Fantastic little Souls-like/Metroidvania platformer. Amazing attention to detail with a thick atmosphere and reliable controls and interesting mechanics. Rivals most AAA games nowadays in terms of focus, value and most importantly fun factor.
+ Thick atmosphere
+ Tight controls
+ Eerie soudtrack
+ Great value for money
+ Simple but fun gameplay
+ Rebindable keys
+ Fairly rich video settings for such a cheap game
+ Original ideas and bosses (so far)
- Certain rock textures look quite bad
- Your character clips quite frequently through the geometry
- Doesn't SEEM too difficult which is a shame
All in all I am so pleased with my purchase and look forward to completing
the game multiple times.
Fluid gameplay, nice visuals and intuitive combat-system. The soundscape is atmospheric and dark. A fresh breath into the genre, for certain. Timing is key, and it's satisfying when you finally nail a counter that's been locking you down. The game is tough but fair and rewards inquisitive players with secrets.
This is a great Metroidvania with intelligent leveldesign, excellent gameplay mechanics (it's rare that you press the wrong button since combat is really intuitive), an amazing and unusual artstyle and non intrusive but atmospheric soundtrack. In addition to the usual loot you will find you'll also have the opportunity to use abilitys of some of the stronger enemys after you have defeated them by gaining hunting points.
The game is not easy and I died a lot but the game is also not unfair at all. Whenever you reach a boss you can be sure that shortly before you'll find a shortcut so if you die you won't have to run several screens and fight small enemys just to get to the boss again, to figure him out. That is what infuriated me with Hollow Knight. You also won't need extreme reflexes (which for me was the case in Hollow Knight) to fight the bosses - in most cases you just need to observe them to understand their patterns to figure them out. This is easier said than done and chances are that you will die on each boss at least once, but you will get better with each try, surviving longer and you will learn to understand the boss.
Especially later in the game you will also reach some pretty mean platforming sections but again - they ARE doable, this is not the White Palace. During my playthrough of Hollow Knight I often thought "Are they mad? How should this be even possible?" and during my playthrough of Grime I thought "Wow, seems to be difficult. Let's find a way to figure this out.".
Also, it might have been different when the game has been released but now you will have lots of checkpoints and lots of fast travel points so no critizism here as well. The lore is extremely mysterious but interesting nonetheless. Last but not least: the devs are working on a free DLC update right now which will add additional areas, boss fights and quality of life features. I highly recommend this game to everybody who like Metroidvanias and a challenge.
That game took me by surprise. I tried the demo with thoughts like "Great, another Souls-like with cryptic BS for a story, here we go", but I ended up quite enjoying it. Visual style, gameplay, narrative - it all mesh together so nicely. Art design and music are subjective, but personally I like it. Controls need some getting used to, but overall feel great. It's really fun to use your traversal abilities. And here's the best part - this game is actually a pretty good metroidvania! You earn abilities, which you can use both for fight and travel, there is a ton of secrets, you can go almost wherever - it's all there.
So yeah, if you like Dark Souls - get this game, it's actually works quite nicely as a souls-like. If you like Metroidvanias - super get it, it's one of the best ones in years. I bought it 2 days ago and just kept playing.
Says 15.5 hours in game, not bad, and that's not a 100%.
But I gotta take away some points, because:
1 - it's a cheaper title of a small team and unfortunately there is quite a few bugs in the game. There is also quite a few complaints about game design, but I don't share them.
2 - All armor in the game is cosmetic. And some of the most well-hidden secrets is armor. Just feels like a big waste of time. Good thing that puzzles are fun.
Overall solid 4.5 and awesome first game.
GRIME shows up on a lot of "games like Dark Souls" lists. And yes, it's got stamina-based combat with dodge-rolls and a unique parry system (more on that later), it's got a cryptic story where most world-building is done through item descriptions, rather than a few NPCs; and most things in this world actively want you dead. However, after your 3rd boss, the game that was previously a fairly relaxed and well-paced metroidvania takes a sharp turn and subsequent levels rely on some hardcore precision platforming. Not Super Meat Boy level hardcore, but close to the Ori games- the emphasis definitely switches from combat to precision traversal using your air-dashes and hookshot to reach anchor points. This transition is pretty jarring, and a lot of player likely won't be ready for it.
The combat is generally fun, with a varied bestiary that requires different approaches. The parry mechanic allows you take off chunks of enemy health with a well-timed parry, and could be instrumental in whittling down some of the tougher opponents, especially in late-game optional areas. There's a whole bunch of various weapons to find that each have unique attacks and can be upgraded, so there's room for some experimentation. Defeating enemies via absorption (parrying) also allows you unlock specific traits (buffs) associated with each enemy type- and collecting "hunt points" from killing special enemy types allows you to activate, or upgrade these buffs. In addition, there's a typical RPG stats system where you can upgrade your stats using currency collected from enemies. When you die, you lose of that, and need to go back to your death spot and strike your "echo" to regain it. And obviously, resting at save points respawns all defeated enemies.
Exploration's a ton of fun due to how strange and outlandish the level art is. later game sections become more streamlined, and there's not as many secrets to find, but filling out the map still feels worthwhile.
