This game is going to have me speaking in an awful Southern accent for about a week.
Right off the bat, this FEELS like a Microsoft game, y'know? If you're into that type of thing, that's great, but they have a certain feel to them that means I have to adjust to the playstyle. I'm not sure what it is.
Hazel is very talkative in this, and I think I grew to like her more as the story went on and we got less clunky exposition from her. She's quite 'Marvel' for a chunk of the game, even with the ol' "Yeah, that's something I do now" and quips. Towards the end she becomes more of her own character and I enjoyed the end of her arc Her character design is also great.
The story isn't anything amazing, I feel like it's "Hazel Learns Empathy/Sonder" the game. This, like Hazels character, takes a while to get going, with a pretty clunky and heavy handed first half. I also found it odd that for the most part, after healing the trauma of the land, the characters who did those deeds aren't really spoken to again. Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.[spoiler] I also found it odd that so many people knew about Two-Toed Tom. Hazel seems new to all this magic stuff, but regular folk are just like "Yeah, there's the alligator big enough that trees grow on its back, no biggie"
Hazel also doesn't really ask that many questions to her grandmother about the whole magic thing. If I were her, I'd be asking nothing but questions, Hazel just seems to take in stride a bit too adjusted.[/spoiler]
For the gameplay, the combat is solidly okay. Funnily enough, I think the first basic enemy is the worst. They seem to move quick and charge you from off-screen. The combat mainly shines when you're fighting a large enemy 1 on 1, however that doesn't mean the bosses are automatically better.[spoiler] Two-Toed Tom and the Rougarou seemed like bosses that had some cheap attacks, whereas Huggin' Molly was a fun multi-layered fight.
The platforming was really fun though, lots of interconnecting mechanics go to make this really fun when the game decides to give you a platform challenge. I noted to myself how this has better grapple/swing platforming than Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, just for the game to give me Crouton (my beloved) about 20mins later.[/spoiler]
Graphically, this game is obviously stunning, however with the stunning dense vegetation came a lot of me running into exploding mushrooms and thorns because I didn't see them, causing me to always swear. Whilst the game does look pretty, it seems to be mired by a lack of interactivity, a lack of life. Many times I tried to break some pots, or force push a chair or bottle. Nothing. Everything is glued down and you will like it that way. Remember in Metal Gear Solid 1 for the PS1 when you could shoot every bottle on a shelf and have it fly across the room?
This has gone on too long, but the soundtrack rocks with SO MANY standout moments that made me stop and listen. Not every song is a lyrical tour-de-force, but the composition of these tracks is stunning! Not being nominated for a VGA is actually criminal.
