INTRODUCTION
Let me just throw it out first. I absolutely love Jet Set Radio, Tron and cell shaded graphics. So imagine me stumbling upon Hover: Revolt Of Gamers. A moment of disbelief followed by frenetic flying through the screenshots and an immediate buy. Despite it being in early access and developed by a small team, I wasn't disappointed. I was actually pretty surprised at how functional and polished the game felt and how much fun I was having. Let's find out why.
Hover: Revolt Of Gamers is available for purchase on Steam for 19,99€.
Story and gameplay
Hover is not heavy on the story, there are a few meaningful character interactions, most of them in the tutorial phase of the game which explain the general premise. The game takes place on a distant planet, more specifically, in Hover City which is ruled by a ruthless dictator that banned all forms of fun and entertainment. You play as one of the Gamers. Young rebels equipped with high-tech equipment used to sabotage the oppressive system. It's still pretty underdeveloped but it's charmingly quirky and it actually gives credible context to the things you do in the game.
After you choose, customize and name your character, you are thrown into a short tutorial explaining the basic mechanics. Running, jumping, grinding, scanning and throwing objects. After that, the entire city becomes open to you and you can do as you please. The city itself is pretty big and vertical with plenty of high rise buildings above and tunnels and passageways bellow. There are numerous missions to undertake, most of them being races, game ball, chases, graffiti mode (Jet Set Radio FTW!), police chases and more. Most of them are given a fun spin within the context of the game and fully utilize the game's movement system. One time you will be racing while avoiding the security systems in a straightforward circular area, other times you will have to think on your feet while plotting your way to the finish 50m above ground.
Mostly everything you do is fun because of how the game handles movement. When you run, your character gains momentum and runs faster the longer he runs. Using his jump jet boots, you can jump higher and farther than normal, wall run and wall bounce, do flips and even grind on certain surfaces. When it all comes together, the movement feels great making you never want to slow down. A handy rewind feature makes sure that even if you miss a jump or hit a wall, you can take your character a few seconds back to try again and keep the flow going.
There are also some RPG elements as you can upgrade certain aspects of your character such as speed, jump distance and other by finishing missions and gaining experience. These upgrades can dramatically change the way you play and open up completely new routes when doing missions or just goofing around the city. There is even a robust and simple to use mission editor with missions playable in single-player or multiplayer that could keep me occupied for days. There are also plenty of collectibles scattered around the city that is sure to satisfy the collectors among players that can't help but scratch that itch.
A seamless multiplayer is also present and you can see other players jumping around the city and it is extremely easy to start doing races and other events together. I should mention that I didn't have any bad experiences while playing with total strangers and most were up for more even after losing a race and it just goes to show how fun the game can be even when you don't always win. The community is pretty great and the chat is active, with helpful players explaining the mechanics and looking for players to participate in races at almost any time.
Visuals and audio
I love when games create their own visual style that goes away with trying to be realistic. The original Jet Set Radio drew me in with its visual presentation, and more recently Borderlands and both were great games. Things are not much different here. Graphics are cell shaded and cartoonish. Most of the objects and characters in the game feature some kind of brightly lit neon piece that makes the world feel bright, futuristic and colorful. It's hard to remember that this is supposed to be a world where the fun is banned when everything is so colorful and fun with the fantastic upbeat soundtrack playing in the background.
Hideki Naganuma, the man behind Jet Set Radio soundtrack is to blame for the amazing tracks that you will most certainly look up after playing the game. The game runs smooth and looks equally amazing and stylish whether you play on low or ultra high settings.
Conclusion
Consider all the above and consider that this game is being made by an extremely small team and that it's still in early access and you will be able to appreciate what was done here. If you have any love for the following: Jet Set Radio, Tron, parkour, cell shaded graphics or kickass soundtracks, then you have nothing to think about. Pick up Hover: Revolt Of Gamers and you will surely have lots of fun, be it solo, or with friends or strangers. Updates are fairly regular and even if you leave it in your library, you are sure to find an even better game waiting for you when you revisit it.
DJ Kidna
Loved the read! Did want to make a correction, though. Hideki Naganuma has so far actually only contributed two tracks, HEAVEN-UP and NEVER 4EVER. The main composer for the game is actually Cédric Menendez, https://soundcloud.com/c-dric-menendez