Haste

honestly absolute peak

A Non-Biased Review for Haste and why you Should Try it Despite It's Flaws: (Anything opinion based will be stated, I do have some personal opinions as well as things that I believe are actual issues/upsides of the game!) (NO SPOILERS OF ANY SORT, however i'll be talking about specific flaws like boss fights + mechanics but there will be no proper description of what actually happens, just what makes them good or bad.) (This is with both Steam Deck and PC controls in mind, I played 10+ hours with my Steam Deck and the other 5-6 on my PC.) I finally finished Haste and played a bit through the Endless Mode before making this review. This game is AMAZING but I have a few nitpicks and constructive criticism that I'd like to give (Especially with ONE major thing.) But either way, this game definitely deserves a shot, especially if you're into fast paced platformers that can feel quite challenging at times. CONTROLS: Controller: This game is incredibly good with controller and the Steam Deck in mind! Personally, I'd say from a subjective standpoint that PC is better but it's very easy to rotate, position yourself and use abilities. It's good if you just wanna wind down in bed and play for as long as you want. KBM/PC: Simple but effective! You use the space bar to dive and the mouse to rotate mainly so it's simple for most people to play. This is my preference since I find positioning and some abilities easier to use but both are great and valid choices! SPEC DETAILS: Extremely easy to run considering today's standards! Very well optimised as someone who has a mid ranged PC for 1080p gaming in mind. Obviously, knowing what the game's like, it's not going to need anything special to run it but it still makes the game highly accessible either way. THE GOOD: ITEMS: The one amazing thing about this game is how items come into play during runs. Since items are RNG based, you'll always be trying different "builds" and personally I love that so much! Items give different buffs and can trigger under different circumstances so it's up to you to grab items and combine them to put you in the best possible situation for the final level of the shard + the rest of the run. FUNDAMENTAL MECHANICS: This game has a REALLY unique speed system, at least in my own opinion/standards. When you position yourself right, you gain more and more speed and you have to manage that while dodging your environment which is an extremely effective way to make an enjoyable platformer that feels different from the rest. THE DIFFICULTY: This will be a part of the negative flaws but in a way it's also good in it's own regard. The game gradually picks up on difficulty and items are there to help you a LOT with different factors like health, speed, sparks etc. There's also permanent upgrades to help with harder shards and abilities you can use to make everything a lot more enjoyable/better. ABILITIES: There's 4 of them and I won't state what they are, however all of them have their own purpose/use! I only used 3 out of 4 mainly as the 4th one didn't serve me much purpose and was only useful for a single boss (I still didn't use it anyways) but either way, all of them are worth a shot and everyone will like at least some of them as they're all different/unique in their own right. ENDLESS MODE: Endless mode is customisable, it lets you pick your difficulty and other factors so everyone can have fun with it! It doesn't have what the shards have and no shops of any sort but it's still fun to play anyways. THE BAD/MY OPINIONS: THE STORY: As someone who plays a LOT of story games, especially visual novel based games, the story didn't resonate with me whatsoever which is quite rare. I found myself skipping it due to how confusing it could be at times or just how I personally couldn't engage with it, not even at the end. The game is mostly gameplay based so you can easily ignore the story by skipping and moving along with your day. Some people might enjoy it but personally I just couldn't no matter how hard I tried. THE BOSSES: This was my one MAJOR complaint about this game and I won't go into spoilers of course. Basically, every shard has a boss at the end and these bosses are usually incredibly tedious and can feel "unfair" at times. (Definitely a skill issue on my part.) The issue is that they re-use these bosses but add very slight details like attacks being a LITTLE harder and I personally lost my mind every time I'd have to go through a boss fight. I think there's around 3-4 that just get repeated over and over again until the final fight which I wish there was a lot more variety although it's not the main part of the game so I'm quite alright with this part of the game. THE DIFFICULTY: (again) Sometimes this game can be VERY punishing and not in the enjoyable kind. Slight incorrect movement? There's one of your lives gone. Fall slightly behind? That's another life. Use a speed boost that literally LEADS you into a dead end sometimes? Most of your health or your life is gone. As someone who's a big fan of difficult games, most of the difficulty is super fun but the fact that anything can mess you up is a bit frustrating and it's not for everyone. Items greatly help with this but the fact that they're RNG will literally either make your build absolutely amazing or you're screwed and will have to rely on pure skill or even luck to get through it. My one main issue was how some collapse speeds are SUPER fast no matter how fast you can be. I mean I like it because it adds a lot of pressure but sometimes it can end a whole run which is quite long (around 20-30+ mins would be my guess) so you can see how frustrating that may be. The difficulty is one of it's main strengths but can also make you lose some enjoyment for the game. With time you definitely will get better and WILL make progression so it's not too bad ultimately. THE CONTENT: It feels too short, especially when you're done with it all. It makes you think, "that's it?" knowing that there's nothing more to do other than grind for achievements (the achievements in this game are INSANE and I probably won't go for 100% unless I'm really feeling it) but for what you pay, it's absolutely worth the money! SUMMARY: Should you buy it? Absolutely! Is the game absolutely perfect? No, but that's okay. Not every game needs to be utter perfection, as long as it's a good experience full of passion and individuality. Play it if the genre suits you or if you enjoy a little bit of difficulty that motivates you to get through each shard. Play it if it's a game that you can shut your brain off to while playing.