Relooted Testbericht (Xbox Series X|S & PC)

Prince of Persia meets Indiana Jones in Relooted—a side-scrolling heist game in which slick free-flowing parkour binds two siblings to a vibrant world of South African culture and ancient relics, daring escapades and intangible treaties.

It goes like this: an unfathomably complex clause in a newfound agreement that allows for cultural artifacts to lawfully disappear from their beacons has become a threat to global heritage, and thus, two siblings find themselves with a monolithic commitment: to return them to their rightful homes. As Nomali, the high-strung parkour expert, you enter this world with the intent to work alongside a small team of history buffs and archeological scholars to reclaim the artifacts. But, here’s the thing: artifacts aren’t submerged in temples; they’re under lock and key in a facility of futuristic drones and technological innovations. It’s your job, as a student of science and parkour, to bring them back home.

In a Persona–like fashion, you spend your time in Johannesburg between two distinct time periods, with one of them involving laid-back exploration and NPC team-building, and the other involving puzzle-heavy, escape room-like heists. In the day, you receive texts, visit friends, and generally set out to meet characters who can aid your journey to locate the artifacts. In the evening, you embark on daring missions in the heart of various sites and futuristic buildings. And frankly, that’s where you spend most of your time: in the underbelly of a bubblegum-wrapped world in which challenges often come in the form of platforming-based puzzles and escape routes rely on careful analysis and forward planning.

In a typical scenario, you locate the artifact that needs to be reclaimed, and then you plan your exit. Here’s the catch: the moment you take the object from the pillar, the security alarm triggers, and all of the doors slam shut. As the parkour enthusiast, you have the task of fleeing to the escape point before the drone finds and eliminates you. To that end, you must plan ahead before taking action; a single error means you have to restart from the beginning of the heist and, well, do it all over again. And that’s one of the main aspects of the game: manipulating the board to ensure that you always have a chance to escape from any potential conflict.

As Relooted is, above all else, a parkour game, most of the experience is largely dependent on your ability to weave through landmarks at high speed. As you hold a trigger down, your character freely flows through all sorts of areas, including tight spaces, towering walls, and breakable windows. As the one in control, you simply have to smash a button prompt to enable a speed boost, and occasionally vault into the air to either grasp a foothold or a hook that can push you closer towards your objective. And to be honest, that is what you pour most of your time into here: rapidly sprinting, sliding, and vaulting through corridors.

Of course, there are some light puzzle elements here. In addition to the parkour-platforming segments, you also have escape plans to formulate. As you only have one chance to flee from the site, you often need to plan ahead. Moving a table to prevent a security door from closing, for example, will ensure that you have easy access to the next room, and so on and so forth. With that, you have your work cut out for you. Taking the artifact is one thing, but escaping with your life is another.

While the core gameplay loop can begin to grate after so many excursions into the back alleys of an artifact-loaded world, Relooted does come through with some brilliant mechanics. Granted, it can be awfully tedious at times, given that you have to weigh out the options before flowing through the motions. At times, it can feel as if the act of planning an escape route is more of a burden than a creative process. But for the most part, Relooted feels great to slide through right off the bat. With free-flowing controls, glitzy effects, and a jam-packed atmosphere that’s teeming with obstacles and footholds, it honestly doesn’t take all that long for you to get lost in the journey.

With some genuinely likable characters and a plot that is satisfying enough to wax your inner historian, the game does follow through with a well-rounded affair that is, while still predictable at times, surprisingly fun to comb through. Although somewhat half-baked at times, given its lack of airtight physics, it’s still a thoroughly entertaining experience. What’s more, as it adds characters with various abilities to the mix, it also offers a solid variety of choices for your to make during each heist. Your brother, for example, can hack security doors, which in itself can give you a helping hand to secure an escape route.

Of course, there are several little issues here that sully an otherwise perfectly enjoyable parkour experience. For example, the dialogue and the choices that you make along the way often have no consequences. As a result, you essentially have the same plot, regardless of how you choose to approach NPCs and plans. But, other than that, Relooted clearly makes for a joyful thrill ride. It’s still a little short, but given its lack of depth in its gameplay department, I’d say that a short campaign is a lot better than an insufferable amount of unnecessary padding. Swings and roundabouts, really.

Verdict

Relooted blends cultural heritage with slick and satisfying parkour gameplay to create a short yet oddly engaging experience that will likely keep both fledgling historians and daring puzzle fanatics on their toes for hours. While still rather predictable and oftentimes repetitive, its creative free-flowing controls and genuinely relatable characters add a lot of weight to the overall experience. Again, it might not be the best game to sink its knuckles into the earth, but it is a well-rounded game that deserves a slither of credit.

If you’re all for the idea of engaging with some rich South African culture and a handful of prestigious artifacts, then you should definitely consider picking up Relooted the next time the mood strikes. It might no hold a candle to the likes of Prince of Persia, but if you can stick with it long enough, then you might just learn a thing or two. And let’s face it, you can’t put a price on education. Can you?