Playing Umurangi Generation is like being a background character in a disaster movie. You’re a freelance photographer working for the Tauranga Express, combing through the streets and rooftops of the city taking pictures for meager pay. Photography is deep but approachable. It inspired me to dig my old DSLR out of the closet. The world is a stylish near future that at first feels like a relaxing homage to Jet Set Radio, but throughout the game’s short runtime reveals itself to be a prescient allegory for when our institutions fail us, and how regular people end up paying for it.
