TAGLINE

Unfortunately, this game, while stylish, is flawed on a very fundamental level. The core of the game is that you can swap between five different powers, holding one in each hand. You get powers from graffiti in the environment that correspond to five colours and each power can attack but also act as a movement ability. The catch is that this is a first-person game with a lot of platforms to fall off of. Already, we run into the same issue that [u]Mirror's Edge[/u] and [u]Ghostrunners[/u] ran into that first-person is a horrible perspective for platforming because you can't see yourself in relation to the environment. Those games were good in [i]spite[/i] of being first-person, not because of it. [u]TAGLINE[/u] has an even worse problem in that the world is grey and separate platforms will look the same, so you can't tell what the edge is until you've walked off of it or overestimated how far you needed to jump. Most of your abilities work by pointing at something; the yellow REVERB, for instance, is a shotgun blast that can propel you in the opposite direction that you fire it in. The problem with this being a first-person game is that, to maximise the utility of this ability, you will need to look away from the direction you're travelling in to quickly swivel the camera in an entirely different direction, fire, and then reorient the camera, which is easier said than done because this game wants you to go very fast and that split second of looking away will remind you why so many ads on TV are about not being distracted by your phone while driving. Not to mention the very function of acquiring these powers gels poorly with the format of the game. A system like this works better in a more dynamic game where the goals and circumstances change and you need to update your powerset on the fly, leading to engaging and exciting moments of tension where you make do with what you have until you're able to trade up. Here, that's not the case. You see, you explore these open environments and look for terminals to take on side missions. So much of your time will be starting a mission, realising your two equipped powers are ill-suited for it, going off to get more fitting powers, and then starting the mission again. The game has style and I appreciate the aesthetic. The problem is that the design just doesn't work, which is a shame.

feels like your character has wet bars of soap tied to their shoes at all times. what should have felt like a seamless platforming experience with unique mechanics ends up getting hindered by horrendously slippery controls. most of my health was not sapped by the in-game enemies that only show up when you start breaking things in an otherwise barren world, but the fact my character had the zoomies and could not help but overshoot and fall off the buildings constantly, making the tight time-sensitive npc quests feel like a chore to accomplish.

[quote=] Review brought to you by [b] Abyssal Ascent Reviews [/b]. Please [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32607787-Abyssal-Ascent/]Follow[/url] and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/AbyssalAscent/]Join[/url]. Thanks! [/quote] TAGLINE is a game that's all about momentum. You can vault into chaining wall runs, slides, and rooftop jumps in a flow that feels incredibly smooth and satisfying. The city becomes your playground as every ledge, billboard, and pipe is a chance to keep your movement going. Tagging graffiti mid-run feels great while dodging drones and pulling off slick parkour lines is a constant rhythm of motion and reaction. Easy to pick up, hard to master, and even harder to put down.

Tagline is by far the best FPS of 2023. I am so glad I found this game, and so glad I was able to participate in the early stages of the game, especially along with the awesome community they foster. While I was playing they implemented developer medals and they were some of the most fun goals to chase. After 67 short hours I already know I'm going to miss this game.

