The story plays out in brief animated scenes that, as many people have noted, look a lot like the ads for Esurance. And once you know the level by heart and you're racing through at a dead run, looking for shortcuts and trying to beat your best time, it's glorious. The first time you make it through without dying, it's a blast. But go back and try the level again with a better sense of how to tackle its acrobatic challenges, and it's a lot more fun. The first time you traverse a level can be frustrating, with a few head-scratching moments and a lot of trial and error.

This seems restricting at first, but it helps the replay value quite a bit. There are sometimes multiple paths through levels, but it's not a free-roaming game.

Yes, it's repetitive, but in the way that the Burnout racing games are repetitive, where the better you get at it, the more fun it becomes. But it's fundamentally about running, jumping and tumbling. It mixes in a bit of combat and puzzle-solving here and there. The game is well-paced, alternating between cramped, claustrophobic spaces and wide-open ones, between pursuit and evasion.

What is parkour games