Interesting game where you get your powers from graffiti and do generic jobs across rooftops.
The plot won't blow you away, but it's still entertaining. You play an unnamed and silent guy who dives into the sewers and discovers the resistance fighting the authorities. Each resistance member is interesting to talk to because they are unique, and the general tone of the story is humorous.
The gameplay is quick. You won't be overwhelmed with controls or buttons. All you need is movement, jump, and two buttons for grabbing and two for activating skills. Because the majority of the game takes place on rooftops, it's all too simple to fall into the nothingness. You simply respawn nearby and continue where you left off.
However, if you lose all your health, you end up in the main hub’s hospital and lose some of the money. While there’s an upgrade that does this for free, the mechanic is not fun because it forces you to go back and watch loading screens. It would be better if each location had this hospital.
What distinguishes the game is how abilities are acquired. You must collect them from graffiti on walls. Because each graffiti is unique, you must pay close attention to its color. If you have a particular kind of colorblindness, you can change this in the options.
There are five different skills to choose from, but only two may be carried at once - one in each hand. Of course, you can have the same skill in both hands. Since graffiti comes back after a few seconds in a random color, you don’t have to run around and look for a specific skill.
Although some skills are more suited to platforming, they can all be employed as offensive weapons. Each one involves colors that don't appear to be extremely violent, but still cause enemies to burst in a colorful chaos. Sadly, most are pretty useless. The first two abilities function similarly to a machine gun and a shotgun, the third is a shield that can also be used to breach fractured walls, the fourth creates bouncy pads that launch you into the air, and the fifth allows you to build platforms on walls.
Each skill can be upgraded four times to gain very valuable perks that make the gameplay more enjoyable. For example, the "shotgun" can penetrate targets and "machinegun" gains increased damage. This, however, requires street cred and vinyl, both of which can be obtained by roaming the city and accomplishing tasks.
If we exclude the starting training area and main hub, you will be able to visit four separate destinations. Although locations are open and encourage exploration, they remain locked unless you collect enough vinyl.
Street cred is found by destroying property. This, however, attracts cops to your location. The most effective approach to avoid them is to keep moving and destroying things. They don't bother you when you're simply exploring the stage, by the way. Stages are a bit boring. Except for the different color, there’s not much difference between locations. They’re also very empty because there are no other people around.
Jobs are received from major characters and terminals. You will get to do various jobs that aren’t very exciting. There's rooftop racing, ascending to the highest point, looking for briefcases, and fighting cops in certain spots. Some missions are locked until you complete a specific objective. Unfortunately, the jobs are repetitive because they’re the same throughout all locations.
Jobs can be repeated, but there's little value in doing so once you've completed them. Only the main missions might require numerous attempts, as achieving the best score is usually difficult without the best upgrades.
The lack of visual hints or even a mini-map is the game's most severe shortcoming. Depending on the mission, you might get an arrow pointing to the next objective. Hidden briefcases are the worst. You need to find them within an area, but there are no waypoints or even a radar telling you that one is nearby. This sucks a lot of enjoyment out of the game.
Key missions are marked on the general map that’s accessed by pausing the game, so that's one less thing to worry about, but the rest will have to be discovered. There’s absolutely nothing that will point you to the nearest job terminal, health station or anything else that might be interesting in the world. Because locations uses a limited color palette, these spots don’t even stand out.
Locations include collectibles like tapes that also provide street cred. Graffiti counts as collectibles as well, but collecting them all is an unneeded burden. Graffiti doesn't change, and you have no idea which ones you already have unless you go back and grab it. While there is a scrapbook in the main hub that records all graffiti for each place, you must return each time. It's an odd design decision that you can't carry this scrapbook with you.