[h1][b]TAGLINE is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise saturated genre.[/b][/h1] [b]TAGLINE is a Movement FPS Collectathon Platformer, and a good one at that.[/b] Taking place in a dystopian city, you find yourself amongst a crowd of rebels trying to take down the A.V.A.F, who wants to completely remove freedom by cleaning the city to a sterile state. You inherit powers from the graffiti you find all over, and you'll use these to move around and take down baddies. On your adventure, you'll be meeting new characters, collecting vinyl records and tapes, doing tasks, upgrading your abilities and living life on the Mirrors Ed- Jokes aside, TAGLINE takes a good amount of inspiration from the best parts of Jet Set Radio, Mirrors Edge (and catalyst), and old open world platformers of the past. Somewhat big levels crammed with lots to collect and do, all accompanied by a fantastic movement system. Even without the powers, the movement feels extremely fast, acceleration and momentum heavy, and completely liberating. Floaty, even, but not in a negative or bad way, a completely positive and fun way actually! Adding on the powers you get a movement system so tightly made that it becomes completely exhilarating to even just jump around. It's that good. Of those powers there are 5, each bringing a new way to either get around or engage in combat [*][b]Red - Compressor:[/b] Shoots out fast firing projectiles that will explode objects/enemies after enough shots, and can also be used to slow your descent by shooting downwards! [*][b]Blue - Hi-Hat:[/b] Places a jump-pad wherever you fire, whether on the floor, walls, ceiling, whatever! Shooting enemies will knock them back a little bit. [*][b]Green - Bitcrush:[/b] Create a crystalized shield to take less damage, in this form you'll accelerate even faster than before! Releasing will dash you in whatever direction you are facing. [*][b]Yellow - Reverb:[/b] Shoot out a blast of pellets that will knock back enemies and you alike! You'll need to shortly reload after firing it however. [*][b]Pink - Waveform:[/b] Charge up a pink crystal that does high damage to enemies and creates a platform on whatever surface you hit! [/list] You can hold two of these at a time with either one of your hands, allowing you to mix and match them to find your personal favourite combinations. Some are better in certain scenarios, such as Compression and Waveform being better for combat, or Hi-Hat and Reverb being better for movement. It creates a very engaging system where you decide what you want to use for which situation. [h1][b]With all that being said, I do have some issues with the game...[/b][/h1] Combat isn't very well executed, with large swarms of enemies bombarding you with little to no-way to counteract it apart from either 'run away' or 'trade damage and pray for health drops'. This is easily the part of the game that could've used the most fleshing out. The powers in the game are well executed, but I feel the game would have benefited with the addition of even just two more powers. The upgrades do help alleviate some of the staleness from the five powers, but the five you get begin to wear out after enough time. And on the topic of powers, Waveform feels near useless in movement and Hi-Hat feels completely meaningless in combat. I'm nearly convinced this is a deliberate choice to make you switch between the powers instead of just carrying them, but Waveform especially could have benefitted from say, an upgrade to place platforms mid-air. The challenges when going for platinum are tough, and to be fair, that's good, I like a good challenge. The problem however is that the majority of records are earned through these, and the quota to reach new areas is obscenely high for an average player. I've had experience with movement games and platformers, so I didn't have too much issue, but I could see this being a really big turn-off from the game for a casual player. Some of the challenges get a smidge repetitive too, but the movement and basketball challenges I always had fun with, I really enjoyed just jumping around. I just wish there was a little bit more variety with them, like new challenges being introduced later on. [h1][b]TL;DR[/b][/h1] [b]The game has amazing amounts of charm, from its characters, to its world, to even the graffiti on the walls, its all amazing stuff! Its fun to get lost in it's movement and go with the flow, even without any sense of direction. Also accompanied by an OST that screams Jet Set and rebel angst. It's got a few faults, but if you like a well crafted movement system you may be able to look past them. A complete hidden gem of a game that deserves more popularity, buy it if you have the money and you will not be disappointed.[/b]

