PC User Reviews

GRIME offers a visually arresting world and a chaotic atmosphere that stands out in the crowded Metroidvania genre. However, beneath its stony exterior, some design choices create a friction that prevents the game from reaching true **** "Absorb" Dilemma and Combat The core "Absorb" mechanic, while conceptually interesting, unfortunately, hurts the game’s pacing. Instead of an aggressive, fluid combat style, it forces you into a passive "wait-and-parry" loop. Since the absorb timing is relatively easy to master, it can make major boss encounters feel trivial once you find the rhythm. In contrast, the character’s movement feels notably heavy and sluggish, which often clashes with the precision required in modern Metroidvanias.However, the combat isn't without its charms. The weapon variety is impressive, and the "Special Attacks" (Triangle button) are a highlight. Specifically, the aerial heavy attacks feel impactful and are visually rewarding, providing a much-needed sense of power in an otherwise slow combat system.Difficulty Spikes and Frustration One of the most jarring aspects is the inconsistent difficulty. While bosses can be overcome easily with the absorb mechanic, certain regular mobs feel overtuned—sometimes capable of one-shotting the player. Combined with the punishingly distant checkpoints (surrogate points), this leads to moments of genuine frustration rather than a "fair challenge." If you have a short fuse, be prepared for some nerve-wracking sessions.World Design and Exploration The map design is a standout feature. It is massive and provides excellent clarity; the way it tracks your explored paths ensures you never feel truly lost despite the labyrinthine structure. While the environments can feel a bit repetitive visually, the developer, Clover Bite, has done a masterful job of conveying a chaotic, primordial atmosphere.Progression and RPG Elements On the RPG side, the leveling system feels somewhat underwhelming. The stat upgrades and skill points often lack a tangible "impact," making the character's growth feel less rewarding than it should be in a 20+ hour journey.Verdict: If you are a hardcore fan of the genre and enjoy a chaotic, surreal atmosphere, GRIME is worth your time. But be prepared for a slow-paced experience and some questionable balance choices that might test your patience more than your skill.

100/85 Bence underrated bir yapım. Metro-indivia ve Soulslike türünü bu kadar iyi bağlayan başka bir oyun var mı, emin değilim. Harika ve zorlu savaş sistemi size cidden çok eğlenceli dakikalar yaratacak. Ayrıca hem platform ögeleri hem de bölüm dizaynı çok etkileyici. Tek kelime ile "güzel" bir yapım.

This is the best soulslike Metroidvania since Hollow Knight. It's very challenging but very fair, and has so much exploration. It's also the most innovative good MV we've had in years. It has excellent exploration, excellent combat, and amazing boss fights.

Раздали значит в epic games store грайм и я его прошел. По механикам и смыслу грайм очень похож на предыдущую игру в жанре metroidvania на которую я ранее делал обзор(salt and sanctuary, только в отличие от нее грайм совсем не пытался скопировать стиль и атмосферу dark souls, поэтому атмосфера, сюжет и локации здесь уникальны и ни на что не похожи. Над визуальной составляющей, в отличие от salt and sanctuary поработали капитально, игра очень красиво выглядит, очень крутой оригинальный дизайн как локаций так и персонажей, после скудной salt and sanctuary прямо балдеешь. Игра пусть и не пытается быть dark souls'ом в 2d, однако, огромное количество элементов туда перекочевали. и ощущается она пусть и не атмосферой, но геймплеем, как в двадешный dark souls с небольшой ноткой sekiro. Кстати о секиро, вся боевка тут завязана на конратаках и таймингах, и боссы тут ебут в сраку так, что любая часть дарк соулс обзавидуется, я реально ловил вайбы секиро от этой игры, принципиальная разница с salt and sanctuary в которой каждый босс убивался с одной или двух попыток. В общем, любителям жанра играть обязательно. 8 из 10

What the really awesome game，but also not easy, if more resource can be bought from merchant, it worthy higher grades

Good Metroidvania by the Israeli studio Clover Bite. + Good Metroidvania + Beautiful Graphics + Good Gameplay + Good Lore + Various weapons + Very good artistic direction - Not memorable soundtrack - Some messy boss fights

Gostei muito de GRIME, um ótimo jogo, com uma historia interessante e uma dificuldade até bem desafiadora, gostei muito do jogo pois lembra um Dark souls, ou seja é um Dark souls 2D. A minha nota é (8/10).

