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.

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.

GRIME is a relentless, atmospheric action‑RPG that thrives on tension and discovery. Its combat feels heavy and precise, exploration is unsettling yet rewarding, and every victory against its grotesque world leaves a lasting sense of triumph.

The game seems decently made but for me certain major design decisions didn't work, and the game failed to grip me the way other platformers did as a result. - Setting & art direction: The world of Grime seemed interesting/ intriguing at first, but it I quickly got bored of it as I kept coming across enemies that are just various types of rocks. The muted color palette of the game further accelerated my boredom meter, they use a lot of gray, black and this annoying shade of purple presented in many bad modern games. In short, the visuals of the game is very unappealing. -Exploration: The game doesn't have Fast Travel unlocked early. One thing I like to do in these "Metroidvania" platformers is going back to previous areas right after unlocking a new power to explore hidden secrets and get items I couldn't get to before, and not having Fast Travel prevented that; and I wasn't gonna do anymore tedious runbacks - the runbacks I had to do after dying to bosses was already bad enough for me. - Controls and gameplay: It felt a bit janky, particularly when I had to do combat near ladders. Also, I always felt my character was clunky and slow, but I'll admit I'm not a big fan of the Soulslike + Metroidvania combo to begin with - I think the stamina system of Soulslikes doesn't mesh very well. The game has a heavy emphasis on its Parry mechanic, many times I found myself just standing still waiting for enemies to attack so I could parry them - not something I liked doing too much since I prefer moving around in platformers. - Progression: The game didn't want me to feel good playing it. I beat 3 bosses and it felt like I barely got any stronger. Healing is very limited at the start yet I was still stuck with 1 heal that I had to fill to the max to use. I spent thousands of "souls" to get minimal gains like 5 points of HP, 2.5 points of stamina, 1 point of damage, etc. The game seemed eager to punish me and waste my time but unwilling to reward me when I actually did well. All in all, this is probably the weakest Platformer I've played on Steam yet.

Эта игра буквально Blasphemous и Dead cells в одном флаконе, только с чуть более красивой графикой. Вооооот

