Parcour 3D

Platformers and parkour should go together like peanut butter and jelly, given the fact that the concepts are so closely related. However, it’s fairly difficult to integrate freerunning in video game form, given the fact that the movements are so random and unpredictable. Mirror’s Edge did a great job in this regard, and quite a few other games tried to mimic its success over the years.

Parcour 3D is a lot simpler from a gameplay point of view, so don’t even hope for something akin to Mirror’s Edge. Instead, this is more of a 3D platformer with bothersome mechanics than a parkour game, so the name is a bit of a mislead. Hence, your main goal throughout the game is to jump from one platform to the other in order to collect all the coins from each stage.

The robot you play as does not appear to have any special abilities, and in fact is unable to perform simple tasks like grabbing onto things in order to climb on top of them. Wall-running is out of the question as well, and so is basically any kind of stunt you can think of. Thus, the only options at your disposal are jumping and sprinting, but the mechanics are not polished enough for these to be fun anyway.

It takes too much concentration to make a successful jump, but not because the mechanics are challenging, but because they are unpolished and badly implemented. The collision system is flawed as well, not to mention the fact that the camera has an annoying twitch whenever you try to look around, which adds even more frustration to the mix. As for the coins you collect, they don’t do anything at all except allow you to move on to the next level when you get all of them.

The graphics are fairly decent, on the other hand, but it doesn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of things, unfortunately. Even if the textures are quite nice and the material quality is decent, the truth is that there’s nothing to see but a couple of empty rooms with nothing of interest in them. The same goes for the sound effects, which might as well be turned off because they make no difference.

In the end, the lack of special moves or any kind of parkour stunts makes Parcour 3D a very boring and annoying platformer with nothing special to offer. Hence, it would be nice if the developers added more variety and content, but it’s difficult to believe that is going to happen.