Not sure how this got scored by my account as I do not own and have not played this game.

Interesting art design, but for basically no good reason, it runs like absolute garbage on my system. Constant stuttering makes the combat almost impossible to time properly when it's a back-and-forth between slow motion and normal animations. Maybe if I had a console, I'd feel differently - but I don't

Another metroidvania with unique design and art which you should try and understand, whether you want to finish it. Atmosphere is unique as in many others. Gameplay is pure metroidvania. Basically design and art game.

One of the best metroidvanias i ever played. Game have interesting upgrading system and strong gameplay.

Love this indie gem, we need more of this, one of the best indie games with great gameplay and great bosses, almost a soulslike

If you like to walk half way across to map to go back to the boss fight everytime you die, this is the perfect game for you.

Very good game with a pretty decent story, hard to understand if you don't pay attention.Overall very good game for 20 bucks

Incredibly flawed game. They start off by showing you how to parry attacks, and then say that if the enemy glows red they can't be parried. Then there are random enemies that aren't glowing but also can't be parried. You die super easily, so you think you were just timing it bad, and so you spend 10 minutes running back to where you died from the FAR away spawn point only to die again because for no apparent reason you can't parry the enemy. This happened to me numerous times until I downloaded a trainer to give me infinite HP and discovered this is a "bug" that's not actually a bug. There's actually a whole other system based on color and percentage of the health bar (which only shows once you damage an enemy), which they don't bother to inform you about at all. You have to use a search engine to play this game. And sometimes it straight up doesn't work anyway. There are other platform games where dying is normal and not unenjoyable. This is not one of them. The only way for me to pleasantly get through this game is with a trainer. I don't think the map/navigation is done well. I spent most of the time wandering through a completely dark maze without coming across any beacons to light up the map. That means you have to go back and do everything again numerous times, because not even areas you traversed get saved/lit up on the map. It would be even more repetitive if I wasn't using a trainer, but as is, you have to traverse the entire map at least twice.This is such a weird game. I can't believe there are that many people who like doing this kind of thing over and over. You level up very slowly. Part of it may be because they expect you to do everything over and over, but "hunt points" seem very rare.There's at least one spot in the game where you will have to look online what to do. Even a super pro guy who does this for a living had the same problem (dash through the spikes). Unlike some other great platform games that have wonderful music, this has none. There are ambient sounds, and there's one part where even they get so annoyingly repetitive that I had to mute the game. There's another part where the ambient sound sounds like someone whispering "what an ****" over and over. I don't mind redoing map sections but it should be that the story leads you there again, rather than dying over and over or because now you can have a visible map to clear vs just having a black maze before.I think the way the map works is not good at all. It's either all or nothing -- it can light up parts you haven't visited, making it very hard to keep track of what you haven't explored yet. Usually there's some item you can get/buy in the last half of the game that will reveal item locations so you can go around and pick them up, but I came across no such thing in this game. There are lots of things in this game that seem poorly designed, poorly balanced, or literally broken. I got tired of listing all the flaws. The game is enjoyable enough with a trainer so that you can customize your experience, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it without one. It's the kind of game where they confuse being really hard with being fun and enjoyable.

Waste of time full of glitches stupid hitbox cant u dash when jumping, anyways weapons are trash leveling up is useless animations are uncancelable everything this game is just trash

A great 2d souls like with really intresting art and progression. Play this for sure if you like souls games, souls like or 2d souls games.

