Recent reviews by PINK SKYLINE

As a huge JSRF fan, I had very high expectations for this game. Seeing JSRF references on every corner (huge speakers, UFO, roboboy, more or less same-style locations), I will be reviewing this game and comparing it to JSRF, even though it's not a carbon copy. It brings a lot of interesting game-play mechanics to the table. I even fired up Xbox and gave JSRF a go after 20 hours of BRC; some nostalgia-induced memories vanished. That game (JSRF) is so sluggish compared to BRC.

Reviews claiming that this is a bad game, etc., compared to JSRF, need a reality check, as this game certainly does some things better than JSRF (and some things worse). To keep it short, here are the pros and cons.

• BRC has a very fluid and smooth movement system. The combination of jetpack and "manual" trick gives almost no room for losing combo. It keeps the movement flow very smooth and funky. It also does not feel soapy like Hover.
  
• The music is fantastic. Love it. Got the soundtrack here on Steam and put the sweet, uncompressed files on my phone. Listening to the BRC soundtrack outside with (real) inlines is amazing.
  
• BRC has OK maps, with many cool spots to visit and rails to grind. The atmosphere is good, with each stage's style and feel. But it needs more space to make it exciting and has too much dead space connecting these limited rooms.
  
• Huge robots and machinery. There are tons of those, and they fit really well within the setting. Just like JSRF did with the huge spider robot, jets, and whatnot. It looks fantastic, and they are all interactive.
  
• Big character and graffiti selection. The choice is massive. Unfortunately, you get not even half of that by the time the story is complete. The unlocks are just too spread out, with no incentive or hints to collect them, making it more of a side thing, and you only begin collecting your crew after the story is all done. But the choice is there, which is nice.
  
• Gear selection. You get inclined, bike, and skate. Awesome, great. Although, inlines are discriminated against, which seems like a colossal miss. Read the "Cons section for details."

• The game feels small but not necessarily short. It's more compact, while JRSF is more open and expansive but somewhat empty. BRC took about 24 hours for me to get story+achievments (not all collectibles/characters unlocked, but most). JSRF took me about 33 hrs to get 100% completion, so it's about the same, but BRC feels smaller, which I don't like.
  
• The Grafitty system is weird. I like that it's new and not a copy of JSRF, but it just feels tedious and not that rewarding with a controller. You spin it and get (one of) the styles you happen (or choose to) to dial in. It doesn't feel satisfying. It needs the finger trigger. You're pressing the can nozzle, drawing graffiti, not massaging a palm. Yes, I'm not a fan of the original Dreamcast JSR mechanic either, but at least it's giving you a challenge. This one is no skill. Anything goes.
  
• Difficulty. Police are useless, and games give almost no challenge, which is disappointing.
  
• The game has a weird relationship with speed and what it rewards you for. Towards the end-game, you end up with the "best" strategy to get around and keep spamming it. Of course, I'm talking about spamming air-boosted tricks and hard corners over and over with some manuals here and there to do distances fast. Grinding itself is not rewarded by the game, nor tricks (non-boosted ones).
  
• A more minor issue is that there is only one air-boosted trick (per gear type) no matter the button you press, unlike non-boosted tricks that are unique for X, Y, and B.
  
• Map sucks. Or at least missing something. It does not show you what is where. I can live with the fact that it does not show streets and where routes take you. You can look around and remember. But it needs taxi spots (which led me to not use taxis ever since they are so hard to locate), various characters you can talk to post-game, and some other things that could be marked there (high-five unlockable booths, etc.).
  
• Clear bias against using inlines for tricks. Inlines manual is significantly inferior to both skating and biking. Devs could have used heel-toe as the manual instead of powerslide with both feet. I understand it's not as flashy, and the powerslide is the JSRF way to go, but this makes you select board or bike if you want to get any score.
  
• Sliding mechanic. This was on the "idea" whiteboard, forgotten throughout the development cycle, and introduced sparsely at the last moment. That's the feeling I get. It's (mostly) useless and needs to be explained (as in why you slide up the hill and go faster). Still, it could be done better or utilized not only for those long site-to-site level connections. You have teleports for that, so corridors do not have to exist there.
  
• The story. Weird, and I don't get it. OK, if the game is going for the "deep" Interstellar-type of narrative, but it's a funky game about teens on skates. The story could have been made less mature and easier to digest. Or some sort of summary between the chapters to say what happened and what is going on, as JSRF did with DJ announcements occasionally. I found it hard to follow. I get that cops are out to get you and make this and that, but between the whole DJ head-replacement surgery and the betrayal with the fan, it all got mixed up in my head.

