Imagine how much better the world would be if we all did parkour and freerunning. Your commute would be twice as fast if you could parkour your way across town to the office, the kids would never drag their heels on a Monday morning if they knew they could hand-spring and wall-run their way to school, and you’d never get bored waiting in line at Asda if you knew you could throw out a standing back-flip every now and again.
Well, prepare to be amazed, my friend. Because in Rooftops & Alleys, everyone can be a freerunner. In your own living room. Whilst sat on your couch. Even while playing a video game.
Rooftops & Alleys gives you six varied maps to explore, with a mixture of time trial and trick rush challenges scattered around for you to test your parkour skills and rack up points. Although the maps aren’t overly large, they don’t really need to be. A diverse range of platforms, poles, walls and ramps are carefully positioned to help you maximise your trick combos. Plus, there’s a handy pigeon mode that, a bit like in Assassin’s Creed, gives you a bird’s eye view of the map to plan your tricks and to help you access hard to reach places.
The music to Rooftops & Alleys does cartwheels around other game soundtracks. This isn’t surprising, given that the solo developer behind MLMEDIA, Michel Losch, worked in the music industry for 15 years. The trance, R&B and electronica vibes partner the game’s style and energy like a precisely executed Double Kong.
In fact, the soundtrack manages to achieve the goal that all good soundtracks should aim for – but all too many fall short of – it makes you want to play the game. It gets you in the mood and keeps you playing. So, I couldn’t help but wall-flip in and try my best to parkour like a pro.
And try I did. I tried. And tried. And tried.
And occasionally actually landed a free running move.
Free running is about the accurate and controlled execution of movements, and Rooftops and Alleys is no different with its controls. This game isn’t for button-mashing. No matter how frustrated you get when you JUST. CAN’T. DO. IT. RIGHT! The controls are tricky and require very precise input from the player. There is a helpful tutorial, but it only covers the basics of the tricks and aerials you can perform, leaving you feeling completely unprepared for when you throw yourself off a platform and faceplant the floor.
The gameplay is then made harder by occasionally fritzy controls. You can actually manage to press all the right buttons in the right order, but for some unknown reason, your avatar doesn’t do the thing you’ve asked it to do. It occasionally rag-dolls even when you’re not doing anything. Oh, and you can glitch through walls. It all adds up to a teeth-clenchingly frustrating ten minutes of trying to do wall-runs, failing miserably and then resisting the urge to parkour my controller straight into my TV screen.
On the plus side, all these major freerunning fails lead to some hilarious wipeouts! The sound effect of my avatar clanging their head on a pole then clattering to the floor made me laugh a lot more than it should. It’s this ability to laugh at yourself – and others! – that makes the online play so joyous. Chasing each other up the walls of a church just to take it in turns to clang the church bell with your noggin will never grow old. Plus, the good-sized fan network of Rooftops and Alleys means there’s always someone to play with, even if they’re as clumsy at the controls as you are.
So, is it cartwheels or wipeouts for Rooftops & Alleys? Fans of the straightforward freerunning elements in Assassins Creed may be left a little overwhelmed by the demands of Rooftops & Alleys. But those who love the point scoring system of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater will relish the challenge offered by the game. The thrill of completing a complex aerial trick with a perfect touchdown brings a true rush to the player, but if you struggle to grasp the complex inputs required, the gameplay suddenly becomes very limited. It’s because of this that Rooftops and Alleys didn’t really stick the landing for me.