GRIME

Grime is a pretty well made Metroidvania that just didn't do it for me. I did push through and finish my playthrough, and it took about 19 hours. I think my chief complaint is that the game did not feel like it respected my time. Also, combat is slow and became sort of boring after a point.

too good for how unpopular it is, this game is a great 2d souls-like metroidvania belonging in the same level of praise as hollow knight and silksong its very difficult with the parrying, but that doesn't matter too much

I'm a bit hesitant to give it a negative review, because Grime does a lot of unique stuff but I just didn't manage to connect with the game. The map is legitimately too big and getting anywhere takes forever. World traversal doesn't feel good, enemies are all sponges and I only felt strong at the very end of the game, combat itself is a big clunky due to any and every action sucking most of your stamina and it takes forever to recover. Fast travel doesn't show in the map where you're actually going other than the area name, the map itself has *no indication* of anything like NPC's, area completion, points of interest, absolutely NOTHING, fast travel checkpoints are not well placed. There is no sort option for your inventory/armor sets so they're scattered, exploration itself is not rewarding because most things you find are useless items that serve little to no purpose, and some of the worst boss fights I've ever seen in almost three decades of playing the genre. The story is unique, the OST is good and there's a lot of very crazy designs which is awesome, but the actual "game" part of Grime is just not fun, at least not to me.

Some of the best boss fights. Very challenging game.

Not sure I want to go on anymore. I've enjoyed other difficult games, like Hollow Knight, Silksong and Sekiro with some difficulty mods. I've spent hours on bosses in those difficulty mods, but I cannot do this game. It's not necessarily about the difficulty, it's more about the level of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The previous area I was in had enemies with a ground attack that they could do from almost anywhere. Every four seconds there would be an attack coming from the ground at you. An attack that you cannot avoid or parry. In the current area you have enemies that have an unavoidable ground teleport attack. They can do this from offscreen and simply appear at your feet. Again this attack you cannot parry. Enemies have way too much HP. Parrying deals damage to enemies, but a basic mob takes like 6 parries to die. Contrast this to Sekiro where it's about learning what the enemies do, but when you do, getting through them is very efficient. Fighting multiple enemies at the same time is an exercise in frustration, because of animation lock on your actions. You can dodge through enemies, but enemies can simply turn around mid-attack and hit you in the back anyway. There is no feedback at all on parrying, enemy attacks or getting hit. Enemies don't seem to attack, the attacks simply happen. Judging parry windows feels trial and error. The only way I'm able to judge whether I parried successfully or not is based on whether I took damage or not. But I should be able to keep my eyes on the action to see what's happening and not have to also stare at my health bar after every action. Movement is super slow. Like, really slow. Getting anywhere takes an eternity, and then you're followed by teleporting enemies forcing to spend time fighting the HP sponges after every death. I didn't get to any real platforming sections, but the controls seem so unresponsive and the action sluggish that I wouldn't look forward to it. Weapons are nice, and different upgrade systems are nice but not very impactful (not a negative for me). Weapons have a normal attack and a special attack, and different weapons have different special attacks. Atmosphere is good. The world is grotesque.

