I dont usually write reviews, but I felt compelled to for this particular game
(Mild spoilers ahead)
My thoughts?
Pros: This has been one of the best games in terms of the art directive and presentation in the last 5 years, every area is full of detail and atmosphere and I found myself stopping so many times to just look around and appreciate it, I love how the enviroments were always full of animals, I found myself following them when they ran away sometimes, The setting of a game based around Creole and Cajun mythology was super unique and interesting, it's great to see a mythology-based game that isnt just another Greek/Norse game, and I love all the creatures and monsters, the haints were genuinely scary and pretty gross, the disgusting knot things they spawn from always freaked me out every time I had to unravel one. I found Catfish and Crouton to be super awesome too, they always made me smile when they showed up. The game knows when to be light-hearted and when to be heavy, I never felt conflicted or like I got tonal whiplash from any of the changing emotions going on, for a game that's primarily centered around themes of grief, loss and trauma it does a great job of balancing the themes and making you genuinely heartfelt-sorry for the characters, I know for sure that Benjy's story had me feeling real sad, every echo segment got the point across without making things too tip-toey or too graphic which is greatly appreciated in an era where every developer is either too scared to show anything vaguely upsetting in fear of being shot down in flames, or uses dark heavy emotional themes for nothing but cheap shock value, it's a nice breath of fresh air. I also never found myself becoming frustrated with anything, and despite me thinking the platforming could be a little dull sometimes it was made up for by just how amazing the visuals and environments were, and how every single little area was filled with story, nothing felt like filler, every single area had a reason, a purpose and a story. The music is also incredible, I could sit and listen to it all day, the use of traditional instruments and styles really helped to add to the Deep South Louisiana swampland vibes of the game, as I've already said the art directive has been the biggest strength of this game above all else. I found the combat to be pretty fun and fair even with large groups of haints though not really doing anything overly new or exciting, the enemy types were easy to earn and predict though sometimes still caught you a little off-gaurd cause they're super fast, I loved to use Crouton to possess an enemy and watch him unleash hell on everything. Honestly, I would absolutely love to see a movie based on this game, I know for sure Id go see it in theaters.
Cons: I do have a few gripes with this game, the main thing that stuck out to me was that our protagonist Hazel Flood, don't get me wrong I like her, but I honestly just didn't find her too interesting nor did I feel any sort of reason to become connected on a deeper level with her, she's a little flat and nothing about her really stuck out to me, I wish her story and who she is as a person had been looked into more deeply, especially surrounding her family since it's so important to her, and honestly her voice acting wasn't amazing either, she just sounded bored and robotic most of the time even in the most heart-wrenching situations. I also felt as though the bosses were a little generic, the designs were incredible but the mechanics weren't anything all that interesting, and I never really felt challenged by them. The puzzles also were hardly puzzles, every solution to a blocked path was 5 feet away in an obvious location, I also found 235 out of the 250 upgrade coins on my first playthrough, they weren't hidden all that well and most could be found by just going off the beaten path or into a building. I also felt as though the ending was very abrupt and like a smack in the face, it didn't end gracefully at all, which was really disappointing cause I was expecting something much greater from a character such as Bunny, all she did after being built up as this major villain was just kinda... Cry and leave then the game's over :/ Unfortunately I also encountered a couple performance issues during cutscenes, I noticed that the music would cut out and sputter during cutscenes and the game has a nasty habit of freezing when exiting a cutscene, causing me to sit for about 20 seconds before it unfroze and I could continue with my journey, however I experienced no issues with framerates or anything, which is great considering the amount of detail stuffed into every single part of the game.
Overall: Solid 7 and a half out of 10. This game reminded me very much of Alice: Madness Returns in its exploration, combat, magical themes and the changing of clothes during the game and a little Silent Hill and Resident Evil with the inspecting stuff with flavour dialogue, the monsters and the body horror. I highly recommend this game to anything who enjoys art and story-driven games, the sheer beauty makes you forgive most of the flaws.
