TAGLINE offers up something we haven’t really seen yet - a cel shaded first-person shooter that blends a few different genres together. It very much evokes Jet Set Radio visually with a cel shaded world and we’ve seen that recently with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, but it isn’t an art style used much for shooters. XIII was about the only one 20 years ago and nothing has really followed that mold, and even then, it went for more of a comic book-style approach with its narration and used the cel shading as a way to make it look like an interactive cartoon/comic book.
NOTH Studio has found a way to create a new experience that evokes a bit of the past with its art style. At its core, TAGLINE is a parkour-style first person shooter/puzzler with a lot of different mechanics at work. The bumpers and triggers act as buttons to use to absorb different paint-related powers and these powers can do things like cover a wall in a color or do so while sending you vertical for a higher jump. Another can be put underneath you for longer jumps In execution, it’s a lot like an action-puzzle game and evokes a bit of Portal with how quick the action is and how involved the puzzles can be.
During my initial runthrough, the platforming portions were pretty fun and the combat was an absolute riot. The puzzle-solving featured some explanations, but not too much of one - you’re given a button guide on what to do, but it’s up to you to figure out how to put those things together and get the desired result. It’s a bit obtuse, but I liked it as a challenge because it reminded me of getting a recipe, gathering some ingredients and figuring out how to put everything together in a certain order to get what I wanted out of it.
It’s a challenging approach, but one that does a better job of teaching you the core game mechanics better than just walking you throughout everything would. It ensures that latter-game play is more enjoyable because you aren’t going to get stuck with hoping the game shows you how to do everything again and makes sure that you retain information both immediately and in a few hours. It plays like a dream with a controller and should run on anything - playing it on the ROG Ally and a BMAX mini-PC yielded smooth-playing results. TAGLINE is available now for $17.99 viaSteamand is very much worthwhile for anyone seeking a brain-teasing blend of action, platforming, and puzzle-solving and works as a great gateway game for those who love cel shading but may not be a big fan of first-person games.
