If you're not into graffiti yet, then this game will make sure you are by the end of it.
First off, I'm not extremely into graffiti. I like it, but that's as far as it goes. Well, as it went. This game drew me in to the point where I wanted to buy spray paint and go around tagging the city. The game's story is kinda like God of War, you start off at the end, and then play through one big flashback. Whereas in the game above you start at a suicide attempt, here you'll see the main character Trane hanging onto some sort of zeppelin, wondering how he got himself in that tight spot. The game starts off with this simple graffiti artist, who gets in trouble with the local graffiti crew, and tries to get his revenge on 'em. At that point you wouldn't guess that you're dealing with a guy who's gonna try to change the city he lives in with his tags. That's what I found a bit odd at first, trying to change the entire city with something as simple as graffiti, but somehow it works in this game.
On to the major issue here, the graffiti. The game's slogan is "Get in. Get up. Get out." This just means get to the spot where you want to leave your lovely non-appreciated art, leave it, and get the hell out of there. That's pretty much what the game is made up of. You usually start off a level with a short cutscene, showing you the primary targets, and then it's up to you to leave your mark there. The levels take a little time to figure out, but you've just got to keep in mind that you happen to be one of the most acrobatic dudes around, and can do pretty much anything. Once you've figured out Trane's abilities, it's pretty easy to see where to go next, and once you've found a path, the game's usually pretty straight forward. Of course, a game isn't much of a challenge without some sort of enemies, and here you'll not only deal with the rival writers (which is what the graffiti artists are called), but in time you'll have some sort of private militia coming after you too. But the key to avoid being shot by those guys is stealth. If you creep around a bit you can probably get close enough to hit a fool on his head with your can or a conveniantly placed brick, and otherwise Trane's still got some tricks upon his sleeve to take care of whatever the city throws at him. For you see, you're not only dealing with one of the most acrobatic dudes around, but also with one of the most talented fighters around. This all makes "Get in." a challenge, though it's never extremely difficult. Also, if you seem to have lost track of the primary (and secondary) targets, there's an intuition mode which will show large X's onscreen, and you know : X marks the spot.
The next part is to "Get up." This means to do what you do best, next to acrobatic stuff and kicking the (beep) out of people. And that is graffiti. If you get to a wall that's fit for graffiti (well, pretty much every wall is, but if it's fit for some real good stuff) you'll see the outlining of your tag glowing on that specific wall. You can change the tag, it's size, and sometimes it's color, before applying it, which isn't too hard itself. All you need to do is move your can all over the tag to make sure it's painted pretty solid, without staying in one spot too long and causing drips. At first this may be a little problematic, but once again it's nothing you won't get used to through the course of the game. However, there is one downside to the graffiti. The variety is great, and it all looks very good, but you can only select a few designs to use in each level. This is a bummer, because there's so much good graffiti in the game, but it gets a bit repetitive if you're spraying the same tag about 5 times in each level. The only thing left for Trane to do then is "Get out.", which in my opinion speaks for itself.
The game has a great gameplay, and a great story, but another thing that makes this game so amazing is it's sound. Not only the voices of the characters which include quite a few celebrities, but the soundtrack too. The game makes great use of it's songs, for instance Serj Tankian's remix of "Who Shot Ya" by Biggie Smalls, Bloc Party's "Helicopter" and Kasabian's "Club Foot", and at the same time creates a great atmosphere in it's menu's with songs like "Mountain Song" by Jane's Addiction. This all contributes to the urban experience in this game, and all the music seems to fit the graffiti scene extremely well.
So there you have it. This game was something completely new, and an absolute succes in my eyes. And like Gamespot itself says, this is THE game for people that are into graffiti, but it's also enjoyable for people who're just looking for a solid action game.