In the early 2000s, Channel 4 hyped up a documentary about athletes practising a new way of moving through their environment with grace and fluidity. You will know what Jump London introduced by one of two names, Parkour or Free Running, and if you were of a certain age back then, you'll know someone who tried it out.
Why walk the long way when you can hop a fence or bounce over a planter? Why go to the effort of learning how to skateboard when everyone, everywhere, already knows how to run and jump? Why be boring, when you can head to the rooftops and partake in parkour? Parkour!
Game developers everywhere had their minds blown, Ubisoft especially, who would put parkour front and centre in the likes of Prince of Persia and Assassins Creed. But where was the game that was solely about free running? Where was the Tony Hawk game of the sport?
Follow up documentary sequel Jump Britain would tease the development of Free Running, a PlayStation 2 title that would be the safer, more ridiculous alternative to doing it all for real. And then everybody forgot about its existence and the PlayStation 3 came out...
Fun Times
I was amazed to find Free Running had made it onto the 1001 list because it had absolutely none of the hype that the TV documentaries that spawned it did. It wasn't touted as the next big thing that all the cool kids were doing. It just wasn't touted. I knew of its existence, and then I just didn't care about it, even if I was interested in Parkour.
It occupies this weird place in my mind, as some kind of nostalgia for a thing I never did. There's got to be a better way to explain that. I looked forward to playing this game as though it was some undiscovered treasure. When I got a copy, I made sure to not play it until it was next on the 1001 list, as though I was waiting for Christmas or something. There was no real reason to do so, I just thought this game was special because of how I learned about it through that documentary.
After what is frankly an awful intro movie showing all the cool kids from the TV jumping over road signs around London, we're greeted with a warning not to dick around when Free Running - a warning that even goes to the lengths of saying you shouldn't partake in the actual sport of Parkour, the sport Free Running is presenting to you.
It's the equivalent of saying not to play American Football because you'll get a concussion, or Golf because you'll die of boredom. Never drive a car, either, and please, please, engage only in virtual war, for your own safety.
We're told to pick a character, who each have stats that mean nothing to me right now, and fashion choices straight out of the period, which means it's incredibly easy to find someone wearing cargos, like I still do, because of comfort and pockets.
There are two places to start playing, either around the roof of your block of flats or at the gym where you can actually learn the moves in a safe environment, with none other than Sébastien Foucan teaching you the ropes. Only it doesn't sound like him very much, and he doesn't do much talking. But look, guys, it's Sébastien Foucan!
Frustrations
I am emulating Free Running, mostly for screenshot grabbing, but also because the PlayStation 2 has been retired, the component cables unplugged so that the Nintendo Wii can be used, of all things. However, emulation isn't perfect. While Free Running runs, your runner does not. Or more accurately, he does, but if you dare to run through the first checkpoint, you will fall into the floor and not be able to progress.
In fact, you can run around the gym and find lots of places to fall through the floor, which doesn't bode well for being able to learn the game without resorting to the manual.
Luckily, there's an option to display hints, and they do remind you how to play the game, so I can sort of learn on the fly. Jumping is on the circle button, landing smoothly into a roll or precisely onto a rail is on the X button. You can pick up some of the basic stuff by just experimenting with the buttons. The advanced lessons I can't unlock until I've found a way to not fall through the floor.
With few options available, I guess I've just got to hop into a level and learn on the fly.
Sadly, the only level that manages to load is the Gym. I can't play around in any other level because I need to unlock them, and this loading image will not be replaced by the Home level I want to run around in no matter how long I wait.
I think my hopes have just been crushed.
I look over to my PlayStation 2. It did work, a while ago. In 2020, the PlayStation 2 I bought 19 years earlier still worked. Maybe I ruled it out too soon. Maybe it was just having a bad day. It can still read discs, right? I mean, I took it apart to clean it and everything.
Come on little guy. Dreams are at stake here.
Further Fun Times
Holy Smokes! It's alive! Discs are being read! Gyms have solid floors! I'm able to progress through tutorials! Free Running, here I come!
I go through half of the tutorial before failing to do some jumps because of fiddly inputs - we'll get to that - and decide to load the first level and have a play around in that. I've no memory card to save my progress, but I've got a memory, and it's enough to take note of the finicky controls and the poor camera.
After playing around with it on original hardware, I give it another chance through emulation, but no luck. And then I spot that Free Running was also released on the Nintendo Wii, PC, and the PlayStation Portable.
The PSP, you say? Please, tell me more... because do you know what emulates really nicely? PSP games do.
And so, finally, I'm able to bring to you all some screenshots of the one and only Free Running. This is Home, the level I couldn't load through PS2 emulation, in all its grubby glory. The PSP visuals do take a slight hit compared to the PS2 version, but to be fair there's not a whole load of immediately visible differences.
