This is a cautious recommendation.
I went into this thinking it would be along the lines of "Mirror's Edge" or "Ghostrunner", a 3D high-speed platformer like "Sonic the Hedgehog" from a first-person perspective. The game certainly starts off that way, but then it diverges and becomes something totally different.
First off, let me describe the controls. Assuming you're using a gamepad, like I did, the control scheme is closer to a first-person shooter, where you're using the twin sticks and the left and right shoulder buttons and triggers the most. Initially, I found this awkward, because you jump by tilting the camera down and pressing the right trigger and dashing with the left trigger. I tried changing the controller bindings in the options menu to something I was more comfortable with, but because of the first-person camera, my changes actually made the game harder for me; so I had to go back to the default controls, the only time I've EVER done that when changing the control bindings in ANY game. Eventually, I got used to it, but it has quite the learning curve.
Second, I need to describe how you gain speed in this game. Instead of holding down a "sprint" button, or your character just being naturally fast, like I was expecting, you gain speed by dashing constantly throughout each stage. You're also expected to dash through the air, similar to Mega Man X, while occasionally using a grappling hook to zip farther distances. In fact, so many stages make you rely so much on air-dashing, that you're basically FLYING through them, over a large bottomless pit with barely any platforms. In fact, I also recall a stage in Chapter 6 where I had to skydive through large rings that instantly killed me if I touched them.
Third, while I'm fine with air-dashing and using the grappling hook across gaps, I felt like there were too many times where I would miss my destination by a few inches and had to start the stage all over. It feels like objects are spaced out TOO much between each other and should have been just a tad closer together.
Finally, must bring up what I think is the BIGGEST problem in this game, the rising lava. The main objective of every stage is to get to the exit portal at the end of a stage. Meanwhile, there's lava quickly rising up from the bottom of the stage, devouring the lower platforms. In other words, you HAVE to keep moving forward if you want to stay alive and finish every stage. Unfortunately, there are a number of instances where the level design forgets this fact by making you go BACK DOWN to a platform or portal. The problem is, whether you're jumping or just falling off the ledge of a platform, your character falls like a feather, and you only get an upgrade that lets you instantly stomp down on a platform in the FINAL chapter of the game. As you can imagine, some of my deaths occurred because my character was slowly floating downwards and was instantly gobbled up by the lava rising up at a MUCH quicker speed. You also need to beat stages with the lava rising up in order to publicly rank your best completion time on the global leaderboard.
Speaking of which, the game has time trials and encourages you to beat every stage as fast as you can. The lowest rank for the time trials is a bronze medal, and the highest rank is a diamond medal. I was able to score a few gold medals myself, but the diamond medals always felt just out of reach. After a while, I stopped caring about the time trials and just played the game normally.
Back to the floor lava, this obstacle is EASILY the worst part of the game, because it makes the overall game TOO challenging in a way that doesn't feel unintentional. The lava forces you to follow the straight, narrow path in every stage, and you're never given a chance to stand still and look around, which is especially irritating when you have to spin 180 degrees after making a jump, or you have to enter a portal, or you have to WAIT for a moving obstacle to pass by, or you have to go DOWN to a lower platform, then climb BACK up, before the lava catches up to you.
The good news is this can be turned off in the options menu, and I suggest you turn it off right away. You may not be able to earn a rank on the leaderboard, but I don't think that's an important part the game, anyway. On my first playthrough, when I got to Chapter 9, I finally decided to turn off the lava, and the difference was night and day. Don't get me wrong, the game is still challenging without the lava, but it feels more fun and fair. Without that constant pressure of having to move up and forward, I could explore the stages for different pathways and reach the goal however I wanted; I also came up with a few cheats of my own, like wall jumping upwards ;).
As for the story and presentation, it has a good sense of dark humor, and the environments in each chapter are certainly creative with how they use common everyday objects to construct levels. I just wish the ending was better without going into spoilers, the game ends in a way that pretty much tells you that your efforts were pointless. I tried checking achievement guides and walkthrough to see if there was a secret ending, but there's not. As is, I felt the ending to the plot was just disappointing and abrupt.
Despite all my complaining, I do think this is a good game after you get the hang of the control scheme and turn off the rising lava, and you're not worried about the time trials. When the level design is tighter, in that the gaps are narrow enough for me to successfully cross, I find this to be a fun platformer that requires more button presses and precision to go fast, yes, but can give me the same rush of adrenaline and satisfaction that I get in other high-speed platformers. It also helps that most stages are miniature in size, less than a minute long, and it's easy to get back to the spot where you died and try again. In fact, my playthrough lasted about 8 hours, which is the PERFECT length for a platformer, fast or slow.
The tough part is recommending it to others. I was able to grasp what the game asked of me and beat it in a short amount of time, because I'm a life-long Sonic fan; I've been playing high-speed platformers for my whole life, and I could adjust to this game's design choices more easily, even with the first-person camera. However, I don't think this is a good platforming game for more casual players, or those who prefer slower-paced platformers, ESPECIALLY with how different the control scheme is here. I can only recommend this game to other hardcore fans of high-speed platformers, and that's AFTER making proper adjustments.