Buen juego este Grime. Nos ofrece una oscura aventura en 2,5D de corte metroidvania pero muy inspirada por los juegos de tipo soulslike. Así encarnamos un extraño ser cuya cabeza es un pequeño agujero negro y avanzamos por un extraño mundo de piedra donde el cielo se cae a pedazos y en el subsuelo hay extraños palacios, exuberantes jardines y profundas y oscuras cavernas llenas de enemigos que nos pondrán las cosas muy dificiles.Grime no es un juego fácil, que sea un soulslike ya nos avisa de su inherente dificultad, pero es que es un juego especialmente difícil. Sus ajustados saltos, sus exigentes combates contra bosses, que por cierto el diseño mola muchísimo, como todo el juego en general y su forma lenta y pausada de cedernos el avance, puede hacer que este juego no sea para todo el mundo. Pero si te molan los retos y los juegos en 2D preciosos, por lo menos tienes que darle una **** cuanto a la historia, como todos estos juegos, es un lore bastante ambiguo. Sabemos que estamos destinados a algo importante, pero no sabemos exactamente a qué. Durante nuestro periplo daremos con extraños personajes que nos darán esbozos del mundo y de lo que ha pasado y pasa en él. Poco a poco a medida que avanzamos en nuestra misión se nos irá revelando nuestro **** cuanto a la jugabilidad tenemos un soulslike de manual en 2D. Recogeremos armas, armaduras e items con escuetas descripciones que nos ayudarán a avanzar en nuestra aventura. Si morimos, cosa que pasará muchísimas veces, volveremos al último ‘sustituto’ (hoguera) en el que hayamos estado, en ellos podremos realizar diferentes tareas dependiendo del momento del juego en el que nos encontremos. Desde ‘crecer’ o subir de nivel a usar el teletransporte, o aumentar el poder de las armas si tenemos la ‘masa’ (almas) y el ‘metal sanguino’ (titanita) suficiente para ello. Un aspecto esencial de la jugabilidad en este soulslike es el dominio de la habilidad ‘absorver’ (el parry), sin dominarlo nos será imposible avanzar por que nuestro ‘aliento’ (estus) depende de ello, aparte de que sin parry no podremos hacer daño a algunos enemigos ni conseguir de otros los puntos necesarios para personalizar ciertas habilidades pasivas que solo se desbloquean con un tipo concreto de **** definitiva, Grime es un juegazo. Denso y difícil, pero hermoso y fascinante. Una aventura preciosa que nos mantendrá pegados a la pantalla entre 20 y 30 horas. Recomendadísimo

Simply the perfect fusion between a metroidvania and a souls-like, a challenging RPG with real rewards for exploration and build decisions. In addition to this, the lore and story is great, and made me get affectioned to characters like Yon and Shidra. Highly suggested to anyone who is ready for a challenging immersive adventure.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Frustratingly annoying game mechanics that limits player movement during battles. Boss fights are nearly impossible and you will need to die about 30 times before you can even begin to figure out how to defeat them. The developers weren't smart enough to include a difficulty setting in the game. The default setting is Very Hard to Nightmare. I hope you don't like your mouse, keyboard, or monitor because you are going to have to replace them after you throw them across the room in frustration. The story doesn't make sense and the character development is lacking. I actually have no idea what the point is of this game except to frustrate the player. No wonder why there are so many trainers for this game, just search for "Grime Trainer" and see what I mean.

It was a weird experience after all, but I can say that the game had many positive aspects. I say 'weird' because I can't fully understand the story or the motivation of our character. Additionally, the art design can be confusing, but this choice ultimately makes the game visually impressive. The gameplay was slow-paced and heavily reliant on parrying and absorbing attacks. However, it was enjoyable due to the variety of weapons, abilities, and armors available. The platforming was great, especially in the later parts of the game. However, the game tends to hide many important abilities for a long time, in my opinion. The boss fights were fantastic, and while the music wasn't bad, it wasn't particularly memorable either. Overall, it's a good game if you enjoy metroidvanias and Souls-like experiences.

