i recently gamefly'd marc ecko's first foray into the video games industry; half expecting it to be like any of the other games "infogrames", the french company who bought the name "atari" has churned out over the past 5 or so years. having tested for them in the past, i can say from personal experience that they don't so much "develop" games as congeal them in the latrine. past masterpieces include that awful superman game and that awful terminator game (the one before T3). it looks like this whole wretching out horrible games thing has worn off with their recent financial troubles, as getting up and test drive unlimited are changing my view of their company.

usually i wouldn't remark on the publisher before the game, but when something this good comes from a publisher that has turned my stomach with their games in the past, i have to say something. the first thing i noticed was the magnificently well done opening cinematic. talib kweli, one of my favorite artists next to his freind mos def is perfect as the voice of trane, an inner city youth trying to build his name. the game takes place in a somewhat cliche "fifteen minutes in the future" orwellian nightmare. no flying cars, the only thing different being the government.

one thing i really appreciated was that the city looked, sounded and felt real. roaches scatter out from under trash, buildings have dings and scrapes, chainlink fences are rusty with inconsistent patterns in the links... the attention to detail was astounding for an atari game. the gameplay was simple enough to learn, and everything has layer after layer of options. the tagging selection alone could be a coffee table book. the fighting system is very impressive for a game i thought would be an urban prince of persia. the story of the game pushes along quickly enough to keep you interested in completing it, but if you get side swiped by an oncoming train, you won't want to do over the tags.

tagging in the game works a little bit like the warriors, in that you use the left analog stick to paint. unlike the warriors, you have unlimited cans, but a time limit and a constant need to shake it. this isn't really a nag, but it eats up time. once you get to the subway levels though, a pressure upgrade makes this a non issue. overall, this game is surprisingly well done, almost worth buying. almost.

there are issues with the camera, and sometimes the fights can be a bit one sided in either direction. the graphics can be a bit... ugh, but on the whole they are pretty impressive. the game's dialogue certainly earns the M rating, with motherfuckers scattered throughout the cinematics and ingame taunts. certainly not a game to get "little johnny". dammit, who buys that lil bastard all these games?

verdict: 08/10; rent it, if you like it buy it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 2:30 PM.