
The general gameplay is clearly inspired by the Grand Theft Auto games: Freely roaming around "Theftropolis City", the Player can collect weapons and hidden power-ups, steal cars, fulfil missions or simply run over innocent bystanders for fun. Whenever he commits a crime with a policeman present nearby, the "threat meter" will rise, indicating that the police will chase him more aggressively until finally, even it is replaced by military if the Player takes it too far. Hiding for a time decreases the threat meter, as will having your car sprayed in a different, inconspicuous colour (the Player remarks: "That will totally work!").
The latter being a good example of the overall tone of the game: While the nods towards gaming history are of a loving nature, there are various pointed stabs at the world surrounding the gaming culture. The Player himself delivers several deadpan remarks which allude to well-known subjects, such as in this case the media discussion about violence in video games: When the Player finds an arcade machine whose game lets his avatar stomp on monsters' heads, he "suddenly feels the urge to stomp people in real life", which he then promptly proceeds to do. In a similarly ironic vein, the game begins with a "common sense warning" parodying those false disclaimers with their typical double standards.
Emphasising this even more is the audiovisual style. The game is accompanied by a broad variety of chiptunes and the graphics… the graphics! Running at an effective resolution of 320x240 pixels, the game looks like it comes right out of the late 1980s. The quality of the pixel art makes it obvious that this is not inability, but a conscious choice of style. On top of that, the game offers various graphical filters which can, on the one hand, smoothen or sharpen the picture and apply various colour palettes modelled after classic computers or console systems. So if you like the green-brown-ish tint of the classic Game Boy, you can have it just like the colour bleeding effects of the Spectrum. My personal favourite: the C64 palette.
Which, of course, is a valid point to make about the whole game. In spite of most of the short "parody levels" not being quite on par with the main gameplay and some even gnawing dangerously at the frustration level of games as they were actually made back in the 1980s (though you do have unlimited lives…) as well as the progressing plotline narrowing down the freedom inherent in the gameplay more and more over time, RCR is an absolute delight to play! It's literally been years that I've been entertained this well by a game I didn't know before! Even more than the (admittely funny) storyline, the totally free play, simply exploring all the corners of the city and discovering its many hidden secrets, is very close to my heart. Whether this will be the same for younger players or whether they will see it as just another mediocre and eventually forgettable curiousity, I don't dare to judge.
I wonder if it will be possible to download additional city maps in the future. As I said, although the standard one has got many great secrets and very different corners, it is hardly a large one. I think the game would benefit greatly from additional variety in this respect.
Herr M. (2013-04-13):
As for the nice details: I smiled at the crashed escape pod from Space Quest 3 at the junkyard.
Or the Giant Ape, or the time machine with it's fire trail. Though my favorite car still has to be the taxi, since it has it's own mini game.
[edit: fixed last quote -Mr Creosote]
Mr Creosote (2013-04-13):
Glad you enjoy the game as well
Lives: -265 (around -100 for the sweat bomber level alone)
Herr M. (2013-04-12):
After playing it now and then for some weeks, I just finished the game and there is one thing I have to get of my mind right now: I absolutely HATED the final level! Probably because it took me almost 2 hours of frustrated level memorizing and repeatedly getting nuked by a single shot (though having three lives) to realize that you can shoot the onstacles in the final round. Though the tracks before weren't all that easy eiter. Not to mention the Death-Cam Level which is nigh to impossible if you don't use a very cheap trick. Actually it's quite fitting: Having an almost impossible last level is as retro as you can get.
But don't get me wrong: I think it's really a fantastic game, with some very nice features, that capture the spirit of those games from the old days exceptionally well (for the good and for the bad). Very much love for details and a plethora of somewhat useless but entertaining stuff. I think what I liked most was driving along the sidewalk, collecting money and raising the police alert level until the tanks showed up.
And then losing all that money at donkey races again. Also the Iced tea had me laughing really hard. 
And I did a lot of colour palette switching, which was as great a feature as I thought it to be. The graphics never got boring.
My final Score: 2082589 Lives: -265 (around -100 for the sweat bomber level alone)
Herr M. (2013-01-07):
Well this might slightly drift off-topic, but for me the artistic value is not tied to the technical details of monitor or graphics card (if any). I can think of both very old games (I really dig the graphical style of the old Sierra games) and newer games (like Machinarium, one almost recent game that was extremly artistical appealing to me) that show great creativity and care for details. There are even some Game Boy games that aren't limited by the green/brown palette, like Gargolye's Quest.
Mr Creosote (2013-01-05):
Mr Creosote (2013-01-05):
Herr M. (2013-01-05):
I probably would play it in either CGA or Gameboy mode (allthough it would be kind of pointless without playing it on a handheld) , at least I would give it a try. I have played a lot of emulator games, that had worse graphics and didn't mind the limited palette. Why not go full nostalgia? Why stop at 16 colour graphics? Somehow this option to change the graphics mode might totally sell this game to me (as superficial as this might sound).
If I felt totally nostalgic I would even prefer some PC-speaker sounds.
Mr Creosote (2013-01-05):
Herr M. (2013-01-05):
Hey, don't be so hard on the CGA color mode! Judging from the screenshots it certainly looks a lot better than the other ones, closely followed by the Game Boy graphics. As a PC gamer you couldn't go any more retro... except perhaps with amber monochrome.
Does sound like a great game, which spends a lot of attention to the details that made those old games so memorable.