Plus - Atmosphere is really great - Boss fights quite enough and challenging. - Explorable world - Good designs for platform sections - Wide map Minus - Hard to find where to go - Controller between keyboard transition a little slow - A few times I got blue screen after I just open the game

Um dos melhores jogos indies que joguei na vida eu pode jogar graça o prime gaming muito obrigado Amazon por ter liberado o jogo no seu serviço

The game has great ideas and a half-baked implementation of it. I lost count of how many times I died in the game because one time I would land and take some damage and on the other I would die instantly. The "map" idea is also infuriating, some times I spent about 1 hour or more without finding the damn checkpoint, or 2 hours without finding the thing that reveals the map, it was a miserable experience at that. Is not like the game does not have good things, the combat is ok, there are markers to use on its map and there are some progressions that are also ok. It is "ok" at best, all because of the unnecessary frustration given by the map problems, the almost hidden checkpoints and the inconsistent gameplay experience. One time the ability slow motion works, and in others it just doesn't... I gave up.

I want to give the game 8.5 but I can't because of Metacritic. The game is great in everything, FINALLY a metroidvania that keeps the challenge alive even after hours of play. Man if I loved the bosses. The world is so artistic and original. Its unfortunate for the abstract lore narrated plot that makes it very hard to understand or for the absence of memorable characters that makes you attached to the world but for everything else PLAY THIS GAME, it gets better at every new area.

I like this game. I first thought it not hard but i was wrong. The game is challenging journey. But it should have some fast travel to have a better journey. And the Graphic is special, this art style is unique and beautiful. GRIME is worth playing.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Nettes. Spiel es hat echt viel Spaß gemacht. Mehr davon! Nicht zu lang, nicht zu kurz. Genau richtig.

GRIME es la mezcla perfecta entre un juego de exploración estilo "metroidvania" con combates a lo "souls". Con un diseño visual precioso y una banda sonora espectacular. El universo de GRIME me ha parecido de los más originales entre los indies del género, con esa ambientación surreal lleno de seres esculpidos, desolado, bello, y en general mostrando un magnifico mundo pétreo.

A Metroidvania with a "souls like" combat style and narrative. It has an astonished art style, with a beautiful OST. The level desing is stunning, wanting to explore the world of GRIME and seeing their inhabitants and the piece of the cake are the boss fights in the game, really amazing.

Was extremely impressed with GRIME. Expected to play it for an hour or 2 and then forget about it. Ended up being one of my favourite surprises of the year. It's a Metroidvania with all the best parts of Dark Souls. The story and setting are surrealist and sombre, with great atmosphere. The game is challenging but did not once feel unfair. The bosses, in particular, are all fantastic -- they all provide a test of your skill, but not so much so veins are going to be popping out of your forehead from stress. The story is vague (like Dark Souls) but is not so obtuse that you won't even care what's going on. Importantly, unlike Dark Souls, the NPCs talk to you normally and not like their dialogue was written by an 18th-century poet who ends every sentence in crazed laughter -- which added a lot to the world for me. I will say, however, that the game isn't the greatest looking. Some animations can look pretty janky and you can see the seems in geometry in some places -- but I never had any crashes so I won't complain too much. It only took 9 hours to beat which was a really pleasant length but by the time I got to the end I had already pretty much explored every nook and cranny of the map, and there was so many upgrades left that I couldn't touch I felt like I was missing something. Overall -- a fantastic indie game that I hope gets more content/a sequel. The world is very interesting, the mechanics are endlessly satisfying, and I've started up a second playthrough to try a different build already! I wish the studio the greatest success with this game, they deserve it.

This game was a blast, I had the same feeling playing it than I had discovering the world of Hollow Knight ! It is a well-crafted metroidvania, with a lot of hidden passages, shortcuts and items, a good enemy variety, great boss fights, epic soundtracks and, most of all, a jaw-dropping scenery. The gameplay is fun, the character can either fight with a traditional weapon, or absorb attacks in a kind of "parry" mechanic. Bosses make a really good use of the fighting mechanics and other abilities learnt throughout the game. Exploring is always rewarding, there are several hidden bosses and optional areas. The world map is huge and the progression is satisfying. The areas blend together nicely and each of them has its own mood and good ideas. The negative aspects of the game are the fact that its aesthetic gets repetitive (fleshy walls and bones everywhere + too many caverns), but when it tries to introduce a spectacular area, it succeeds. I also had a problem with the pacing, I thought there weren't enough bosses in the second half of the game and too much platforming which did not always blend well with the balanced mix between combat and parkour that defined the game until then. Finally, the runtime between checkpoints was often too long and sometimes, only returning to the place where you died can be a chore. Though, these negative aspects did not make me like the game less and I had a great time during my first playthrough, which lasted 15 hours. If you like a challenge, I highly recommend Grime.