It's not necessarily a bad game, and I've had some fun playing it, but the complete mediocrity that plagues most of the game, combined with the frustratingly bad moments, far outweighs the positives. Because of that, I have a lot to say. [h2]Pros:[/h2] [list] [*]I think the concept of absorbing (parrying) enemies to unlock abilities is very cool, although it could've been better implemented. [*]Some bosses are extremely cool to fight, but they're either late-game or can only be fought in NG+ (Yikes). There are almost no runbacks, though. [*]Some of the music is really good, while the rest is okay. It will also sometimes just randomly cut out and stop playing for no apparent reason. [/list] Now you might notice that every pro I included also has a con... Well, yeah. That's extremely common in GRIME. Anyway, here are the... [h2]Cons:[/h2] [list] [*]The level and enemy designs are extremely bland. I understand that 99% of the game is made out of rock, but you could've diversified a little. There are a lot of different types of rock, you know. A real shame, because the game shows you a handful of times that they can make beautiful artwork for areas or cool enemy designs. But most of the game is just really monotonous. [*]The weapon diversity in this game would've been insane IF the weapons actually did something different. It basically always boils down to: this weapon is slower but deals more damage, this weapon is faster but deals less damage. The fact that you need certain stat requirements to wield weapons also feels crazy superficial and 100% unnecessary. Some weapons require extremely high stats, and grinding levels is not a fast process. You can respec your stats, but this requires a limited item. [*]The stamina bar actively hinders combat. I also don't feel like it was a necessary addition. You already have to manage a lot in combat (except unique attacks, surprisingly lol), and having a stamina bar on top of that just makes combat feel worse. It also drains exceptionally quickly, so you'll have to put a lot of levels into stamina if you don't want to constantly run out. [*]The hitboxes are not always clear. At the beginning of the game, I saw enemies doing ground stomps and didn't even realize they were releasing projectiles. It's also sometimes difficult to distinguish an attack from a random animation, which you will have to learn through trial and error. Sometimes hitboxes feel too large, sometimes too small, and sometimes they start too late or too early. Enemies will also sometimes have a collision hitbox with their main body and sometimes they won't. All in all, the hitboxes felt quite janky throughout the game. [*]The Absorb/parry system is way too overtuned. First off, successful parries fill a bar that lets you heal, but sometimes you can't parry an attack at all, which is indicated by red flashing. Sometimes a parry may activate a counterattack, which you also sometimes can't parry. Sometimes enemies have gray health bars, which means your parry will only stagger them for approximately 1 nanosecond. Parrying projectiles shoots the projectile back at a random target in sight, except when the projectile is red, in which case it does nothing. And YOU MAY ABSOLUTELY NOT PARRY WHILE IN THE AIR! Combine all of this with the Absorb abilities and the janky hitboxes, and it just feels like way too much. [*]I talked about how good some bosses are, but sadly the opposite is also true. Some bosses in this game feel absolutely terrible to fight. There are also repeat bosses with almost the same design and attack pattern, except maybe a little faster. [*]The map is pretty useless most of the time. [*]The warp points in this game are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Some Nervepasses are way too well hidden and too far away from the general area you need to be in. The elevators are okay, but they only connect a few areas together. Ultimately, these two sources of transportation don't even matter that much because after defeating a certain boss, you unlock fast travel between checkpoints, which you should've had from the start. The whole system just makes backtracking more tedious than it should be. (To my understanding, the ability to fast travel between checkpoints was added later.) [*]GRIME also has its own hardcore parkour section! It's extremely frustrating, and the reward is extremely mid! [*]The story is told in a way that makes it feel like you're supposed to know things that are impossible to know. You can read item descriptions and bestiary entries, but they mostly consist of pretty boring flavor text. It could've been a good story, but not like this. None of the NPCs are particularly interesting either and are mostly there for flavor. At the end, it doesn't really explain anything. [*]Unlocking Double Jump as the last unlock in the game (before the final boss) is probably the dumbest decision I've ever seen in a Metroidvania. [*]Locking content behind NG+ is just a no-go for me. [*]And now the saddest part: the game has some pretty significant bugs. To the point where even the credits are visually bugged. It really took away from the experience. I got stuck in walls and had to off myself, and apparently I died at the same time as a boss because when I went back, the boss wasn't there anymore. The amount of bugs I encountered was pretty nuts. [/list] And to top it all off, the game isn't even that difficult, just sometimes very frustrating. Now, I know I've been extremely negative, but the game isn't necessarily bad. That's almost what makes it more frustrating. There's a lot here that I really like, but nearly every good idea is accompanied by a design decision that makes it worse. The game shows multiple times that it can make beautiful areas, cool enemies, and great bosses, which makes the mediocre parts stand out even more. I usually love Metroidvanias and Souls-likes, and I really think GRIME could've been good. For a playtime of about 20 hours, I don't think it's worth €21. I'd pay €10 max. Will I play the second game? Probably lololololol. It piqued my interest enough, I guess, and I've read that it's better than the first installment.

Я казуальный игрок и с соулс лайками не дружу. Слишком сложно для меня, не хватает усидчивости, но эта игра смогла меня зацепить, в первую очередь своим сеттингом. Это первая соулс лайк/метроидвания мною пройденная. Мрачная атмосфера, разнообразие противников, уникальные боссы, которые открывают новые способы передвижения и прокачки, куча секретных мест, которые невозможно найти без гайдов и конечно же местами крайне сложный платформинг (сложно сосчитать какое количество смертей мне понадобилось, что бы добраться до Меч-Косы). В итоге игра пройдена два раза на все ачивки, на это потребовалось 537 перерождений. НГ+ оказалась не менее интересной в прохождении так как с самого начала у вас доступны все умения для перемещения, боссы имеют новые паттерны атак или новые фазы. При втором прохождении планировал пройтись только по обязательным боссам для ачивок, но было так интересно, что я повторно убил всех боссов в игре и собрал все ихоры необходимые для прокачки. Боссы, которые при первом прохождении давались мне с 20-30й попытки, в этот раз отъезжали с 1-5й попытки, что приносило неописуемое удовлетворение :) НГ+ можно пройти всего с одним оружием и комплектом брони, мне больше всего зашли Шлифованные Ногти и броня Лепесткового Самоцвета.

COUNTER: the game.

English review: I do not recommend it, but this is mostly because the game did not work for me personally. I usually like metroidvania and platform games, but this one felt strange to me. I did not really like the character, the combat, or the overall design of the game. It is hard to explain exactly, but the style simply did not appeal to me. I barely played it, and to be fair, I did not buy this game directly. It came in a random key bundle, so even though I technically got it, it was not something I chose specifically. From what I played, I did not notice any technical problems. The game seems to work normally. My issue is really with the design, the style, and the way it feels to play. In short: it may appeal to some players, but for me, it is the kind of game that will probably just stay in my library without being played. Análise em português: Não recomendo, mas isso é mais porque o jogo não funcionou para mim pessoalmente. Eu geralmente gosto de jogos metroidvania e de plataforma, mas este aqui me pareceu estranho. Não gostei muito do personagem, do combate e nem do design geral do jogo. É até difícil explicar exatamente, mas o estilo simplesmente não me agradou. Joguei muito pouco e, sendo justo, eu também não comprei esse jogo diretamente. Ele veio em um pacote de chaves aleatórias, então, tecnicamente, eu comprei, mas não foi algo que escolhi especificamente. Pelo pouco que joguei, não percebi nenhum problema técnico. O jogo parece funcionar normalmente. Meu problema é realmente com o design, o estilo e a sensação da gameplay. Resumindo: talvez agrade alguns jogadores, mas para mim é o tipo de jogo que provavelmente vai ficar parado na biblioteca.