Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game Review (PS5) – Flipping Fine

Sports sims in the indie space have been thriving currently. Games like Session: A Skate Sim, Shredders, and Descenders have carved out their lane of realistic meets arcade-y representation of their respective sports. The biggest draw is the in-depth control schemes to facilitate a challenging but satisfying experience. And like a Tom Cruise without the Scientology, I’ve been diving right into these stunt-focused sims first hand, no matter what sport they’re tackling; with Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game being the latest in line.

Whether or not Rooftops & Alleys is the parkour game and not just a parkour game remains to be seen. With further support from solo developer MLMEDIA, increasing the map count and missions to complete, this could be a robust game. However, for right now, it’s just finding its footing, and I’ve come away hopeful but not blown away. Let’s get into why that is, shall we?

Can I Get A Parkour? Do You Want More?

First off, every game of this genre lives and dies by how well they control, and I’m happy to say that Rooftops & Alleys more than delivers on that front. It adopts the quick-to-pick-up hard-to-master trope where you’ll learn the basics from a simplistic tutorial. There’s also an “advanced” tutorial which teaches you what tricks you can perform like flipping stylishly in the air, standing jumps and wall running.

When I say advanced, it’s more like lesson 2 of basics, as you’re not really taught how to utilise your lessons contextually. With that said, by the tutorials, I knew how to sprint, climb, leap off obstacles, trick over obstacles, wall run, and trick on flat. These all utilise the use of ‘R2’ and ‘L2’, the left analogue stick, and the face buttons paired with the left analogue stick to do different flips in the air.

The basics of it all are very straightforward; however, in practice, it’s very different. Because all six levels are unlocked from the jump, you can take your pick where you want to go. An abandoned construction site, a school yard, an indoor park(our) haven, all of which have similarly challenging missions of time trials and trick trials.

Running A Muck

Because of that, Rooftops & Alleys has an incredibly steep learning curve. Both missions are broken down into Bronze, Silver and Gold rewards depending on how fast you are or how much you can trick. The margins for those are tough, and me being stubborn, not settling for less than Gold, meant I was stuck on the first missions for hours. Some will find the challenge a really big pull for the game’s replayability: a hard goal to set yourself that’ll keep you coming back.

I can be that player, but with the lack of visual aid like a ghost showing me how efficient I should be in a Time Trial, or a tutorial that’ll help me sustain a combo to bag a higher score from tricks, I’m left without a parkour paddle. This is where Rooftops & Alleys falters in its design for me. These are perfectly competent levels I could visualise my way around, with loads of space to perform tricks and gain a combo, but the requirements for both are flawed.

With Trick Trials in particular, I was initially using the whole allotted space to trick in, despite an enclosing barrier gradually making the arbitrary arena smaller. However, I found playing a more efficient way was to use one obstacle to trick off and repeat until I get a high score. It’s the antithesis of what parkour should look and play like, and not being incentivised to improvise in a flashy way made the game’s core progression loop tiresome.

Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge!

The combo meter, in particular, gives you less time to perform the next trick the higher your score is. By the time I got to a 20x, it felt nigh on impossible to continue the combo without feeling like I’m cheesing the game. Maybe I’m playing it wrong, but this goes back to not knowing any better, as the game doesn’t show me how to be.

Outside of the trophy hunting aspect, I didn’t much care for the missions. Depending on your score, you can earn pigeon feathers (it’s a motif for the game, don’t ask). The more you accrue, the more clothes you unlock for your android-looking character. They’re all streetwear-inspired, featuring hoodies, pants, trainers, backpacks, headphones, and your robotic visor (eyes). They’re cool enough, with a decent variety, but they’re not spurring me on to push through the difficult challenges.

All in all, Rooftops & Alleys has a great starting foundation, albeit with a tough start to master its controls. There’s an online mode where you can explore the levels and play games like Tag with a couple of friends, which may extend the game’s mileage. But for right now, the levels are light, challenges feel unfair, making me disengaged with them, and the visuals are fine enough, but not as stylish as the parkour you’re performing. I’m hoping this gets continued support, because there’s a fun game to be had, it’s just not as fun for me outside of the core gameplay.

Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game is out now for PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

Developers: MLMEDIA

Publisher: MLMEDIA, Radical Theory, Shine Group

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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