Graffiti, graffiti and mor graffiti, Mark Ecko Getting Up is great, play it!
The game starts with Trane at his grandmothers flat and is ready to get on the streets and get his name on the walls of New Radius, the city where the game is set. Trane quickly makes enemies with a team called Vandals of New Radius (VnR) because he sprays over their leaders tag. Trane doesn't want to leave it their so he sets out to get his name up and beat VnR's leader Gabe. The first half of the game is all about getting your name up and becoming famous graffiti artist, the second half is about bringing down the Mayor of New Radius, Mayor Sung. Mayor Sung has made a team of police called the Civil Conduct Keepers (CCK) with one goal in mind, kill all the graffiti artists of New Radius. Around a third into the game you start up a team and later call them Still Free Crew stating your cause in the city, to become free.
Trane finally makes a name for himself in a fast paced encounter with new trains made by the Mayor Sung that are supposedly Graffiti proof but Trane proves this theory wrong when you do a giant graffiti piece on a whole carriage.
Throughout the game there are a fair amount of twists, a lot of legendary graffiti artists and a lot of colourful graffiti tags that you can use. There are many locations on the game, such places as a meat factory and an abandoned art school which you make your home and headquarters.
The game has an amazing soundtrack with bands like Kasabian, Bloc Party and Jane's Addiction, and also massive rap artists like Notorious B.I.G and even a great song by Nina Simone. The soundtrack fits into the game very well, when you are doing a big piece and suddenly Kasabian Club Foot comes bursting out of your speakers to get you pumped up and do the piece as fast as you can. To me the Soundtrack is one of the best things within the game and makes every place within New Radius have a great vibe to them. Every song fits every place it is played and is great for making you feel the emotion of place you are entering.
Graphically Mark Ecko Getting Up is great, you can tell that aswell as making a great story, gameplay and making the game flow really well that they have made every place look great. When you enter a new part you look around and see every place is different and never just recycled. This is one of the best games graphically on the Playstation 2 and it will be hard to compete with.
The gameplay is great, but the AI could be a little better, it reminded me of Metal Gear Solid when they have a line of sight, you would be climbing a building and be two feet above a guard and they wouldn't notice you even know you are in plain site, and when a search light is shining on a building and you may be right next to it and the person working the searchlight won't see you.
Overall Mark Eco Getting Up: Content's Under Pressure is a brilliant game is definitely worth playing. New Radius is one of the coolest settings within a game and you will definitely have fun exploring every level in the game. Each area of New Radius is just as cool as the last and every graffiti artist you encounter will give you great tips to give you the better hand on the CCK. I would recommend this game and definitely play it again.
Gameplay-8.5
Story-9
Graphics 9
Total 8.7