Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure for the Xbox
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.
Previous days' entries can be read HERE.
The first failure of trying to be cool is trying to be cool.
This sentiment has entered the internet's own particular shorthand as the ‘Fellow Kids’ meme, and videogames are serial offenders in breaking this cardinal rule.
All too often a room full of 30-40 year old white dudes produces a game that’s, y’know, for kids, and fails miserably in it’s judgement and perspective.
I haven’t played the most recent Borderlands, but I've seen plenty of reviews, from professional writers and otherwise, that call it out being clumsily ‘fellow kids’ - but it’s just the latest in a long line.
In 2006 Fashion Designer Marc Ecko gave his name to a video game about graffiti that was adorned with a hip-hop soundtrack and set in a near future dystopian New York. If there was ever an opportunity for horrific, misjudged, attempts to appeal to ‘youths’ then this was undoubtedly it.
From the off, though, Getting Up (I refuse to use that ridiculous full title) is a game that has a lot of heart, a lot of character, and a ton of credibility.
From the environments to the voice artists, the guest appearances to the soundtrack, the development team clearly knows the scene and subject very well.
In truth, the game that all this dressing is hung upon is not going to blow anyone away.
Our hero ‘Trane’ does more than just drop tags and artwork around his city, there’s platforming elements, some sneaking about, and when that fails, there's some brawling in the mix too.
But the game is a jack of four trades and master of none. The platforming is about as basic as it comes; climbing drain pipes and bridge stanchions to access ledges is about as complex as it ever gets (although I need to point out I’m only a short distance into the game). Stealth is also rudimentary, with only luck determining if an NPC will turn around just as you’re about to clock them on the noggin with an aerosol.
Worst of all, the act of producing the artwork itself quickly gets pretty boring pretty quickly. The fundamental problem is that there’s no real 'game' to it - it’s essentially broad stroke colouring in without even offering the pressure of staying in the lines.
This just leaves the brawling, which shares the limelight with the spraying as the game’s main mechanic.
Throwing down in quasi-New York to a hip-hop soundtrack can’t fail to put one in mind of the entertaining Def Jam series, and although the music in Getting Up is far superior, the combat falls far short.
It’s not terrible by any means. Two button melee is embellished with some basic grappling, and, with new moves unlocked as the story progresses, this is probably the most successful gameplay element of the lot.
But the most successful element of the game as a whole is undoubtedly the entirely credible atmosphere and the classiness of the cast that help deliver it.
The fantastic Talib Kweli provides the voice for ‘Trane’ and his co-stars include Giovani Ribisi, Rosario Dawson, RZA, and the legendary Adam West.
The soundtrack, too, avoids the horrific ‘rap for middle class white kids’ pitfalls that so many games fall into, and instead features the likes of Roots Manuva, Rakim, Pharoahe Monch, Mobb Deep, Nina Simone, and Del tha Funkee Homosapien. It’s possibly one of the best licensed soundtracks to ever feature on a videogame.
Being set in a dystopian near future, the story is of the familiar “Kid from the streets rises up” variety that, weirdly, put me most in mind of ‘Mirror’s Edge’. With the aforementioned cast and stylish presentation it’s an undoubtedly well put together tale, if not a particularly original one.
The question, ultimately, has to be: Does the style compensate for the lack of substance? And I think on this occasion it just might. The world of ‘New Radius’ is so completely and consistently realised, and the counter-culture themes so convincingly conveyed, that it makes it worthwhile getting past some of the game’s less inspiring aspects.
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