I tried to like this. I played the demo and really enjoyed it, but I had some gripes with it. Apparently the issues I had hadn't been changed since the demo. The game itself looks very interesting - a blend of movement shooter with a style similar to games like Jet Set Radio. With a cool artstyle and an interesting mechanic of creating weapons from graffiti around the environment, I thought this would make for a fun game - review-worthy to be sure. It was worthy of a review, all right, but not one I'd praise. The game starts off with a cool animatic of a guy hopping into the sewer. You follow a guy called Boogie through the sewers to a base of resistance against a corrupt and evil government. Boogie instructs you to get vinyls and street cred, and you're sent off to the first area - the mall. I did not get further then the mall. The game requires you to progress by doing time trials and other activities that combine the movement and combat of the game. The issue is that to progress, you're incentivized to use the weapon's movement tools. This is fine - games usually require you to use their tools to progress - but the ones the game gives you are shoddy and one-note. In addition, they don't always fire when you click the fire button. It seems like every time I try and shoot one of the weapons (dubbed "tags" by the game), you have to flip a coin. Heads it fires after maybe half a second of delay and tails it doesn't fire at all - it'll get back to you in 3-5 business days on that one, chief. In addition to this, the tags themselves are not made equal. You're initially given access to 5 different weapon types, each with their own blend of blandness. The purple one isn't useful because the discs it makes rely on you stopping in a game about going as quick as you can. The green one is hard to control, relying on you to release it to get a burst of movement in a direction - again, that would be great, IF IT WOULD FIRE WHEN I CLICK IT. The blue one allows you to rocket-jump, and it's really fun. However, in the objectives where you're required to touch the buildings it sometimes counts as touching and sometimes doesn't. So if I use it to keep my momentum upon touching an objective, there's a solid chance it just means I don't actually get to contact the objective. The red one lets you fall slower. How thrilling. The yellow one lets you fire a burst that knocks you away from where you shoot - but it's delayed sometimes, leading you to fall into voids when you normally shouldn't. Also, the reload takes way too long for a weapon that has the reliability of grandpa's sawed-off that's rusted in the shed for a couple decades after the war. The narrative, while cheeky and light, doesn't really make any sense. "Hey, welcome to the resistance! Let's fight the power! Go out there and collect our misplaced casettes and vinyls, and get insulted by us while you do so! We're on the RIGHT SIDE!!!!". The thing is, the narrative goes to the wayside in favor of the gameplay, but the gameplay isn't anything worth writing home about, either. Oh, and the movement! The ice-rink level of control is lovely, too! Being able to mantle onto buildings a solid 30% of the time really gets you into the head of an up-and-coming rebel, dodging around the rooftops and fighting that dastardly government that comes after you when you destroy public property and commit crimes for no good reason. If only the movement was a little more tuned, then perhaps the refund I requested wouldn't sit so snugly in Valve's mailboxes. Honestly, if the shooting and movement was polished just a little more before launch, it's very likely I'd sing the praises of this game. But the thing is, this movement shooter lacks good movement and good shooting. I know the dev team is small, but if there is anything you take from this cruel review, please, please, please, polish the movement and shooting. I'd like to like your game, but I keep slipping off the buildings on the way there.

this is a game that would've been a million dollar smash hit 20 years ago

Not for me. The game is nice to look at, but just kind of frustrating to play. The movement and exploration is fun, but can only be really enjoyed by using Hi-Hat and Reverb, and any mistake with either of them will completely ruin your flow. Combat is a pain, you'll have to fight tons of enemies while barely doing anything to them, and upgrades only help out a little bit. Overall a cool concept that doesn't feel the greatest.

A fun platformer with tons of areas to explore and hidden things to find, a coo crew to chat with too. Keeps my ADHD brain quiet and happy. If you were looking for an essay, I apologize in advance, I just like the game, maaan.

I love this game. You use graffiti or tag as it called as superpowers to move the around the city. The main point of this game is simple, you collect disc and go to the next level. But you have to complete missions in a tight time to get many disc. Also, the movement in this game is really fast that when you played it for the first time you are going to fall many times. Still, rest assured you're not going to lose anything big just by falling so don't give up. Next, the way the power is implemented is brilliant. I like the fact that you can put the tag power in both hand and use both of your mouse button simultaneously. Even then, the game does get HORRIFYINGLY HARD over times and even I cannot 100% completed the game so better play the game for fun if you do not want to be depressed. By the way if the devs is reading this please optimize the game a little bit more. In conclusion, this fast paced action game that I can move freely in the air is fun. Give it a try, it is really hidden and criminally underrated.