Umurangi Generation Review: Finding Beauty Within Languishing Chaos

Within a dying world, comfort can come from inside, but having your friends alongside you can always make you feel like home is ever present. Discovering captivation in a dissolving society through the lens of a camera can remind you what made everything so great in the first place; telling a story worth sharing to anyone despite which language they might speak. Umurangi Generation wants it to be known and to be shared. It does this by giving you the opportunity to live in it’s world and take a piece anywhere you go. It’s just up to you to take the picture.

Presentation

An ocean and mountain among the sunset horizon, just out of reach within the deep industrial skyscraper city landscape. Umurangi Generation is presented with a low-res look and feel. Reminiscent of PS1 or early 3D PC games, crude characters with jagged edges and environments grace your screen. Within these nostalgic landscapes are details in every nook and cranny. A chair and boombox atop a derailed train-car that still lies on a building’s roof, or a backstory behind eyes and teeth drawn on a mortar launcher. There are details to be found everywhere.

Graffiti makes up a vast portion of this. From faces to feathers, to memoriams and messages to authority. Graffiti often tells a story and serves to send a message, and within Umurangi, it does this to enrich the story and offer an insight to the Maori people. The latter of which is strewn throughout the game, with characters, but more prevalent is Maori imagery all over these environments.

On the other side of the presentation, the audio here is fantastic. The camera sounds authentic, and the low hum of the city’s cries are felt. But where the audio really shines is the soundtrack. Jet Set Radio vibes are felt in the graphics, but they are heard and known in the music the game has to offer. If you know, you know. But Jet Set has a very particular spice to its audio flavor. Part hip-hop, part electronic, with a touch of melancholy and just the right push of social commentary; it’s fantastic. Umurangi does this in spades.

The soundtrack to the game is done by Adolf Nomura, or as they go by on the internet, ThorHighHeels. In it we have everything from haunting tonal underlying tracks to upbeat, electronic funk and everything in between that you’d expect in a game such as this. It’s a collection that I think absolutely nails the look and feel of the game, adding cohesion to a T and placing you directly in this world.

Gameplay

Umurangi Generation is a photography simulator, and simultaneously, a walking simulator. Within these two genres lies a Tony Hawk Pro Skater-ish game as well. It’s a bunch of games put together that may sound as if they don’t meld well together, but it works.

Within the each 12 levels (8 from the original game and 4 from the “Macro” DLC), you’re placed in new environments and given the task to snap photos of particular things. Sometimes it’s getting a number of birds in a shot, or maybe it’s something you need to search out and find to take a photo of specifically like the word “Cops”. Most of the time there are several opportune places to take these shots in a given level, but there will be specific asks where there’s only one in the space. So you’ll set out to find these objects in a brisk game of scavenger hunt. Just like with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, you’ll also have bonus objectives, one of which is doing everything in a 10 minute span.

Additional bonus objectives that shared throughout each level are taking a group photo of your friends and finding a certain number of film canisters. These little buggers were responsible for most of my playtime in Umurangi. I’m not complaining though! The extended playtime had me on a quest searching high and low, seeing new things in the levels I wouldn’t have seen otherwise (even if I was SUPER off the path to find them). For each level, there’s also a “Postcard” shot you’ll be asked to recreate. The spot to hunker down and shoot these are marked with an emanating neon green circle. From there, it’s up to you to study the sample of the Postcard and recreate the shot as close as possible.

Getting around in the game however, as slow as I’m sure was to be intended by the developer so you can take in the scenery, can be slow and troubling at times; particularly the platforming. Going into the game completely blind and not touching the tutorial, I’m not ashamed to say it took me a good couple hours to realize you can double jump in this game. Jumping and trying to stick to the level’s geometry to get around isn’t an exact science. More often than not, you’ll fail getting to a spot you need to because of the platforming. There are also wild goose chases to be had when you spot platforms that look like where you should be going, but ultimately don’t lead to an objective or collectible.

Having said that though, turbulent at times it may be, the platforming and exploration has led to a lot of things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. On the second level in particular, there’s an entire section that has nothing to do with the objectives but fascinated me and kept me there for a while longer. Just around any corner, high or low, there’s something to see and something to find within this world.

Story (Spoiler-Free)

Umurangi Generations’ story is told completely by the environment, and it excels at this storytelling mechanic. There are no cutscenes or dialog to be found in the game; the closest thing being newspapers or posters you can find on a couple stages that give a little more detailed backstory than what you find with your own eyes.

Its tough to talk about Umurangi without spoiling the story track. After playing the demo back in April during LudoNarraCon, I went into the full game fully knowing and expecting Jet Set Radio vibes. What I was not prepared for, or picked up on at all, were the heavy Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell motifs. Without saying too much, the game wears these influences on its sleeves and are very much tied to the overarching story.

Poverty. Displacement. Ruin. _____ & _____!? Umurangi has it all.

What I can dive deeper in and tell you about without spoilers is the mood of the story. From opening up on a rooftop accompanied by your friends, three peeps and a penguin, it feels like a modern telling of teenage rebels; hanging out on a roof with skateboards and graffiti while playing some tunes on a boombox. From there though the game immediately opens up into something else entirely. While you always have your friends at your side, the world is a much harsher place. Occupying forces everywhere in this city, along with the clear side effects they and another thing have on the residents here, leading to many displaced individuals lining the streets and back alleys.

Near-future dystopian present throughout the game’s streets and walls. Allusions to net-diving, and VR escapism told through adverts and store signs. Losing your physical home, but keeping your spiritual one alive through street art and music. Umurangi tells a somber, but at the same time, an uplifting story of a culture and people. In a clear and comforting message, you can at least take away this; even at the end of the world, you’ll always have your friends by your side.

Breakdown

Game: Umurangi Generation

Developer: Origame Digital

Availability: PC, Nintendo Switch

Reviewed on a Nintendo Switch

Pros:

+ Fantastic Photography Simulation

+ Fun and engaging objective based gameplay loop

+ Interesting, and haunting storytelling achieved completely through the environment

+ Bombastic soundtrack

Cons:

- Platforming can be bothersome at times

- In wider, more detailed spaces the game can chug slightly

Final Thoughts

“Umurangi” is the Te Reo word for “Red Sky”; Te Reo being the language of the Maori people. Shamefully before playing Umurangi Generation, I knew next to nothing about the culture or history of the Maori. While it’s not at the forefront, it reaches to nearly every aspect of the underlying beat of the game. I still am not well versed by any means, but throughout playing the game and writing this review, I have had my curiosity peaked and have been doing personal research. The ending of the game especially had me wonder the significance (if any) the Maori culture had with it.

A red sky on the horizon, not just the sunset, but civilization. The world crumbling apart, yet we still remain. Do we panic or do we accept chaos? How would you properly convey to a complete stranger what is happening in your world with language barriers? 

Photographs.

Umurangi Generation does this expertly through its environmental storytelling. From the graffiti everywhere in the cityscape, to its people. You will find something new and tell what’s going on at every turn. While borrowing from Neon Genesis Evangelion a touch too much in the last legs of the game, it still tells a unique dystopian tale worth visiting.

Reviewed by Matthew Wright