Walking into this game, you dont really know what to expect... Is it a platformer? A beat-em-up? A game about graffiti like Jet Set Radio Future? In truth, it's not like any of these things, but it's a little like all of them. What you will play is the perfect example of how every element of the game isn't perfect, but when added together, it becomes greater than the sum of its individual parts.

This game is a love letter to the art form of graffiti like nothing else that came before it. Games often allow us to experience things we wouldn't be able to normally, and this game shows us both sides of graffiti: How people who aren't writers view what they do, and how the artists themselves view thier art. You learn why they do insane things, like climbing skyscrapers and elevated train tracks to put up art that few others can appreciate. You will come to hate making mistakes that lead to drips, and to apprecate what they do to express themselves.

The entire game takes place in the city of New Radius, which is part New York and part Tokyo. This allows for some atypical places to see tagging, like a subway car, and some not so typical, like a giant zepplin in the sky. Our hero, Trane, is a young man who leaves his family behind to pursue his art. He becomes the focal point in a story about art, freedom, and expression. The city government, lead by a headline seeking mayor and a partially insane chief of police, has started to crackdown on vandalism, graffiti artists in particular. Trane manages to elude the police and becomes public enemy number one as the story goes on. I won't give much away here, but the game has some phenomenal voicework and cameos by legendary graffiti artists.

The game basically boils down to three elements: Combat, Stealth, and Bombing (putting up art). The combat is good, but not exceptional. While it doesn't have the element that The Warriors has, it has enough depth to make it a serviceable brawler. Trane has a Punch, Kick, Jump, and Evade buttons. He can mix up punch and kick attacks at will, leading to some nice variations. As he hits enemies, he builds up his Skillz meter which can then be used to deliver a power attack. His Skillz meter drains fast, so you have to be sure you're connecting with your hits or you waste power. He can also pull a special punch, followed by a humiliation attack (a slap, kick, or spray of paint to the face). L blocks attacks, and the B button evades. You'll often find yourself using evade a lot, as Trane's block is good but not perfect, and evading allows him to get behind an enemy's defense. There is also a semi-useful grapple move by hitting X+Y together, then wiggling the joystick to pull the enemy off balance. The problem is that enemies can escape this quickly, and the method of pulling them off balance is awkward. Thankfully, Trane can also hit enemies on the ground, which is what you will find yourself doing most often.

Stealth is where the game has its most annoying problems. The camera often chooses the worst angles, and the button which allows first person mode (more on that later) doesn't switch into that mode while Trane is trying to be stealthy. Trane also stands partially up while moving in sneak mode, so moving around near an enemy is risky at best. Still, if Trane can deliver a stealth attack to the back of his enemy's head, he will knock them out instantly. Since our hero can move while he is winding up his stealth attack, this is a great weapon. However, the game FORCES stealth on you by flooding some areas with constant backup. No matter how many times you take out that patrolling police officer, another one is just going to arrive mere seconds later to take his place... and usually catches you laying up the artwork in the area you knocked out his buddy. These forced stealth areas are annoying and unnecessary. I don't mind officers coming to look for their fallen comrades, but not mere seconds after they were knocked out, and not without some kind of radio contact.

Tagging graffiti is where the game manages to redeem itself, but even this has problems. Before you head into an area, you can customize three slots (you have four slots, but one is always locked) with Layups (large and stylish tags), Murals (detailed painted pictures), Wheat Paste, or posters. You also can setup Freeform Art that you can put anywhere there is a writeable surface. These include stickers, large markers, stencils, and aersol spray patterns. The Freeform Art is used to fulfill hidden challenges, like tagging a police van with ten marks or covering a door with stencils. The four slots of Layups, however, are used to get yourself noticed. Trance uses his "Intuition" to spot places to Bomb, then you have to figure out how to get Trane to that spot. Sometimes it can be simple, like writing over another graffitti artist's work on a wall, and sometimes, you will have to pull a Prince of Persia and go wall cimbing. Trane can shimmy around ledges, climb drain pipes, jump from pole to pole, and walk across tight beams. He isn't as graceful as say, Lara Croft or the Prince, but he can get almost anyplace with ease.

Once you're there, you can tap the directional pad to choose your lay-up, and its size. The bigger the better, and the larger the lay-up, the more reputation you earn from it. You then hold R to enter paint mode, and press X lay down paint. You don't have to switch colors or anything, as Trane does that for you, but you do have to pace yourself, because the paint can only be sprayed so long before it has to be shaken up. The up and down directional buttons are used to adjust the height of your spray, while the left and right buttons move you along the piece. Y eventually becomes a faster spray, and you will need to learn to use this in order to get tags done quickly. Be careful though, for if you spray too fast, you will cause drips, which reduces the amount of reputation you get for a piece. This section of the game is well designed, but the game chooses terrible angles to show the areas to spray, which makes it hard to do work without drips. This strikes me as bad design. Making Trane translucent would have been a better choice than a nearly ninty degree camera angle on a verticle surface.

Graphics are passable, but not exceptional. Sometimes, mouths or lips seem to hang off a body rather than be attached to them. Also, hands are blocky and undefined. Aside from some weapon and spray animations, item animations seem disconnected. The music, however, is phenomenal. I haven't heard RJD2 before, but his work is exceptional. The soundtrack is a mix of classic hip-hop and rap, and all of it is exceptional. I can honestly say, there isn't a bad song choice in the entire game, and the Collectors' Edition soundtrack is worth the extra ten dollars to pick up.

If you're a fan of graffiti art, or good music, this is a must buy. Just make sure you get the Collectors' Edition. Otherwise, rent it before you buy it.