Start a rock band and end the EDM empire in No Straight Roads, a rockin' action-adventure from the minds of Wan Hazmer (Final Fantasy XV) and Daim Dziauddin (Street Fighter V). Explore Vinyl City and fight musical megastars on your journey to defeat oppressive EDM empire ‘NSR’, in an action-packed adventure that mashes together rhythm-infused third-person combat with a kick-ass soundtrack...

No Straight Roads is an engaging, story driven action-adventure game that sees you exploring Vinyl City in a bid to bring down the evil EDM empire, which uses musicians to power the cities electricity supply. But when Mayday and Zuke, members of indie rock band Bunk Bed Junction, discover that rock music has been outlawed because it can power the entire city, they go on a quest to rid the world of the bland music that EDM puts out and replace it with their own brand of rock.

In the early stages you could be forgiven for thinking that the game is overpriced and a little shallow. It starts like a 2D platformer as you rush around the city, but as you get into the game proper it soon opens out into a 3D environment. The game is fairly simple, you have to go from district to district, take down each's music hero and bring electricity back to the world of Vinyl City.

Between these boss fights you have to run around the city collecting power ups (which can be spent on powering up street lights and other electrical gadgets. You can also collect stickers and other items that can we used to upgrade your powers when you're back at your base in the sewers. When you get to take on each boss, it's simply a question of looking for the pattern to avoid their attacks and timing your counterattacks. It's hard to describe, as each boss is different and part of the fun (or frustration, depending on your point of view) is working out what on earth you have to do.

While you can switch between both of your characters (as they have different strengths) I found that I mostly spent the early stages using Mayday and that switching between the two didn't actually make much difference. It's more useful if you want to play with a friend via couch co-op.

The cut sequences are a lot of fun, showcasing the designers slick sense of humour. And the two main characters are likable and well fleshed out.

While its a well polished and engaging game, I can't help thinking that players will soon tire of the repetitive nature of the boss battles, especially if you're having a little problem defeating them. Sadly, this is a game that if you rage quit out of frustration you're less likely to want to fire it up again in the near future.

7

Darren Rea