City of Murals Reviews

Love the music, the story, the characters, and the overall aesthetic. Major unique vibes that make me feel like I could just hang out and chill with the strange inhabitants of the hub. Like 3:30am vibes. This game has a ton of charm. I actually didn't expect too much from it since it's early access, and a lot of the media for it showing the platforming side of things. It definitely does have a ton of platforming goodness, but also a lot of customization (even with suits and accessory parts etc), and rogue-lite features like upgrading your weapons (including some unique stuff like the grow gun that spits out giant plants you can use to help in platforming, or blowing up enemies), buying and upgrading abilities, a whole ship exploration mechanic with different planets to visit, different maps to buy from the merchant, cool physics stuff with funky enemies that make use of it, and more that I didn't even realize would be part of the game just from looking at the store media. So that was a great welcomed surprise for me. Also as someone who is so TIRED of modern games slamming me with six thousand character essays about their story, or barely explaining their own mechanics etc, I was actually very impressed with how the story for this game was simply and succinctly explained right from the opening cinematic. I know (kind of!) who I am in the world, what I'm doing, etc. And the lack of hand-holding exposition feels good. It feels mysterious and makes me want to explore the little galaxy they have going, given the back story that you're introduced to. You aren't some grand chosen one, but another entity in the galaxy trying to find his way, so it's got a nice charm to it. And there are a ton of different characters scattered around the world, and in the main hub space station area, that are all just funky and silly and fun. The game is very artistic and has a nice style, but I really like how it doesn't take itself so seriously and just has a bunch of silly characters with silly and fun dialogue. Like the guy at the hub that wants to tell me all about Chip Chips! What are chip chips! I don't know, but now I want some! The game does need work, it has some bugs and jank here and there. But nothing seems game breaking, and the dev seems extremely open to taking criticism and feedback, and seems to be working hard on each update. Even with that said, I still think it has a great base to build off of. If you like rogue-lite "upgrade your weapons, die, get more stuff, come back, take revenge, explore different maps, check different areas for secrets you missed earlier" style games, and a unique open world (after the tutorial part, which is linear obviously), then I would definitely recommend giving this game a shot. I don't usually review games, but this one just gave me a good vibe, and it keeps getting updates, so I felt compelled this time. It's got some strong vibes. Music definitely contributes, but the whole feel is just like.. some kind of weird fever dream, in the best way!