3/5 ★ – Chaos_Controller's review of Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game.

Rooftops and Alleys is an ambitious game for a single developer. A dedicated parkour game is something many of us have been wanting for years. And there is genuine fun to be had here. The tricks feel satisfying to pull off and they look really cool. There can be a great flow state of you're doing well with this relatively complex parkour system that doesn't really hold your hand. There's also some cool customization here. I know the developer put those Sonic-esque shoes on there on purpose. However, you can really tell it is made by one person. Certain elements of the parkour system feel incredibly finnicky and inconsistent. You might try to do a (far too short) wall run, but despite your character running at the wall diagonally, you'll still run up the wall instead, which is endlessly frustrating. Generally, anything that requires the left trigger feels janky and inconsistent. There's also actual input delay between moves which is really annoying. You'll be pressing a button combination and nothing happens. Furthermore, the combo system for tricks is kinda ridiculous. The game has these trick challenges where you're supposed to rack up points. And omg these are the worst. The points system already feels wildly stingy, but the time limits awfully short, the area you do them in is tiny and often feels unfit for doing much, and on top of that, THE AREA SHRINKS. I really don't know what the idea behind this was. They're so not fun. Cause they're simply just not how you'd play the game under any circumstance. The time trials are the ones that feel more fit to the game's core gameplay loop. Though these aren't without issues, with some routes feeling very unintuitive or straight up boring. Which leads me into the last point. The maps. There's only 6 of them. And they're all pretty small. To be fair, once again, this was made by one guy. But man this game is just not very well fit to this structure. Had this game had a small open world to run around in, it could've become a great game you could hop on to just relax and run around in. As it stands, these levels have already gotten old after 9 hours. Hell, the ship map is straight up not good. Either way, for €25, it's certainly worth a try. This isn't the kinda game you'll find often, and hopefully it'll get more maps and modes in the future, and further polish to its gameplay and combo system.