Your HUD consists of a health meter, some bars relating to your flow and sprinting, and a floating arrow pointing you to your next target or some other point of interest, like a new challenge to partake in.
In other extreme sports games, what to do would be obvious. A ramp here, a rail there. In Free Running, your surroundings are much more nondescript but full of just as many possibilities.
See a gap? Try jumping it. A rail catch your eye? Try landing on it, or balance-walking your way along it. Big, enticing wall? Try to scramble up it, or run along it, or backflip off it. This is your playground, and while the camera doesn't like to give you the greatest view of it, the controls do try to give you plenty of options for a good time.
A good way to explore a level is to start something like a target challenge and see where it takes you. Will hints on, you'll be able to see where in a level a technique like wall-running can pay off, and the floating arrow to your next target will give you some sort of idea where you can climb and jump.
Further Frustrations
To stress the point, the camera isn't the best, in both the PS2 and PSP port, so navigation will be a little annoying at first, and then even more annoying as time goes on.
The big problem I found in Free Running is that of intent. The movement system allows you to chain together moves and tricks into a flamboyant show of athleticism, but it doesn't do a good job of knowing what you intend to do. I gave up finishing the tutorial because of controls that didn't quite make sense, or that weren't doing what I assumed they would do.
When you want to jump off a rail, your traceur will often hang from it instead. When you walk too close to the edge of a roof, he'll do the same too, and when your intent was to get off the bloody rail and realign your view to try again, he'll find a way to put himself on another rail instead.
At least you ragdoll the very instant you lose control in a way the game can't find an animation for. You can pull off gymnastic flips and kicks with strange inputs of L1, R1 and the triangle button, and while they look bloody incredible when you time them right, leaping from a rooftop via an Axe kick or a Gainer or something, most of the time I found myself flapping into an obstacle like a sack of potatoes. Equally great to see, but not good for my flow, man.
There's even a challenge dedicated to the ragdoll, which is a nice break if the controls are starting to annoy you.
Further Fun Times
There are other traceurs to compete against in head to head races to a goal, for example. In this particular chase, these were the only two moments with both of us on screen, mostly because of the camera, but also because you can go wherever the heck you want in this challenge, so long as you get to the finish first.
You'd have thought that'd be a perfect display of the art of parkour, efficient movement through a space, getting somewhere as quickly and smoothly as possible. Instead, I clambered up a building, over a fence, ran as far as I could without doing any parkour, then jumped the gap to the finish. I don't know what my competitor was doing. Showing off, probably.
Final Word
And that's the truth of it, really. It may be the only game focused on the art/sport of free running, but it is not the easiest or most welcoming of experiences. If it is the Tony Hawk of parkour, then it's a cumbersome Tony Hawk title that isn't remembered for a reason.
It was probably really difficult to get such a game up and running in the first place. The documentary even shows the developers saying that every character is the same height in-game because that's the only way it could work with the technology they had available.
The very idea of incredible freedom of movement almost inevitably results in a game that cannot meet expectations. You cannot account for every player's intent and ideas, even with trick moves, and wall-running, and tic-tacs, and cat leaps... The best you can do is try to make a fun game that tries to convey the spirit of parkour and free running.
And in those regards, Free Running probably succeeds. It's certainly got an ambitious amount of movement mechanics that, when they come off without a hitch, look really good. But most of the time, it doesn't look good. It looks clunky, a little awkward, and kinda makes parkour look silly.
It reminds me of the intro movie, actually. Parkour, at it's best, is incredible. Just go and watch the experts at play in District 13. Parkour that shouts "Hey, look at me, I'm doing Parkour!" often isn't, and you come across looking like a bit of a wally. Instead of excellent parkour, Free Running opens with "Hey, look at us, we're doing parkour!" in a way that feels dangerously close to that parody from the US version of The Office.
I knew this game wouldn't amaze me. I knew it wasn't going to be a hidden gem that becomes one of my favourites. It's a product of its time and serves as an example of how difficult it can be to convert something into a video game.
As time and technology have advanced, the best parkour in video gaming is probably found in Assassin's Creed Unity, though its controls are just as complex and intricate as those in Free Running, and it replaces elaborate axe kicks with violent axe kills. Traceurs will have to take what they can get.
You don't have to play Free Running. I'm very glad I finally did, but for more personal reasons, than production quality.
Fun Facts
Oh gosh, I forgot all about Mirror's Edge. Is that a better depiction of parkour than Assassin's Creed Unity? Eh, well, it's more immersive but just as cumbersome as Free Running... That's on this 1001 list, right? No? Why on Earth not?
Free Running, developed by Rebellion Developments, first released in 2007.
Version played: PlayStation 2, 2007, also via emulation.
PlayStation Portable, 2007, via emulation.