Review To "GRIME" ** Ok I will start with the fact that the game in Israeli development will not change the score ** Now let's start from the beginning I played the game for 4 hours straight and really enjoyed it and then Mikey from Limited Edition explained to me what he did not like about the game, so I knew In what expectation to come to the game but on the other hand there was Shmuel who really liked the game so I did not know in what expectation to come. Then I played about 4-5 hours straight and enjoyed I did not understand what Mike was about And after about 7 hours I realized what Mikey was talking about, my bugs started, stuck animations, eight of me to move on. The stage design was fun for the most part there were just sections where the stage design was the same and something good about the game, the bosses were amazing and tough, The combat system is amazing, and the Parry system was nice. And my precious problem The game is just trying to be Ori and Dark Souls together and in my opinion does not work not so much And that's a problem. ** a story** The truth story is especially nice the torturous dialogues, and funny characters, of the game. Just a little word about the graphics. The graphics in my opinion look pretty good overall but still nice and so are the textures And the models look good And unfortunately I have nothing more to say You can summarize the graphics in one word ** "basic". ** Now something that really bothered me with the game This game just throws things at you for no reason That the design steps look the same but what bothered me the most was that to upgrade weapons you need to go back half a map to some guy who gives you the option to upgrade. And why not have the option to do Fast Travel I heard that right at the end you get but I did not get it **** In conclusion I think it's a game since it's worth its price just do not expect anything amazing but still a great game Final score || 7.5 / 10 ||

Bad,very bad... Graphics -5 Gameplay - 5 Plot - 1 Music - 3

After playing the frankly disappointing Ender Lilies, I didn't have high hopes for this title. But, having now finished it after around 20 hours, I can safely say that this game is a quality product. First, the music. It's alright, not the greatest but definitely serviceable. Though most of the music is fairly generic, there are a few standout boss themes that are still stuck in my head and have found their way onto my playlists. The sound design is superb, with clear audio cues that help a player get a grasp of where they stand, where an enemy might be up ahead off screen, if a projectile they need to parry is coming. World Design is interesting. They did a good job with interconnected zones and making sure that there are a lot of shortcuts to unlock. While the lack of convenient fast travel will be an issue for most, I often found that the available methods saved more than enough time to make backtracking feasible. As for the often mentioned checkpoint starvation, I do agree there aren't very many. However, the world is full of shortcuts you can open that make a given checkpoint end up close to a route further ahead. Things like activating an elevator that goes to a prior checkpoint. The actual map design is pretty cool, with a lot of random empty crevices that make it feel more like an actual place rather than a game world where every inch has a specific purpose. Though that's a downside for many, it's an element I appreciate. For gameplay, Grime really excels. Every enemy type feels unique, with slightly different approaches and strategies needed to deal with them. The main mechanic of combat, the parry/absorb feels incredibly satisfying to land, and they do a good job of communicating exactly which attacks can be parried. As you unlock added mechanics, combat gets more complex. A "pull" ability that is used for traversal can also be used to grab enemies during parts of their animations, knocking them out of it and opening them up to attack. Red flashing attacks can't be parried, so dodging is the only option. There is a variety of weapons, though I only ended up using a few due to my build. Still, they seem to offer enough differences to appeal to many playstyles. Platforming segments can get very challenging, especially mandatory to progression segments. You need to learn how to chain together every mobility option in the game to reach the ending. Having played with a keyboard and mouse, I can't really say how difficult they'd be to someone with a controller. If you don't like tense and sometimes exasperating 2d platforming, don't get the game. Bosses are phenomenal. Each boss feels very distinct in terms of attacks and appearance, and provide plenty of exploitable openings for an enterprising player that understands the mechanics. There is always a checkpoint less than a minute away from each boss, so death never feels too punishing. It also has a good mechanic to help with grinding, if you're so inclined. By killing enemies, your Ardor meter goes up from 0 until 100. The higher it goes, the more mass (basically Souls from Dark Souls) you acquire from enemies. I didn't need to grind to beat the game, but for those who need a bit more levels I'm sure it will be handy. As for story... I don't want to get too detailed. Personally, I liked it. It's got that "modern Metroidvania" style of storytelling, with the overly cryptic lore and item descriptions. While it isn't the best story out there, I still felt emotionally invested. And that's what really matters.

