As I haven’t spent much of my gaming life playing games revolving around the art of parkour, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Rooftops & Alleys. Granted, I played a couple hours of both of the Mirror’s Edge titles but never actually finished them. Rooftops & Alleys differs in the way that there is no story, no violence and no enemies, and that isn’t just because its developing team is completely different. It’s a game about doing the most insane tricks, jump-offs, and involves plenty (a lot) of fails and bails without worrying about an arching story or overbearing plot. Multiplayer lets players team up with capture the flag and even a tag mode, the latter offering exciting, intense moments when chasing after other players or, in other cases, being chased.
(Michael Scott Voice) PARKOUR!
Rooftops & Alleys lets players jump right into its six maps or take a spin at the tutorials, the latter being highly recommended for a game such as this. The gameplay reminds me of a Tony Hawk game, encouraging players to build combos by performing tricks in constant succession, adding to a score that builds higher as the player explores the world. Within the world, players will encounter different challenges, like Time Trials, that reward feathers, allowing options for customisation of the player character, particularly different outfits. Our unnamed protagonist can be designed in different ways, and players will be able to use a range of colours to make each of their characters unique. Players may also obtain feathers by finding pigeons, one for each map that lets the player transform into a bird, providing more opportunity to access higher areas. Each map is designed well and offers plenty of traversal opportunities to rack up combos and high scores, assuming that the player can stay on their feet and not bail in a miserable fashion. Players may find themselves using cat-passes to quickly cross barriers in front of them or power jumps to cover much higher ground, focusing on adrenaline and speed to build higher combos and scores.
Running with Style
Rooftops & Alleys is a game that seems to have only so much content to keep players entertained, so spending a long time playing might not be recommended. The gameplay loop is very limited in scale, with only two sets of challenges that the player can access on a solo playthrough, like Time Trials and trick challenges. Each map is unique enough, but gameplay barely changes with the same types of challenges scattered across all the maps. There is nothing tailored to gameplay regarding the pigeon either, like flight challenges or races, making the game feel very repetitive and bland. First time gamers will feel confused with the controls at first, and they will take a while to get used to them. Gameplay revolves around free running from A to B, performing tricks to gather large combos, like front flips, cartwheels, etc. Each time a trick is performed, the player must then successfully perform an additional trick in a set time before the combo ends.
In terms of controls, there are some unusual inputs, like grabbing a ledge being assigned to the left trigger, and the right trigger being used to sprint. The casual gamer may struggle to adapt to these controls and may put the game down quickly, preferring trick-based games with more comfortable settings that are easier to learn. For instance, I always found myself pressing the wrong buttons when performing tricks that I assumed were assigned to the controls that I was using, causing my playthroughs to become slow and sluggish after bailing so many times. In order to remember certain tricks, players have to actively pause the game each time to look for a certain trick that can then be performed when back in play. Trick inputs might have been better off actively placed in the corner of the screen so the game doesn’t have to be frustratingly paused every single time.
Mind Your Step
On the other hand, it seems Rooftops & Alleys doesn’t initially expect the player to have their hand held when jumping into one of its six different maps. The tutorials displayed in the main menu are extremely brief but certainly helped me when playing for myself. Once a map is selected, the player is free to roam around and explore with no guidance on where to go or what to do. I would have liked to see some of these maps feel more immersive, like free-running NPCS that sometimes bail or unique elements related to specific maps, such as cars driving by the school map or certain secrets to uncover that are rewarded with thorough exploration. Each map has its own unique look, and they are all designed extremely well and tailored beautifully to the game that Rooftops & Alleys is trying to be. Alas, the game’s hard-to-master style of gameplay may definitely shoo (pigeon?) modern gamers away who are used to having a detailed UI and in-game map system.
Final Thoughts
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Rooftops & Alleys was provided by the publisher.
