Fighting opression with art (Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (PS2))

Member Name: TOMY3192

Product:	Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (PS2)
Date:	27/08/08 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great storyline

Disadvantages: slighlty poor graphics

Getting up: contents under pressure is the 2006 graffiti/action game developed by Collective inc.

Synopsis

The game is split up into roughly two 'halves'. You play as Coltrane 'Trane' Crowley, an amateur graffiti artist intent on 'getting up' , writing his name, over the city of New radius. After getting beat up by the leader of the largest graffiti crew in new radius, the vandals of new radius (VaNr), you become intent on getting revenge. By working your way through a diverse range of missions you slowly begin to make a name for yourself, getting up in the headquarters of the VaNr. In the second half of the game, you set up your own crew, the still free crew (SFC). You make friends with the leader on the VaNr, and together try to systematically take down the oppressive government of the city, and their henchmen the CCK, uncovering a dark secret along the way that will jeopardise your life, and the life of the people around you.

Game-play

The whole theme of the game is graffiti. At the start of the game, you start with very basic levels of graffiti, using only markers and stickers. Unlocking graffiti spray in the second level. To spray paint you actually move the analog stick to move the spray can, and must go over every part of an outline, whilst it gets filled in real time. A very realistic way of spray painting allows this game to rise from being just good, to great. You must also use 'Trane's' athletic ability to jump from beams, hang from ledges, walk across narrow walkways, all to 'Get up' in the 'Heaven spots', high spots where you earn more points whilst spray painting. There are five things that allow you to earn more points when spray painting.

'Go Big' - you can chose whether to use a smaller version of a tag, or a larger version, to earn more points

'Time' -By completing the tag in the allotted time allows for more points.

'No drips' - By spray painting the same area for too long makes the paint drip, do this zero times in one tag to earn extra points

'Heaven spot'- By spraying in high, dangerous or hard to reach places earns you extra points.

'Go over'- By painting over someone else's tag, you earn more points.

The game is not based on points, and is doesn't matter how well you do the painting. There are a staggering amount of missions. There are at least ten chapters consisting of about, on average, 4 missions per chapter. The storyline is truly original, and there is the added bonus of meeting real graffiti artists, who help you refine your techniques, offering a wider selection of painting abilities. There is also a fighting aspect to the game, which doesn't overpower other aspects of the game, such as the graffiti, it seemlessly ties in, becoming part of the overall feel.
Using a selection of different moves you can kick, punch and grapple. You can also use weapons, such as crates, planks of wood, and later in the game unlocking the 'Spray-paint flamethrower' by spraying your paint can into the flame of a lighter.

Before you start missions you can customize your 'black book', allowing you to choose what spray painting art you can use during a mission, along with markers and different sets of stickers. It really is a great game that should definitely be played by gaming fans. The graphics are not the best I've ever seen, but the storyline more than makes up for it. The missions are great, especially ones when you tag moving trains, dodging objects as you go.

A wonderfully original game.

Summary: A great game