Gameplay is top notch. The controls/abilities are great, side content is great, the storytelling is nice (it was interesting enough that I read all of the little details/notes I found), and there are some endearing characters that you meet along the way. Combat can be a little challenging which I love (going to do some challenge runs myself), but if you just want to enjoy the content you can toggle difficulty via accessibility settings without any penalty The graphics/art direction is pretty awesome too and the DLSS+Ray Tracing is in the top tier of implementation. - PS bonus content here https://www.gog.com/forum/control/how_to_unlock_the_the_preorderplaystation_outfits_bonus_mission Below are my negatives: - Lack of multiple saves. *WARNING*: After you beat the game, do not use Mission Select unless you want to go back to lose progress (if you go back to chapter 2 for example, you will only have what you had back in chapter 2). I recommend just keeping a spare save file outside the game if you want to jump around. Unfortunate inconvenience, but thankful for the freedom of PC gaming here. - Crash on a certain side boss involving clocks. The easiest fix to the crash I found is below: "Obeliskoid on the Nvidia Discord found a fix. There are two .dll files in the game directory. platform_rdwin10_f.dll. (a bad opcode here is causing the crash) and platform_rdwin7_f.dll. Back-up your rdwin10 file. Rename platform_rdwin7_f.dll to platform_rdwin10_f.dll to overwrite the windows 10 file. This fixed the crash for me. Not sure if it breaks anything else but you could always put the original rdwin10 file back after the boss fight." - Can't remove depth of field. I normally turn depth of field and motion blur off on pretty much every game I play, but there is no file or in-game setting to turn off DOF. DOF in this game isn't very intrusive in this game like others so I'd consider this a very minor gripe. Overall great!
This is a love letter to 2D beat em up games so I have to spread the love over here too. I own this game on Steam, GOG, and Nintendo Switch, and it just does not get old for me (PC version for costume mods and 144hz support in game, and Switch so I can play on the toilet). The combat is simple yet deep, as in it may consist of just a jump, attack, and special button, but the flexibility of the combo system, parry mechanic, physics, movement, and cancellations of move animations coupled with the wonderful scripts for the AI patterns makes the gameplay very deep because every decision/action has meaning behind it. Overall, there is not a single beat em that comes close to feeling as good to control to me personally. Fans of the genre will notice some inspiration from classics (flashback to the 90s and you'll see). The game has a heaping load of content for its MSRP and no other official 2D beat em up to date comes close. From the branching paths and all of the endings, CPU helpers to play with you, the enemy characters, costumes, and modes to unlock, you can easily put in 50-100+ hours. That said I do have to address some potential negatives for some folks: - The game can be pretty challenging . Not trying to be full of myself or scare people away, but even on normal difficulty, it'll probably keep you on your toes and you'll feel accomplished. Most players will never see the last 2 difficulties of this game. The difficulties in the game are easy (you have to unlock this), normal, hard, hardest, insane and unfair. It's taken me over 200 hours to reach unfair, but maybe I just suck. - Training mode (doubles as a combo challenge), easy mode, and stage practice modes are also locked from the start, though you can get enough coins to unlock easy and training mode after one game over. That said, this game has become one of my faves of all time. You can enjoy this as a casual or hardcore fan of the genre. I highly recommend it.
