Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure E3 2005 Preshow Report

Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure is arguably one of the most intriguing games on the horizon this year. While it would be easy to chalk this up to the involvement of entrepreneur Ecko, a self-made mogul who's head of one of the most successful fashion companies around, that's actually not the main reason we've been interested in this unique title. What has appealed to us the most about this upcoming third-person action game from the Collective and publisher Atari is the promise of something new. Ever since the game's trailer first hit, we've been charmed by its ambitious mix of urban culture, graffiti, and action gameplay. The combination of Ecko's lofty aspirations and the Collective's experience as a console developer has certainly left us eager to see just how the game is going to come together. We got our first hints of what the game is going to offer at Atari's recent pre-E3 event, where we finally got to see the game in motion. Did the game live up to expectations? Read on.

You're a graffiti-tagger-turned-urban-hero in Marc Ecko's Getting Up.

For those who haven't followed Getting Up, here's a quick primer. The game was first announced last May just prior to E3 2004 and is set in the near future. You're cast as an up-and-coming graffiti artist named Trane, who must make his name on the streets of a city called New Radius. The fictional metropolis is an eye-catching patchwork of elements of New York and Japan, and it offers a rich playground to explore. The plot starts out being focused pretty heavily on Trane and his needs, but it soon takes on a much larger scope as Trane stumbles on a government conspiracy that endangers all graffiti artists. You wind up being sent on a unique adventure that casts you as an unlikely hero for the denizens of New Radius.

The demo of Getting Up by Atari reps and Ecko showed off two areas--one set on and around one of the city's freeways and another set on a subway train--which yielded a sampling of the diverse gameplay being packed into the unique adventure. At its most basic, Getting Up is an objective-based third-person action game that sends you out to explore New Radius. Your goals will range from simply tagging certain objects in the world to facing off against rival graffiti artists or a dangerous assortment of law enforcement.

The first area we saw, which opened with Trane being led through the level by one of his homeys, was a densely packed showcase for Getting Up's gameplay. The level began with Trane making his way across a busy freeway, avoiding a crowd of fast-moving cars that would squash him like a bug if he weren't careful. Once on the other side of the street, Trane faced off against a rival tagger who felt the need to throw down with the young hero, which offered a good teaser for the combat in the game. The fight was straightforward enough; Trane dispatched the threat with a good mix of punches, kicks, and a well-timed throw. The combat appears to make good use of the Collective's experience with fighting mechanics that have been honed in such games as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. Following that brief brawl, Trane continued playing follow the leader and nimbly scaled a series of pipes up to a new area. The climbing sequence, which was repeated several times during our demo as Trane made his way through the area, was more than just the typical climbing sequence you'd find in an action game. Besides the obvious Prince of Persia-style jumping, gripping, and shimmying, Getting Up's gameplay will let you tag just about anything as you make your way around. But we'll touch on the game's tagging mechanic shortly.

In addition to tagging buildings, you'll need to put the beat down on rival taggers.

Once Trane reached a new segment of the highway, a few things of note were going on. A government worker could be seen painting over graffiti, and a rival crew could be seen hanging around, just asking for a beat down. The unique aspect of the encounter was the threat posed by multiple opponents. Fortunately Trane's moves are flexible enough to deal with being outnumbered, as you'll be able to pick up anything that's handy, such as car batteries, lead pipes, or cinder blocks, to give your blows that extra oomph. Once the competition had been dealt with and Trane had avoided a police helicopter by hiding behind a billboard, the level ended when Trane tagged his main objective in the area.