Umurangi Generation
PC, Switch
Call it a long exposure. Umurangi Generation first arrived on PC last year, attracting a cult following and a nomination for the IGF’s Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Now it has arrived on Switch, complete with its Macro DLC pack. It’s a move that has helped many indie darlings break through, and in some ways Nintendo’s console feels like a natural home for this photography-focused game.
In handheld mode, with motion controls activated, the screen in your palms makes perfect sense as a viewfinder, as you’re dropped into each of the game’s levels – a hangout spot, a protest, the frontlines of a war – with a beaten-up SLR, a time limit and a shot list of objectives. You might be asked to take a close-up of a graffiti tag, or to use your telephoto lens to snap a portrait of someone in a face mask. The challenge stems first from finding these objects, and then figuring out how to frame them to meet the requirements: how are you going to squeeze seven birds into a single shot? The answer often requires rethinking your surroundings like a parkour traceur, clambering up to an out-of-reach spot or squeezing into a tight corner.
Unfortunately, doing so means wrestling with controls that, when you’re not peering down the lens
GEARING UP
One thing Umurangi Generation can boast is perhaps the most relatable upgrade system of any game we’ve played. You start out with a fairly useless camera, spending your earnings from each new foray on new lenses and editing tools. More can be unlocked by completing each stage’s bonus objectives, and it’s worth investing the time. A full suite makes it considerably easier to take attractive photos, and to grab the required shots – the ultra-wide-angle lens in particular is borderline OP. of your camera, prove considerably less intuitive. The floaty jump has a tendency to wedge us into the scenery, while we never quite find a thumbstick sensitivity that feels right for both aiming the camera and moving around the world. After a few too many frustrations, pride in our work starts to ebb away, and instead of those early careful compositions, we’re soon firing off unfocused shots we suspect will tick the necessary boxes. All too often, they do.
Artistry, however, isn’t really the objective of Umurangi Generation’s photography. Instead, its makers are more interested in the camera lens as a way of making you look more closely at the world around you, piecing together the story of its setting as you examine each detail-rich environment. It’s a run-down cyberpunk future informed by Maori culture and Jet Set Radio, by way of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the increasingly dystopian nature of our present day. The closing credits dedicate the game to “the last generation who has to watch the world die”, and that anger bleeds into every aspect of the game. The messages screamed via graffiti on every available wall; the brilliantly abrasive soundtrack; the visibly large polygons that make up its characters and world – Umurangi Generation is a game of jagged edges, in many more ways than one. We just wish that didn’t apply to how it so often feels in the hands.