The game itself is really fun, and the procedural animation feels amazing and fluid. Playing as the monster in a horror movie is such a great idea for a metroidvania! With that said, there are two main issues I have with the game. First is the insta-kill enemies and traps, which just feel very frustrating and out of place. Second is the lack of map, which is fine for most of the game it's pretty straightforward, but towards the end I had no idea where I was, or were I was suposed to be going. Still a great game though, and if the devs were to patch those two things it would be an instant 5/5
I started out really liking this game, but by the end I was kind of frustrated and wanting it to be over. The overworld is pretty boring and unnecessary. There's not much to do except pick up loot that you're practically tripping over anyways, and the only things to "discover," are chests that unlock profile pictures for multiplayer. Replacing the overworld with a simple "choose your own adventure," style text menu would have removed hours of slowly walking around pointless landscapes. The story is OK. There are some more exciting bits, but IMHO it never really "gets good." The ending is pretty disappointing as well in that we, the main character, have little involvement in the actual resolution of the plot. Balance wise the game starts off good, but gets really frustrating by the end. The "standard battles," get boring and repetitive, while the "puzzle battles," (battles with special rules) start out fun and well balanced, fall apart as the game goes on. Since these battles have special rules, most of the give you a custom deck of cards to handle them, but at some point the game stops doing this and just blindsides you with battles that your custom deck can't win, leading to having to reload old saves and look up online guides to make sure I'm going in with the right cards. On top of that, the battles where the opponent can spawn infinite cards are just unfair, and fighting those drained all enthusiasm I had for the game.
The game is charming, the characters are fun, and the world is great to be a part of. It's one of those games that jumps around all over the place in terms of level theming, but it works really well. With that said, the game is SUPER janky to the point where it would have stood out as janky even back in 2005. Ledge detection doesn't always work, the player "snaps," strangely to tightropes and other special platforms, it's almost impossible to intuit when certain special abilities will work and when they won't, the camera likes to spend half it's time behind walls and other geometry, and the platforming just feels all around sluggish. It wasn't that bad for most of the game and I didn't really pay much attention to it until the final level or so which felt straight up broken to the point where I almost quit the game (but didn't). All in all though it was a good game. I enjoyed the story, and even with it being a comedy game the overall concept feels like a nice breath of fresh air. If you don't mind a bit of jank, you could do far worse than picking up this game.
I knew almost nothing going into this game other than "Emo bug themed metroidvania." This game absolutely blew my mind! It's difficulty was perfect, with normal enemies being easy enough to allow smooth traversal through the world, while bosses were fast and precise, and beating them gave me a very similar feeling to beating a difficult song on guitar hero. The games world is absolutely MASSIVE. It was the first time in a really long time that I played a game that just kept going, and going... and going... and going, and I loved every minute of it! The art is beautiful, the music is fantastic, and I really just enjoyed existing in the world of Hollownest for a bit. Probably my only complaint I have is some of the secrets don't feel "hidden," as much as they're placed in areas that you would never check if you didn't already know they were there. Similarly, there's a lot of lore which apparently only triggers under certain conditions, but you'll never know you missed them unless you hear about it later online. This game instantly made my short-list of "best games of all time," and reminded me just how rare it is to find games that are this high quality.
I'm going to not mention bugs here, as it's still less than a month after release so bugs are only temporary, and on top of that I didn't actually experience that many when I played, or hinder my enjoyment when I played. I really enjoyed this game. I feel a little let down by the main plot, as it's pretty boring, though there are still some really great high points due to just how well the characters are written and portrayed. The game also is a little too much like the new Deus Ex games for it's own good, in that it tries to do much of the same stealth and hacking, but doesn't quite do it as well meaning a lot of the stealth options are just "go in side door," instead of "hack computer to get map, use map to find vent shaft, use vent shaft to get into security room and unlock all doors." With that said I still love this game. Even though the main plot is pretty boring, some of the side plots are deserving of a game all to themselves! The gameplay feels fun, and the variety of weapons keeps things fresh throughout the entire playthrough. It's a very well designed world, and just driving around in the city is something I enjoyed immensly. I can't wait to start my second playthrough