Is the game good? Yes, it's very good, but not "10/10". Some things could have been better.
Is it expensive? At 39.99 EUR, it is very expensive for what it gives. Devs know it's a good game, and good devs don't work for a pack of quick noodles.
Should you get it? Do you like JSRF? What a modern twist on that? Go ahead if you do. The game is ready, and I only had cosmetic bugs playing it. It's fun. If you aren't sure, wait for a sale.


What's the best thing about the game? Atmosphere, music, and flow. It's a nice solid mix that's very JSRF-like.
What's the worst thing about the game? Honestly, the fact that it feels small/short is the worst part (read the cons section above) because the vastness and emptiness of JSRF are part of the aesthetic (I do understand that this is really a dev-team-size-constraint, and bigger maps require more hours/people doing the work). Still, it under-delivers and feels much smaller than it should. Too compact and too saturated.

Saved after a tsunami spawned on the edge of the map.
Had 2 tsunami warning beacons. Did not do ♥♥♥♥.
4 square map oblitirated. Savegame ruined. Nothing to do.

I was looking forward to trying out this game based primarily on positive feedback in the reviews.

The game, in its current state, is not playable. It is a dev-build, but even all the "jankiness" aside, I could not make myself go through past the tutorial.

Here are the issues I have experienced in the 10 minutes of the tutorial level in no particular order.

• The tutorial has a lot of text to explain basic things like moving the joystick to move and press to run (oh really? that is usually how any VR title works, but okay). It is frustrating to have to read so much text. Still, the worst part is that there is absolutely no explanation of how to reload or use the mechanics of the various items. So you explain the obvious stuff but do not mention the advanced stuff. (Yes, I know you pull the yellow thing, but I could not figure out how to do it)
  
• You can not rotate with the joystick, like at all. Instead, you need to rotate your whole body. Big no-no.
  
• The 2-second-long monster sound loops in the tutorial are very annoying. I get it. Monsters. Spooky sounds. But when I am reading these walls trying to understand how to reload, it is just super annoying to hear it repeatedly.
  
• I did not figure out how to use the assault rifle. The mag would drop out from it at random intervals. There was no animation of reload, and I spent 5 minutes trying to reload. I have 60hrs in Into the Radius and 200hrs on Pavlov, so this is not my first VR title with guns. I gave up. I did figure out the SMG, but it was extremely clunky to use.
  
• Grab of items is seemingly at random spots. Each time I grab an item, it is held differently. It takes a lot of work to grab it by the trigger/handle and actually use it.
  
• The bindings for buttons are way off the "good defaults" in any other game with guns. The mag drops when you hold the gun with two hands and press B on the NON-DOMINANT hand... Like what? What game does it this way? It is always A or B on the hand you hold it with, while the other does the "laser," "flashlight," toggle, or whatever you have.

This is not an Early Access game; it is an extremely early dev-build that I find too raw, even if you call it Early Access. Given all the issues listed above in the first 10 minutes, I could not see myself enjoying this title. Refunded.

I also have doubts about the legitimacy of some of the reviews. They seem to be written by the same person (very similar language/phrasing). They have very little time playing the game (as little as 10-15 minutes), yet claim it is very fun. I expect you to play the game for more than 1-2 hours if it is enjoyable and give it a review that speaks of what is good about it. This pattern of very positive similar reviews with almost no game-time can indicate bought/bot reviews. It does not have to be, but it looks like it.

Very atmospheric, nice attention to detail

Game-breaking camera bug does not let me play the game.
The support has ignored my report while replying to and handling other, newer reports. Unclear why.

Boring

The main character has arthritis and moves at a speed of a snail in slow motion.
Enemies are OP, checkpoints are extremely scarce and do not let you save before stupid chase sequences.
You die all the time and the game is extremely boring.

I like how they mention that this game takes 10 hrs to beat. Of f***ing course it takes 10 hrs to beat if you walk at a speed of a paralysed snail. Make the character at least sprint at a normal walking pace and the game will become 5 hrs long. Remove the stupid slow motion chases and you're down to 2 hrs tops.

When you get the sawed-off you think okay finally I have some firepower. Well, no you don't. It shoots air, literally. Air. The enemies tilt backwards 3 cm when you shoot them and keep going (by going I mean sliding across floor with no animation, very buggy). Shooting them is like spitting in their faces, they tilt a bit for half a second, like sneezing, then keep going.

I tried my best to progress but I'm tired of redoing same sequence of slow motion snail walking simulator 99 times over and over. 90% of the game is redoing same sequence over and over after you die. It's like the main gameplay portion of the game - redoing same puzzle untill you just go to steam help and refund this scam.

This game is pretty good, there is definitely something about it.
I've been playing it over and over. It's so simple and so well made.
Optimising all the resources is a great challenge in this game, you're going to lose and start over many times. Try out different approaches for each scenario.

