Downward Trailer's Post-Apocalyptic Parkour-portunity
Wall to wall running
Earlier this month, Alice saw the announcement info for parkour-heavy game Downward [official site] and was all "something something worlds as adventure playgrounds something something I like leaping around". There was probably a subsection about ponds as well. WELL, there is now a teaser trailer so we can better see what Caracal Games Studio actually envision for their game.
To recap the original post info in slightly more detail than before, the world you're leaping about in is a post-apocalyptic landscape set after the events of the Book of Revelation. i.e. after those jerk locusts with human faces and after the seas of blood and after the Last Judgement. So I'm guessing this is maybe somehow set on new Earth where there is no death (which I guess helps out with justifying all those respawns you get in games nowadays etc etc)?
Anyway, the idea is that you're exploring this deserted and ruined landscape as a traveller on a pilgrimage in order to collect mysterious artefacts. That's where the parkour comes in - you must parkour your way to these artefacts.
I sometimes wonder if parkour-ists are as unbearable as they seem in videogames, insisting on making everything more complicated just so they can show off on a ledge or series of walls somewhere.
"Babe, could you nip over the road to get some milk?"
"Certainly! Let me just get my parkour shoes."
"No. In that case I'll go."
"But why? I just need to get my shoes and..."
"No. Because I see how this is going to go. Not only will it take twice as long to get the milk, I'll also have Mrs Wells from next door on the phone complaining about you vaulting over her car and I'll have Neighbourhood Watch over about whether I saw a shadowy figure clambering up the side of that old guy opposite's house, and then I'll go to use the milk and you'll have frothed it so much with your leaping it's like a bloody bubble night at the club in there."
"Just you wait until the Book of Revelation comes to pass. We, the parkourists, are God's chosen people."
"I'm going out. Don't parkour on any of my things."
There's a bit in the trailer which switches into first person and looks like Temple Run before switching to third person as the character scuttles up a wall. It still doesn't really give me a sense of how it feels to play - there was also a moment in the trailer which felt a little less smooth, when the guy lands the other side of the ravine and pauses before scooting onward - but it's caught my eye enough that I'll be joining Alice in being potentially excited about this if they can pull off the joy of movement.