Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game Review (PC)

If I was to take a gander back at some of the parkour-centric video games that have made a genuinely good impression on me over the past however many years, then I’d no doubt only be able to rustle up the one: Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, and perhaps 2007’s Free Running — but that one honestly felt like a fever dream, to be fair. Since then, I haven’t seen all that many of them; Parkour Legends made an effort to keep the candle alight, for sure, but that was just one minor candidate, and something that didn’t quite possess enough trappings to warrant a rekindling of the genre. Suffice it to say that, when it comes to the extreme sport and emulating its culture, the market is relatively short on any hallmark torchbearers, which is why independent projects like Rooftops & Alleys, truly, can be a real sight for sore eyes these days.

To make it absolutely clear, Rooftops & Alleys is an indie game, and therefore, a slightly less complex virtual iteration of the sport. However, to say that it’s entirely incapable of capturing the beating heart and overall essence of the pastime wouldn’t be accurate, as it does, at least, attempt to capitalize and expand on areas that others have previously failed to interpret. But that’s only the beginning of a much, much larger passage of an entire tapestry of verses, and something that we’ll be segueing into in due course.

Anyway, to lather a bit of cement over the aforementioned gaps, it seems only right that we take it back to the foot of the subject matter. Care to join us as we explore MLMEDIA’s latest parkour-centric runner sim? Then let’s jump right in.

The One and Only Ragdoll

Chances are, you’ve already onboarded your fair share of parkour clippings from the vast network of social or streaming channels, in which case, you’ll probably have a rough idea of what Rooftops & Alleys aims to encapsulate in its single-player sandbox sim. If, however, you’ve yet to sift through that particular catalog of daring feats, then just know this: it’s an ever-changing culture, and one that, despite being ludicrously ballsy in its own right, is forever forging new and exciting possibilities for runners to compete in, whether it’s at extreme altitudes, or out on the asphalt and beyond. And, unsurprisingly, this is pretty much what Rooftops & Alleys tries to frame: a virtual space in which runners can set their own goals and exceed the boundaries of their skill sets and, with enough perseverance and courage, reach vast and prestigious heights.

Rooftops & Alleys is a first-person and third-person running game at heart, and so, for the most part, the game has you navigating one of several maps on foot, as well as setting markers in order for you to either create new lines to trick from, test the structural integrity of a city landmark by molding it into some form of launch platform for you to eject from, and so on and so forth. In a typical scenario, you’ll plant roots in a suburban area—a run-of-the-mill location in which each quarter is comprised of an array of obstacles, including stone barriers, rooftop planters, and other trick-worthy structures. From here, it’s merely the case of setting out to explore the district, and ultimately garner a web of points by performing death-defying tasks, and completing a myriad of feats, including Time Trials, Trick Challenges, and Free Roam-related events.

Finding Your Way

To say that there’s a lot of content in Rooftops & Alleys wouldn’t be totally accurate; in fact, it does appear to have a significant lack of material, or at least, a second incentive for you to carve any deeper than absolutely necessary. In ways, you could say that, given its niche subject, there are really only so many things you can do before everything just begins to feel, I don’t know, redundant and repetitive. With that said, if you’re the sort of person who wants little more than to go gallivanting around through the same four or five motions for the sake of boosting your mileage and score, then you might just be able to squeeze a good amount of hours out of it. It helps, too, that there are several boosters to aid your progression, whether it’s a session marker, or conjuring a new world event to tackle.

On one hand, you could say that, you know, if you’ve made one jump, you’ve made ‘em all. And while that is partly true, the fact that you can take it upon yourself to search for new milestones and create your own unique trappings does, in all fairness, add a little extra value to the experience — if only a smidgen. Aside from that, though, there isn’t a great deal to see here; there are several areas that allow you to customize your character, but again, that’s about as far as it goes by way of severing the link between its chosen blueprint and anything even remotely original. Don’t get me wrong, parkour is, and always has been, the neglected brainchild of the extreme sports world, but that isn’t to say that any game that does make an effort to give it some attention is bound to be a success.

Playing With Fire

So, is Rooftops & Alleys actually a fun game to play, or is it more or less an art installation that capitalizes on an unchartered concept? Up until this point, we’ve mostly covered the modes and general themes of the game, but have yet to answer the question of whether or not it’s mechanically sound. To answer that — yes, it is — or at least, it makes good use of its ragdoll physics, anyway. Of course, I’m not going to pretend that it’s in receipt of the most fluid mechanics in the world, but I’d also be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy throwing myself around and jackknifing off of steel pylons from stomach-wrenching altitudes, too. Truth be told, that’s what ninety percent of the journey was: ejecting myself off of random objects, and relying on wishful thinking to conceive some sort of capture-worthy line for the masses.

There’s a bit of a learning curve to address with this one, I’ll say that much. Aside from having to figure out how to time your jumps, you also need to make full use of your surroundings to be able to construct and maintain your momentum, which can, more often than not, require a significant amount of forward planning. It isn’t a bad thing — failing to rack up enough points to enhance your score, mind you; in fact, bailing and watching the ragdoll gestures unfold is actually rather entertaining, if not a tad grizzly even at the best of times. The best way I can describe it, really, is Skate 3’s infamous Hall of Meat segments, only without the deck and x-ray vision mechanics, and with, say, a few more break rolls and vaults and what have you. That, to me, is Rooftops & Alleys — and I’m all for it.

Verdict

Rooftops & Alleys set out to create a lifelike representation of the extreme sport on a virtual level, and to some extent, it was able to achieve exactly that. Sure, it lacks the complexity of a full-fledged game, but the fact that it allows you to experiment with countless combinations of trickery and other forms of play does, in all honesty, make it weirdly fun to romp through — if only in short bursts. Could it do with a few more maps and mechanical overhauls? Probably, yes — but that doesn’t change the fact that the game was, and respectfully so, crafted by just the single developer. For that reason alone, I’m willing to give credit where it’s due and say that, from the outside looking in, Rooftops & Alleys does manage to generate something that’s worthy of being carved into.

Again, it’s certainly no easy feat — establishing the foundations for a parkour-centric video game, given the fact that there aren’t quite nearly as many alternatives to use as a source of inspiration. It’s definitely a niche subject to draw blood from, and so, on that note, I’m more than happy to give a few bonus marks to MLMEDIA just for onboarding the concept, in general. Is it the best parkour game on the market? No. However, given the sheer lack of such worlds currently floating about, I doubt we’re in all that much of a position to lodge a complaint, to be honest.