Umurangi Generation: Special Edition Review

Umurangi Generation is a first-person game of photography about living in a world that has been ravaged by militarized oppression and environmental destruction. It was released for the first time on PC. Many hailed it as "2020: The Game" for its ability to deal with institutional neglect, climate change, civil unrest and general world-weariness. Now that Umurangi Generation is available on the Nintendo Switch, it has a chance to reach even more players in search of something that mirrors, and possibly makes sense of, the past year and a bit. It's not surprising that Umurangi Generation: The Special Edition rises to the occasion for those who have played it since its inception.

Umurangi Generation's gameplay is very simple. The game's gameplay loop is simple. You play as a photographer in a retrofuture version Tauranga Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand. Each map in the game has twelve maps, eight from the original and four from the Macro DLC. You are dropped into a small area like a cluttered roof overlooking a city or military base. There is also a list with Photo Bounties you must capture on film. They are usually quite simple: three spray bottles or five flags. Some require the use of a particular lens. Once you're done with your photo scavenger hunt you can turn in your photos and get your reward, a new lens, or an editing tool, before moving on to the next challenge.

It's simple and fun in an arcade-like manner. You can set your own high score each time you return to a particular area. Sometimes the bounties can be frustrating to find. They are often isolated in the world, making it difficult to play I-Spy with a telephoto lens. This is the game's greatest problem. It's not a problem if your are rushing. You don't have to take perfect photos for photo bounties. All you need is the right frames. You, the player, are responsible for making the photos good. This allows you to be more artistic and let the game decide how the photo should look.

There are many options to customize your photos. The more advanced you become, the more you will have. Although you might not be familiar with all the options for color grading and lenses, they are available to you solely for artistic purposes. You'll find yourself wanting to tweak more and more tools, or, if you're like I, to make every place look like Silent Hill, you can do it all.

Umurangi Generation's photography is great because you have final say over the artistic look, but also because the world is vibrant and enjoyable to view. Each character has a PS1/Dreamcast look and is heavily influenced by games like Jet Set Radio. All characters have blocky faces and smooth limbs. The landscapes are vibrant and colorful with lots of architecture and pops in color. The Strand is an early map that features a neon-drowned gamers club. It feels like a whole cyberpunk movie was built around you. The soundtrack by Adolf Nomura and Thorhighheels (Macro-DLC) has a lot of great tracks. They are full of dizzy trip-hop beats and capture a sense if mystery, foreboding and rebellious fun.

Additional bonus objectives are included on each map. These can be completed in a time frame and earn you additional rewards. You don't need to be restricted by time, because unless you are going for the bonus objectives each map lets you explore and hunt your photo bounties. Enjoying Umurangi Generation is best when you take your time. While players may be eager to get rid of each map quickly, this would make it impossible to appreciate the beauty and depth of the game's content. Play to have fun, not to win.

Each location is a meticulously maintained garden in a box. It's a diorama of environmental storytelling and visual beauty. Umurangi Generation has no narrative moments. There are also no cutscenes that show a story event. The DLC is the exception to this rule. This is the moment when the game finally gets in-your-face about its story. In a hurry, players will miss flyers about the Prime Minister taking a vacation during a crisis or signs of civil unrest rising up on the fringes.

One way to lose points is by taking photos of blue jellyfish. You'll find fascinating sci-fi stories that draw heavily on genre classics such as Akira or Neon Genesis Evangelion if you pay attention to all the details. You'll see the extent of the world's destruction and the extremes that people have gone to to adapt to it as well as defy the inevitable.

The Umurangi Generation story is powerful because you can't stop anything from behind your camera. It is impossible to save the world. You can only capture what it was like at the very end. The credits of the game include text that dedicates the game to the Umurangi Generation, the last generation that must watch the world die. (Te Reo for "Red Sky") This somber gravity is present, but it doesn't fall into fatalistic downer Cynicism or allow itself to be Jokerfied into cruel Nihilism. The Umurangi Generation doesn't lose sight of humanity and tells a compelling, deep story about living in the end times with style.

It won't take you long to beat this game. It can be beat in under two hours (ten minutes each stage). Umurangi Generation's gameplay, however, is so captivating, its world so vibrant and sincere, as well as its tools for customizing photos so robust, it's very difficult to put down or keep down for too long.

The Special Edition also includes a Creative Mode that allows you to explore the area to your heart's delight. There are no photo objectives or photo bounties to complete. You can also use a Speed Run mode to try and get the Photo Bounties out as quickly as you can. The game is very similar to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, with its laser-focused focus on providing an unfiltered, authentic experience. You just drop in and you take in the surroundings. Then you can capture what you want.

The true power of Umurangi Generation is how it sneaks up upon you. You can make the most of everyday moments and turn them into poignant and melancholy by freezing them in a photograph. The state of the world inside your lens is both life-affirming and heartbreaking. You'll be returning for more photos even after the game is over. What may seem like a simple pick-up-and play photography sim has a way to slip into your brain with its rich world-building and captivating environments. Why not? Who else will document this?