No Straight Roads

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 87 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 50 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 87
  3. Negative: 19 out of 87
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  1. Drogramirez
    Sep 20, 2020
    3
    Like other reviewers have mentioned, the story and music is good but the gameplay is very very bad.

    Combat is stiff and clunky. Hitting enemies feels like you are hitting a rock. They don't have any pain animation or hit feedback. They just continue doing whatever they are doing while you are hitting them which makes the gameplay feel really unsatisfying. Movement is also not tight and    Like other reviewers have mentioned, the story and music is good but the gameplay is very very bad.

    Combat is stiff and clunky. Hitting enemies feels like you are hitting a rock. They don't have any pain animation or hit feedback. They just continue doing whatever they are doing while you are hitting them which makes the gameplay feel really unsatisfying. Movement is also not tight and the jumping is floaty. The camera is fixed during battles and often placed at poor angles that looks cool to watch but doesnt play very well. One of the main mechanics in this game is that you can play music to transform objects but you don't really do much with this mechanic. There are not many objects that you can transform. Most of the time, the transformed objects will either shoot something or do something that is not clearly explained to the player - either way they will do some damage to the enemies. It's not as creative as say, Nintendo games where you must use the the core mechanics to solve puzzles. Here there are no puzzles to solve, you just need to hit everything. There also isn't much gameplay involving rhythm - sure the enemies all attack to the beat but that's about it.

    There's also a city hub which you are supposed to explore that feels very weird. The game is called No Straight Roads but all of the roads in the city are straight. The whole city is basically one straight path from start to end. There also isn't much to do in the city unlike other games where you can buy items, help npcs, play mini games, find secrets etc. Wish there was more more stuff you can do in the city that could expand on the world building. In local multiplayer mode, the camera only focuses on the first player which means that the second player cannot explore the city.

    Not to mention, the game is very buggy and unfinished. Although a lot of the bugs are visual, it really detracts from the experience because I would expect more polish from a $40 game. In almost every stage, there's always objects clipping against walls, textures that look muddy and objects popping in while missing vfx. In some cases, cutscene and dialogue audio is out of sync and sometimes the game crashes. Some gameplay sequences end abruptly leaving you to wonder whether there was supposed to be more but was cut out.

    The level designs are also very bad, expecially for the security levels. A lot of the segments are repeated and the placement of the props feels awkward. Like for example, there are trees on top of a concrete floor, spotlights appearing out of nowhere, street lights not arranged properly, giant props that are not meant for human-size characters and many more. It looks like the level designers just randomly put props around the levels without thinking. The lighting is also very rough and the colors are off in certain sections. For example, the Sayu stage on the first platform, you can tell that the color saturation is very different from the rest of the stage. In addition, a lot of the levels have this extremely flashy colors and mirror-like reflective floors which makes it very difficult to focus on the gameplay.

    Overall, this game is either a hit or miss with some players. If you play the game for the music, visuals and the story, you might have a good time. For me, its a miss though. Because I prefer a much better gameplay when I'm playing a game and I expected more from this game. Like many people said, this game actually looks more fun to watch on YouTube than it is to play. Also it would be better if the game is $20 instead of $40.    … Expand
  2. Rhaeleden
    Sep 4, 2020
    0
    I really hope the developers take the time to fix all these gameplay issues because they are hard to justify given the $40 price point of this game. Even without all these bugs, the price for the game is still questionable given the relatively short and unpolished gameplay.

    Some people are saying that this game is made by a small team but if you pay attention to the credits, there is at    I really hope the developers take the time to fix all these gameplay issues because they are hard to justify given the $40 price point of this game. Even without all these bugs, the price for the game is still questionable given the relatively short and unpolished gameplay.

    Some people are saying that this game is made by a small team but if you pay attention to the credits, there is at least 100 people and several studios involved in the making of this game. It's certainly not AAA but that is a MASSIVE budget for an indie game. Additionally, the Metronomik team has assistance from a big publisher and has also received the Epic Games exclusivity grant.

    With the amount of people involved as well as the pricing of the game, I feel that this game needs be compared with other action games of similar price points especially if games like Psychonauts ($20) and Child of Light ($15) are considered non-indie. I wouldn't mind paying $40 for this kind of game if the gameplay actually is good. But as it is right now, the lack of content and quality in NSR's gameplay makes it difficult to give this one a pass.    … Expand
  3. CriticoDubioso
    Sep 4, 2020
    0
    Good music, decent story and above average art but EXTREMELY poor execution on the gameplay. At the time of writing, this game is just not worth the selling price what with the ridiculous bugs, bad game design and rough gameplay.
  4. kedireturns
    Jun 8, 2023
    4
    Interesting idea. Terrible execution. Boring game, slog to play through. You keep wanting it to end.
  5. LadyAux
    Oct 5, 2020
    2
    NSR is definitely no PaRappa the Rapper nor is it Brutal Legend. Not even sure the game knows what it wants to be either. Forgettable music, poorly designed gameplay, irritating characters and the most PG, cliché story you can think of. This game would have been great if it stuck to at least one design of rhythm game, not try to be ALL of them at once. Its short, boring, painful to playNSR is definitely no PaRappa the Rapper nor is it Brutal Legend. Not even sure the game knows what it wants to be either. Forgettable music, poorly designed gameplay, irritating characters and the most PG, cliché story you can think of. This game would have been great if it stuck to at least one design of rhythm game, not try to be ALL of them at once. Its short, boring, painful to play through and just feels so unpolished. I give my honest opinion about the game here: https://youtu.be/57ACU0Hsumg… Expand
  6. MadeliaBurnness
    Sep 23, 2020
    4
    When the story, music and art did their jobs but the development team don't know what the heck they are doing. This is a $40 'indie' game with dozens of people involved. I've seen games with less than ten people working on it that has far better execution. That said, the guest artistes that performed all the soundtracks are awesome!

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 34
  3. Negative: 2 out of 34
  1. App Trigger
    Jan 29, 2021
    90
    No Straight Roads is a big and colorful musical experience with heavy JRPG influences that lets you fight the man, give power to the people of Vinyl City and bring joy, all with the sweet power of rock and roll.
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  2. Gaming Nexus
    Nov 9, 2020
    70
    No Straight Roads has fantastic visuals, a phenomenal soundtrack, and lovable characters. It's a shame that the rest of the game doesn't hold up as well but I didn't regret my time with the game and will be replaying the boss fights many more times thanks to the fantastic music.
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  3. GamingBolt
    Nov 1, 2020
    70
    No Straight Roads looks great, sounds great, and has great characters- but it has major gameplay issues that bring down the whole experience.
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