+ The UI is very clean, helpful and not in your way. Love it.
+ Very easy to pick up the basics, yet enough customisation to not be too shallow.
+ Sound design is truly amazing
+ Art-style is so great, and I'm not a particular fan of steampunk.
+ Law-system is a really cool way of levelling up your settlement, with tough choices along the way.
+ "Automation" or the huge walking "AT-AT" is a really cool part of the game.

* Game is ruthless and unforgiving, plan ahead if you want to beat it

- The scout system, especially map can be a bit of pain in the ass to manage, given it's small angle of view, making some icons harder to reach and point at.
- The sudden temperature drop and rise at night can catch you off guard and make you lose the small side quests about keeping houses warm, you REALLY need to pay attention at forecast, and act before the temp drops. Can be a bit annoying.

50 hrs in-game I'm ready to tell my opinion. Starting off, this game is raw, buggy, and unfinished. Think Bethesda. Nothing game-breaking but not as smooth as it should be. CDPR already released a statement saying they will be patching it.

With that said, this is a true experience. Packed to the rim with a bunch of stuff that will never let you concentrate on the quest at hand, and always encourage you to try this and that. I like that, somebody might not.


• Graphics are amazing, aside from some ray-tracing surfaces that look very fake, unrealistically glossy, and reflective. The game lacks subsurface scattering, making skin look like papier-mâché more than jelly.
• Story. Very interesting, it drags you in and makes you want to know what happens next, just as it should be.
• Quests. Every quest is a story that might take a turn you never expected. You can see that devs put the time into each and every side-quest. They are interesting, no A-to-B type of crap.
• Upgrades. Deus-ex type of upgrades, very customizable and hard to obtain in the beginning, but OP once you get enough eddies to buy em.
• Voice acting. I really like it, you might not. Matter of taste.
• Sniper rifle shots. Depending on the sniper rifle you use, of course, but if you come along "Overwatch" or anything of that caliber, shooting it, hearing the heavy bang and reload sound is just something out of this world. Animations are just as great. Really well made!

• Learning curve. This game takes 8 hrs just to come to splash screen/finish tutorial. For people used to casual no-brainer point-and-shoot, this will be the downfall and they will hate the game before they come to the splash screen. For people who lust for a deep, large, and content-filled world this is perfect, but it will take time to learn the ropes.
• Performance. Packing an ASUS Strix 3080 (all settings maxed out, DLSS at Balanced) you can expect 50-80 FPS depending on location with eventual drops to 30 in heavy areas. That's not terrible but it's far from good.
• Vehicle handling/physics. Quite poor honestly. I enjoy the weight shift that is very well implemented, car bouncing back and forth, but the impacts with surroundings and hand-braking are very fake. Motorcycle physics is just a straight arcade. Reminds me of Watch Dogs Legion, that game is a disaster in vehicle handling.
• Bugs. This game has plenty. 95% of them are cosmetical and just break immersion, while the other 5% may require you to reload your saved game.
• Scripting. This is a con of its own. The scripts are heavily flawed, and often incorporate 5-10 second delays between lines, actions, stuff going on. It feels like the world freezes and unfreezes and you're the only person to notice it.
• Nudity. It's an adult game where you can customize penis size and pubic hair color, but it puts pants on your character in sex-scenes. What's up with that? Either own it or censor it. Going half-way feels like a waste of everyone's time.
• Moire-effect. Aliasing at it's finest. If you see illusive circles expanding and shrinking as you move on most of the NPC's clothes that ruin the image quality, you've found it. Now you can't unsee. This game suffers from moire effects a lot.

• AI. It's sometimes braindead, sometimes not. Mostly braindead tho.
• Facial expressions. True potential wasted. Great faces, great textures, and great animations. Scripted bugs making the NPC switch in and out of emotions, activating wrong emotions at the wrong time, and just those 5-10 second delays mentioned earlier, all breaks the immersion.
• DLSS. This will make your FPS go from 30 to 60, and make the character blurry, with a warped and sheared face and a bunch of AI image processing artifacts. The implementation of DLSS in this game needs a re-do.

This game is very buggy, it has an interesting story and a bunch to offer you as an RPG-fan.
Should you get this game for 60EUR? It depends.

Do you have a powerful PC, okay with Bethesda-style glitches and love cyberpunk style? Get it.

Are you a casual FPS point-and-shoot player who doesn't want to go through huge learning curve and just want to shoot some heads? This is not the game for you.

Are you somewhere inbetween? Get it on the next sale once most bugs are mitigated.

It's not the best game out there, but it's very chill to play.

Some toxic people will try to ruin the game by bullying in groups but muting usually solves it.