I just spent the last two weeks or so playing GRIME and I need to talk about. I’m shocked this game doesn’t have more reviews or a larger fan following. The game isn’t perfect, to be clear, but it’s still firmly an A tier game for the designated genres. If you’re a fan of metroidvanias, 2D platformers, and souls-likes, then GRIME will undoubtedly be up your alley. That much I am sure of. I’ve read a bunch of the negative reviews on here and on other websites, and I have to say, I think most of their hate is unwarranted. This isn’t to say the game shouldn’t be criticized, because there’s definitely aspects that I have issues with. But I think it would be a huge mistake to write off the entire game just because you might’ve struggled with it in the beginning. Level design, graphics, and combat are all immense positives. The menu interface for leveling up is very simple and intuitive. It lacks the kind of polish you’d expect from a Team Cherry game, but this is a minor quibble. I must also shout out the music. There are several amazing pieces in this game—typically during epic boss fights—that deserve lots of love and praise. The overall aesthetics of this game are some of the best I’ve ever seen for a metroidvania, and I cannot recommend it enough simply on those merits. I will admit that it’s very easy to get lost in this world, and there were a few times I wished the map interface was a little more helpful in pointing things out or explaining early on what certain landmarks signified (but you can always google it, at least). Most of the problems I have with the game come down to a lack of clarity, because there are a few important things that are genuinely never explained at all. (Very From Soft coded, if you will.) Time for my BIGGEST complaint with this game, and to be clear, everything else I’ve mentioned thus far is negligible in comparison to this issue: the “pull” mechanic (orange/yellow light that you use your R stick to _pull_ objects and enemies in certain directions), is *deeply inconsistent.* I want to be clear about this because there are a few different special abilities you gain regarding the pull mechanic; one of them is concerning orange/yellow objects & enemies, while the other (much later in the game) is regarding orbs you use in the air to slingshot yourself around. The ability you use to slingshot yourself around with is totally fine and I have no problems with it. But the orange/yellow pull mechanic is going to cause a certain amount of frustration for each player, which is just very unfortunate. Perhaps the biggest example of what I mean can be found during the Misbegotten Amalgam boss fight (I’d argue it’s the hardest fight in the entire game, but your mileage may vary). There’s a part of this boss fight where you see the orange light signaling that you need to pull down on it in order to stun the boss, allowing you to get lots of punishing hits in before the next cycle of attacks. For reasons I was never able to understand THIS WAS VERY HIT OR MISS and would sometimes just straight up NOT do anything, (even if you did exactly what you’re supposed to do). _This happened to me over and over and over again, throughout the entire game regarding this mechanic._ I started to wonder if my steam deck’s right analog stick was busted or something, but no, it’s fine. It’s the pull mechanic that is fickle. So just be aware going into this game that you will probably have some inconsistency regarding this particular aspect of the game. At its worst, I was crashing out and genuinely wondering how the game got through play testing in development, but when it DID work it was fine and I thought nothing of it. (NOTE: to be EXTREMELY clear I spent *hours* of my time in this game just testing around with this pull mechanic to see if I could figure out what worked and what didn’t, and never came away with a legitimate answer. Regardless of how I moved the R stick differently, the outcomes were extremely difficult to control. I eventually beat the game so I was able to get it working at probably a 60% rate, but man, that other 40% was always super frustrating because missing those windows during boss fights means you’re going to take a lot of damage you shouldn’t.) Overall the game was a pleasant experience though, and I found the parry mechanic awesome. I built my entire character around being able to heal every time I blocked or parried an attack, and it just felt awesome (especially against bosses). To me the best boss fights were: Surrogate Vulture (my favorite by far), Giant of Eyes, and of course Shidra of the Worldpillar. I hope more people play this game and have as much fun as I did. The fact that I had such an annoying time with the pull mechanic but still came away with a very positive attitude towards my time with the game should tell you just how strong the best parts of this game are. I hope this was helpful for any prospective players. Cheers. *8/10*

STOP ADDING PLATFORMING SECTIONS WHEN YOU HAVE MADE A GAME WITH QUESTIONABLY MEDIOCRE MOVEMENT MECHANICS. This should apply to your game as well as to so many other titles that, unfortunately, have picked up this horrible habit. You are NOT Hollow Knight, where the fluidity of movement makes it perfectly clear that every single mistake is entirely the player's fault. You aren't even Aeterna Noctis, which is certainly even more punishing than Hollow Knight but boasts exceptional movement mechanics where you never feel frustrated by errors that aren't objectively your own. Your game is clunky, with rigid movements. It is perfectly fine for the slow-paced gameplay you intentionally designed around, but the Abandoned Opus section has NOTHING to do with the core of your game. It is frustrating, poorly designed, and not a single time did I actually feel like I had proper input control. I'm sorry, but for me, this design choice is so fundamentally flawed and must be penalized to such a degree that it drags the game down to a failing score. Without this section, it would be a solidly passing, good game. I sincerely hope that GRIME 2 does not suffer from these exact same issues.

Considero juegos como Blasphemous 1 y 2, como Hollow Knight y Silksong, metroidvanias desafiantes a la par que divertidísimos. Grime es tedioso y asqueroso, porque su dificultad es elevadísima e injusta, y porque no recompensa al jugador ni ofrece ningún aliciente para seguir jugando. No es divertido en ningún momento, y para sufrir ya está la vida real.

一般来说，这种游戏玩完多少都会有点成就感和满足 但这个游戏做到了从头到尾只有折磨，甚至结局前还要给你一段漫长的跳跳乐破坏心流 角色位移手感非常奇怪的情况下，还要硬搞跳跳乐，制作组真是无敌了

I enjoyed it