this time, many business withdraw their investment outside which force a lot of business to close and create a lot of unemployment problem. The situation are made worse as some of them are also immigrant who works in the city. Since they have no income, many of them are forced to get involved in crime. Crime is rampant around this time especially snatch and burglary. Triads seize these opportunities to recruit these desperate immigrants.
The authority works hard to deport these immigrant back to their countries and to fight the triads. It seems they are doing the good job of removing these annoyances out of the street due to they using lots of forces. At some point, the immigrant and police force represent among top ten biggest employers in the city.
As economic are improving in 2000, FDI are slowly re-entering the city. Realizing the potential of global economic vulnerability, the government are steeping up their effort to diversify their economic activities by nourishing IP business. This basically means bring more studio and universities to set up their offices in the city. The government are spending billions of dollars to set up the facilities and provide many incentives to the studios and universities.
The progress are slow but as the 2004 approaches, many global studios are already set-up their office in the city creating several big budgets movies. With plenty of stars resides in the city, many fashion houses set up their office in the city. A lot of well known universities has also set up their branches in the city. The economics are booming driven by IP business.
Unfortunately by 2007, neighbouring countries are declaring war on each other which affect the region political stability including Dream City. As a result, many studios withdraw from the city fearing for their safety. A lot of universities also close their branches. These sets of events create a bigger recession that was happen in 1996.
As many people lose their job, civil unrest happen throughout the city. The government can't be able to cope with the problem. Martial law is declared due the rising violence and tension on the street as there has been growing numbers of organized raiders mastermind by triads to create more chaos. The military are effectively controlling the city as they are fighting these organized raiders. The streets are becoming a danger zone as soldiers fight raiders on urban combat level.