You've got something very cool on your hands here! As a massive fan of the IDW comics, I greatly enjoyed all of the references to it. All of the billboard artwork made me smile and the giant Jewel hologram with "VOLUNTEER TODAY! JOIN THE RESTORATION!" coupled with the big ol' Forces Restoration logos scattered about really made it feel like I was slinging around Central City. I played the game for about an hour and ended up getting every emblem I could and 4/5 red star rings before closing the game, to give you an idea of how long I played it for.
As for critique, there are a few things:
- When wall running, I could really feel the lack of coyote time after reaching the end of a wall. If it was there, it wasn't strong enough for me to notice. It made the mechanic feel a lot less satisfying because if I happened to run into a very thin wall I had very little time to react before careening down into a pit without any other options for recovery.
- Rolling feels a little unnecessary, I didn't end up using it a ton and the slopes that are there are short enough that I always ended up just running over them.
- The rail grinding is nice, but I wish there was more of it! Give me a few super lengthy winding rails to grind down from the top of the city, you could even integrate them into the world more seamlessly by making them train tracks or something.
- I was kind of hoping for some sort of red ring radar or assist by the time I had four of the suckers, I spent a good 15 minutes wandering around searching for the last one before throwing in the towel.
- The music choice is nice, but I wish there were more than two songs.
- This is very much a minor nitpick that doesn't affect my overall opinion of the game, but I wish the footsteps were a little louder. I wanna hear the pitter-patter of Surge's metal shoes on the ground while I'm zipping by!
Lastly, the electro-swing sling is an extremely fun feature and made it feel more like I was playing as Tangle than Surge sometimes. The main way I ended up using it was by stomping in the air near a target and then grappling onto it while i was moving downwards, so it slings me up really really far. It's good stuff, and I don't have any complaints about it.
Thanks for making this game!