Life in a Digital City

I have decided to go with a more realistic approach to the graphical style. I obviously can change this at any point, but every time I visualize the game in my head, it appears the same way to me, partially from the suggestions of my friend Erin. I see a cityscape with one main road running through, huge skyscrapers, crowded sidewalks; basically a populated city.

I was originally thinking of using arenas and a gate system (like an actual door) sorta like (if you have played it) the scene in Metal Gear Solid 4 where you are fighting Screaming Mantis in the tech center. The areas would flow down towards the center of the arena, where the guardian would be. I decided against this, mainly because it's too.. plain. Sure it provides a solution to the problem, but it's not really a creative one that would be memorable. So, the city idea was born.

The way the environment would work is that the "Conductor" is actually a resident in the virtual world, similar to an MMO, like Second Life (even though I loathe SL) or There. He utilizes his avatar to appear like a normal user in the computer system/network, and all along is plotting to take it down. The anti-v agents blend in with the crowd of the city, but the hacker has built a widget for his avatar than allows him to see their code. Battles would break out in the crowds themselves and take place in different locations (just like in real life, we have different cities, so would our systems), and you would be confined to a sector of the city before you could access the next.

The Guardians will actually be towards the outskirts of the town, or in front/on top of a base building. Your character can modify the space around him, so running up walls of buildings and such is not a problem. Just as a virus can manipulate your computer system, so too can a Conductor. When you defeat the Guardian, it will give you access to a new city, of which I have not figured out the method of transportation.

That's pretty much all I got so far. I'll update more as I come up with it. I feel this would be the best way to represent the game, but I'm always open to suggestions.