No Straight Roads is not a project signed by illustrious strangers: although it is indeed Metronomik's first title, it is led by Wan Hazmer, lead game designer of Final Fantasy XV and Daim Dziauddin, the concept artist of Street Fighter V. Two leaders from industry giants and accustomed to very large projects, here is what must, here, contrast well with a new and much more modest team, not to mention the corresponding budget. Whatever, NSR (it's the official abbreviation of the game) has been talking about him for some time now, in particular thanks to his music and his VF which we will talk about later: we play Mayday and Zuke, two rockers forming the group Bed Bunk Junction which, after having failed in a tele-hook show, will go and demonstrate the power of rock to the various members of the jury. This is also the whole pitch of the adventure: our two heroes, electric guitar and drumsticks in support, will represent rock against a city dominated by EDM, Electronic Dance Music, a genre in reality rather broad since it brings together all styles of electronic music, whether it's techno as well as house, dubstep, drum & bass and so on. The setting thus takes place in Vinyl City, a nocturnal city where electronic music is imposed and omnipresent, and in which each district is dominated by a boss belonging to a sub-genre of EDM. It will thus be necessary to go through six levels and a few extras to defeat each of the lieutenants and impose rock as a musical trend.
THE MUSIC ! YES, MUSIC!
Concretely, then, how is No Straight Roads structured? Although the music is at the heart of the game, it is still a "normal" action title: we have two playable characters, immediately interchangeable with a button, who will evolve in 3D environments with enemies. to fight melee or ranged. As in any other software of the genre, you can then jump, dodge, use special abilities, regenerate your health: on the other hand, the music intervenes differently - by being omnipresent in the scenario as well as in the visual and sound atmosphere. , already – then in the fights themselves. Enemies then attack not based on your actions but based on the rhythm - some of their powerful blows can even be deflected thanks to a parry, if applied at the right time - encouraging the player to put themselves in osmosis with the OST . Sometimes, we get musical notes that serve as ranged attacks, which we can only use on flying opponents; with another key, it is possible to temporarily convert decorative objects, so as to transform them into "rocky" turrets which will help during confrontations. The gameplay will expand over the levels: once completed and according to the score obtained, we will obtain “fans” which will be used to unlock new abilities, in addition to stickers to stick on our instruments which will temporarily improve our skills. and that we will have to replace once their effect is exhausted. 
STRAIGHT ROADS
No Straight Roads therefore sports the facets of the action game with an obviously very musical touch. However, relatively quickly, it is clear that its structure turns out to be relatively fragile. At the level of pure and hard fights, first of all, since there is already only an extremely small number of enemies who will be repeated throughout the adventure; their mechanics also turn out to be quite wobbly, leading to imprecise, sometimes rigid fights, which would have failed to gain in responsiveness. This applies to combos (very minimal), the parry system or dodges, too heavy to be placed dynamically in a sequence (it is impossible to cancel your attack, which quickly proves problematic). Fortunately, we can densify the gameplay with the purchase of new abilities but, here too, the balancing seems unsuitable with a skill tree too large for a particularly short game, quickly forcing to redo the small handful of levels and bosses to farm the improvement points. And even so, these are not really essential since it is possible to complete the adventure in five or six hours (or even less), without really forcing and in an imposing linearity. In terms of level design, No Straight Roads is actually satisfied with the bare minimum, namely very small exploration areas in which it is possible to recover items and then the “levels”, all straight line corridors dotted... of the same enemies, with a boss at their end. Quickly, we will have quickly gone around the content, puny in its fundamentals sometimes little mastered, but which still has some other more interesting specificities. 
IT BOSS HARD
Because if the levels are based on a rather fragile architecture, the bosses represent the musical aspect of NSR much better. More or less wacky, they all belong to a different genre, sometimes even digging into classical music or mainstream pop, and all require very specific techniques to overcome. However, some of these methods do not always seem very sensible or very clear and, coupled with a somewhat crude gameplay, can sometimes lead to a jagged result. Nevertheless, some ideas are there and turn out to be quite good, all with quality musical sequences and all requiring very different techniques to be defeated. We can't take that away from Metronomik: the studio shows a real willingness to offer a sparkling experience and an undeniable friendliness, despite establishing a fine finish. Special mention all the same to the rap battle which, under its air of rhythm games, allows the game to be aired at a given moment in a different and catchy musicality. Besides, there's no need to wait any longer to talk about the great highlight of the game: its soundtrack and its adorable dancing atmosphere. 
IT'S A GREAT HEARING
It must be admitted that on this side, Malaysian society has shown itself to be attentive. And some will say that for a game based on music, it was better! Although Mayday and Zuck represent Rock, it is ultimately electronic music that is heard mainly since it sits everywhere in Vinyl City: particularly funky, with often disco echoes and well produced, the OST is an obvious small success ( despite some tracks maybe below but, well, the tastes and the colors, you know…). Besides, we wouldn't have spat on a way to listen to it in one of the game's menus. This musicality directly contributes to the cozy atmosphere of the adventure: here, it's constantly dark, the neon lights are ubiquitous, the screens are bright, the buildings are gigantic and flashy. Everything is clean, everything is reflected and, certainly, the artistic direction gives us the impression of venturing into a huge nightclub with cyberpunk echoes, within an alternative and unreal futuristic world which borrows, moreover, a lot at certain levels of DmC Devil May Cry (moreover, in a rather improbable way, certain movements are devilishly reminiscent of those of Dante from Ninja Theory, who knows). Graphically too, No Straight Roads is, after all, frankly clean: without ever shining, with sometimes all the same some questionable textures and models, the journey of the two rockers remains technically honest… and shows an obvious charm. We will nevertheless note a strange homogeneity in the graphic style, the title alternating dialogues and scenes in real time and in cartoon. Maybe for budget reasons?
MIX WITHOUT “SYNC”
Always with the aim of creating a unique atmosphere, No Straight Roads is based on a first-rate French version: so to speak, we find Kelly Marot (Jennifer Lawrence, Sophie Turner, Margaret Qualley) in the role of Mayday. , Donald Reignoux (Spider-Man in the Insomniac Games game but also Jesse Eisenberg, Jonnah Hill and even Titeuf) in the skin of Zuke, Céline Monsarrat (Julia Roberts), Anaïs Delva (Elsa in The Snow Queen), Patrick Borg (Son Goku in Dragon Ball), Eric Legrand (Vegeta in Dragon Ball) and even a few other nice winks. And there is no denying that their work is for all of very good quality… but there is a catch. And a big one: lip-syncing is, often, completely out of whack. We are talking here about characters who, for sometimes five or six seconds (!), will have finished their sentence but who will continue to move their lips in the void, and this very regularly, until effectively breaking the immersion. De facto, many cutscenes then crush all their potential - already diminished by the total absence of music for the staging, a shame - and almost push to opt for the VO, it perfectly corresponding to the movements of the lips and offering a dubbing , then, more careful not in the performance but in the post-production. It's a pity all the same. 
As for the story of the title, it's about as one might expect: very brief, quite Manichean and even a little too focused throughout on the demonization of EDM in favor of rock , before leading to a humanitarian, musical, well-meaning and above all predictable morality. Despite everything, there are also small reversals of the situation, our two heroes are really endearing, a few jokes have come out well and are fun and, overall, No Straight Roads is a title from which emanates a warm desire to dance as well as a joviality protruding. Failing to offer an interesting replayability - we unlock difficulty modes afterwards but the bases are too fragile for there to be any real interest - and a consequent lifespan, it is an extremely perfectible experience but really benevolent.
