Getting Up builds a cohesive and entertaining world without sacrificing gameplay, resulting in a really great overall package.
Getting Up is a reference to getting your name up on the wall, not necessarily climbing up to huge heights to do so. But in Marc Ecko’s new graffiti-laced action game, Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, you’ll have plenty of chances to do both. As a mixture of third-person fighting, Prince of Persia-like acrobatics, and frequent stops to get your name up on various surfaces around the near-future city of New Radius, there’s a good deal of variety to the action in the game. But Getting Up has more to offer than just exciting gameplay. The story, dialogue, soundtrack, and look of the game all contribute a great deal to the flavor and authenticity of the package. The end result is an interesting and often-exciting adventure that should be appealing to most action-game fans, but will probably hold extra appeal if you’re at all interested in graffiti and the culture surrounding it.
The game puts you in the role of a writer named Trane. We mean writer in the “likes to write his name on walls with markers, stickers, and paint” sense. The game opens with Trane hanging off the side of some sort of flying ship and wondering how, exactly, he got himself into this predicament. The rest of the game is, for the most part, one big flashback. But never fear–you’ll eventually deduce how, exactly, Trane got himself into that mess. What starts out as a simple coming-of-age, lone-graffiti-artist-against-a-rival-gang sort of tale eventually goes into a completely different direction. When you start out, you’ll be motivated to strike back against the Vandals of New Radius, or VaNR. But by the end of the game, you’ll have taken things to that proverbial “other level,” where you’ll be lashing out at the government from behind a paint roller. The game essentially becomes Turk 182 at some point.
