No Straight Roads is now available, a decidedly rhythmic beat ’em up that pits rock and roll forces against the evils of electronic dance music (EDM).
Designed through Wan Hazmer (lead game designer for Final Fantasy XV) and Daim Dziauddin (Street Fighter V concept artist), No Straight Roads doesn’t look like any of those wonderful titles, yet it looks and feels like a cross between Scott Pilgrim and the global and radio Jet Set. Take on Bunk Bed Junction’s protagonists Mayday and Zuke opposed to NSR, a mega corporation that turns EDM’s rhythms into effect for the city of Vinyl City. NSR is described as the ultimate villain, a company that not only forces its citizens to love EDM above any other musical genre, but also a company that accumulates strength for itself and the elite of society.
When shooting at all cylinders, No Straight Roads is something worth watching, a demonstration of sound and softness accompanied by a lot of enthusiasm. The gameplay is relatively simple; Playing alone or in cooperation with two, Mayday and Zuke have an attack button, a dodge button, a parade, combined ability (that’s Zuke’s specialty, in fact) and special attacks that cause damage or heal the group. Although No Straight Roads says the attack should be carried out at the pace, this is basically done in the sections that lead to vinyl City’s various incredibly exclusive bosses. As we said in our preview, boss battles are where they are (almost to the point where you would like the pre-boss stuff removed), the desire to parody is much greater with a handful of bosses than the overall package would make you believe.
Unfortunately, No Straight Roads is inconsistent and wants to be subtle in many spaces to align high-level concepts and themes with what is presented in the world. There are wonderful allegories that fail, a massive disconnect with what the global message hopes to achieve. I honestly called a main plot point from the first few minutes of the show opening, but enough; As a more productive example, the total delight is to take on the EDM, but Hazmer and Dziauddin felt the desire to explain that they like the musical genre in the game’s final credits. Is it music? Is it a policy problem? Should you think of a piano recital like EDM? Are boybands that bad? Aren’t there even safe straight paths to answers to these questions? Honestly, I don’t know.
The Global Vinyl City is really charming and fits very slightly as you go. In reality, however, the city ends up being a long street that you are forced to travel continuously to succeed in the next boss, and if exploration is encouraged, there is no massive incentive to do so. Otherwise, you might not gain enthusiasts for character progression (but forgot to use them for longer) or embark on parallel missions with Zuke’s brother, DK West.
In the case of the latter, I don’t know how a solo player can overcome those missions. In those, you are tasked with controlling two other musical tracks reflected to obstacles, and even though I see how a team of two players can beat them, a solo player will end up frustrated. The songs (song?) DK are also earworms, so be careful. In terms of character progression? My recommendation is to empty as much as you can in ammo capacity, because maximum boss fights will turn into fights where you only wait for more projectiles to be thrown at a villain as the only way to fight.
No direct path turns out to be doubtful of himself, prompting this desire to run through the streets of Vinyl City, and with those dead boss sequences mentioned above, but towards the end of the game, he makes the decision to run through Vinyl City. becomes dead. It is in those sections (where you randomly jump by helicopter) that the village crossing would have had the maximum impact. These sections are also not billed, which leads me to possibly have rushed to send the game on time.
As for vocal performance, I’m very happy with the exclusive DNA of No Straight Roads. Metronomik is founded in Malaysia and is evident from the beginning of its game. The characters speak English, but have decidedly Malay accents. Better yet, some local languages and gestures come into play, and I hope it’s something other developers notice and experience with themselves.
Despite its flaws, there are some attractive concepts, an intelligent leader and a district design and a definitive message of equality that has been presented inside; If we have a sequel, I hope more time will be devoted to a narrative and connective fabric that will do justice to the total package. No Straight Roads will be available on Windows PC, Xbox One and PS4 starting today, August 25, with a Switch edition below. If you like the look at the demo above, look for many verbal exchange topics in the full edition.
No Straight Roads was reviewed a promo code on Windows PC through the Epic Games Store, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about the Stevivor scoring scale.
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