A game built almost completely around graffiti? A game developed by clothing mogul Marc Ecko? How good could it be, really? Surprisingly, it is not the immature, one dimensional, gimmicky game many were expecting. Unsurprisingly, it is not a great game either. Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure will appeal to more then a niche audience, but falls short of the numbers needed to be truly successful.
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Getting Up puts players in the role of Trane, a wannabe graffiti artist in a city that is trying to eradicate street art. New Radius is a city filled with competing graffiti crews that don’t take kindly to new comers like Trane. The Civil Conduct Keepers, aka the CCK, are a fascist police force determined to clean up the streets.
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The characters are only slightly interesting. Very little illuminating back-story is given on anyone, including the main character Trane. It is hard to feel involved in his quest to be a famous tagger and take on the Mayor, when ever character is not fully developed. It is as if the game is trying to ride the recent wave of ‘Urbanized’ games without putting any heart behind the hype.
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Along the way, players will get to meet some real life graffiti legends. Just some of those making an appearance include: Futura, Cope2, SEEN, Ghost, Delta, JA, and OBEY, to name a few. These legends will teach Trane new tagging styles and methods, and give players a quick ‘History of Graffiti 101’ – a nice addition for the majority of gamers that are ignorant on the topic.
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Level design is fairly linear. In each area players are faced with a handful of required tagging locations, and a few bonus ones to earn extra points. Reputation Points are acquired by successfully completing graffiti. Rep points unlock new moves, art, and bonus content. The platforming segments are very linear – each piece of art is reach by only a single path. While being linear and forcing players into a single path, those paths can be very complex. The levels are both simple and challenging at the same time, but it would have been nice to see a larger free-roaming component.
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Let’s face it, Graffiti is a gimmick. If this game were just about painting buildings, it would get boring very quickly. Thankfully, Getting Up packs in just enough platforming, brawling, and even a little stealth, to keep players interested. Even so, players will spend most of their time tagging the world around them.
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The Intuition System puts bright Xs on required and bonus tagging locations. Once at one of these locations, players hold down R1 to begin painting. A selected stencil is placed on the wall and Square gets the spray cans going. The left analog stick controls Trane’s arm as he fills the rectangular stencil.
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The graffiti system is unique, but not a real interesting innovation. Painting is just about filling in the stencil. It is impossible to go outside the lines. The only way to not finish a piece of art is to miss a spot within the stencil. Graffiti is timed, though players are given ample time even with mistakes, and if a player holds the spray can in one place too long the paint will drip, taking away from the Rep Points available for that piece. Graffiti is a challenge at first, but once players figure it out – an hour or so of gameplay – it becomes a no brainer. For the amount of time spent tagging a more in-depth system would have been nice.
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Brawling is another large component to Getting Up. Players can beat down rival Graf Crews with various three or four move punch and kick combinations. The game takes advantage of the PS2’s pressure sensitive buttons, and the harder players press them the harder, and slower, the punch or kick. Players can grapple opponents and punch and kick them into submission. The fun, but often useless, Taunt moves stun opponents allowing for a bitch-slap and a witty comment, but minimal extra damage. Players can also stealthily sneak by enemies, or attack them from behind for a one hit knock out. When fighting more than one opponent Trane can lock on to a chosen enemy. This is a nice feature except that switching between thugs is a little buggy, and locking on to a specific enemy can be difficult. A strong fighting mechanic just isn’t there, giving it a tinge of that ‘last minute add on’ feel. But it is not so difficult to frustrate player, many will not even notice it is deficient.
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Enemy AI is a problem. Alone they attack fine, but in groups they tend to stack up in a line and wait for their turn. Graf Crew thugs tend to be stupid, and fairly easy to take down. The CCK, on the other hand, can be murderously efficient. Picking a fight with more than one CCK is a recipe for quick death. This makes brawling unbalanced between levels, or even sections of levels. Even more frustrating is that in a few levels the CCK respawn without warning. Players will have a tough time deciding whether to take out a CCK guard without knowing if he’ll just return when they backtrack.
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The gameplay is about average, but the audio department really shines and is the highlight of the game. The music in Getting Up has got to make up the best hip-hop soundtrack ever released in a game. The soundtrack includes some of the best – not necessarily chart toppers, but definitely the best – from well-known and underground artists alike, including: Mobb Deep, Talib Kweli, and my personal favorite, RDJ2. With 55 total songs Getting Up contains and epic aural landscape.
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Getting Up’s fantastic soundtrack aside, the game is good but far from great. In a resent interview with Official U.S. Playstation Magazine, Marc Ecko said that some people would get it and other just wouldn’t. And that is true to a point. Those very interested in Graffiti Culture do not need me to tell them to pick this one up. But no amount on cultural understanding can overcome weak gameplay. Playing the game was fun for a while. But aside from the aerosol adept and the just plain curious, Getting Up holds little appeal.