This game is difficult in all the wrong ways. Every little encounter even with basic enemies feels like a technical challenge. The all-important parry move is incredibly fussy, and you'll die constantly trying to learn the timing. Bosses are a mystery you have to die repeatedly to "learn". You can lose 80% of your health just be dropping down a blind ledge too close to a common baddie. I loved the art design, but all the mechanics seem to be a clinic on how NOT to make a game fun. Metroidvanias shouldn't feel like this.

It was cool! Only positive emotions. An interesting hero, weapons, monsters, locations.

The game in the first days was in an Alpha state, which later they were fixing with some patches (they still need to fix some things), with that being said i'll tell you my impressions after 28hours. It's a good souls-like metroidvania (?, Not bad, artistically pretty and graphically not crazy but nothing to blame, it's good. Things i liked: The world, the music, the combat mechanics (full parry) and the bosses, with some really fun fights, some challeging. A lot of weapons and armor (which is good, but not so much, I specify why in the things that I didn't like). Things I did not like: The worst of the game FAST TRAVEL, they give it to you with the final boss and being a metroidvania, where you do backtracking all the time to explore and look for places that you could not access before, doing it before the final boss is a pain in the ass. (They are adding more fast travels (portals) but they need to add more).This is a major issue.!! As I said there are a variety of weapons, several problems tho, you cannot test them without the necessary stats, some ask for many stats and since you cannot test them you don't know if it's worth spending them for that specific weapon, so basically you end up not using them, so ... many weapons but if they weren't there, it would be the SAME . Something to add is that stamina is spent very quickly and heavy weapons spend A LOT ,so it makes not much sense to use them, the best weapon in the game: the first one they give you. Armors Sets: a lot of sets, which is good, but they don't give you anything, it's purely cosmetic, which makes it not very attractive to search all over the world looking for them, unless you want to get the achievement (which by the way, is bugged So they don't give it to you :D, same with weapon achievement) I would add something small like some bonuses (10% speed, 10% strength, 10% defense,) I don't know, something. That is my review, in my opinion it's a VERY good game and I recommend it, if you are thinking on buying it , I would tell you to do it, but wait for them to put some more big patch on it, the devs are very active listening to the community and they are fixing things very quickly, so it seems this will be a great game!.

after 15 hours of playing grime and finishing it i can say that its a cute metroidveniia but that's it here's why story: to what i understood from the game you are a piece of the gods or their kid ? that try's to become one of the gods and so starts your adventure pros: - the game looks great in term of graphics - the sound design is kind of average but does has its moments at least from the middle of the game - the map design is super cool and unique - i really dig the whole parry the enemies and **** it number of times just so you could invest in the icon and get some new traits it sounds weird but the concept is super cool - i really loved the boss design because every boss was super special and there were even some souls references here and there - the game is so much better than the demo version in a short span of time the devs managed to make the game even better cons: - the character you play is super clunky and its movement just feels weird - the whole fast travel thing that you cant fast travel from your bonfire and there is a specific area where you can fast travel to only 3 2 places is horrible and totally takes away my need to explore the map - a lot of technical performance to the point of the final boss not working for me and i had to have my friend stream the final gameplay just so i could finish the game - the same thing can be said about the powers your getting a lot of useful powers i got were so late in the game i didn't have any need to go and explore and all i wanted at that point is to finish the game - the bosses except for the last 2 were very easy and i barely broke a sweat in conclusion the game did scratch my itch for metroidvvenias with souls elements but didn't shine and show the best parts of that genre i would only recommend this game to people who finished hollow knight and need something like that game i really hope that the devs will continue to support this game because the game does a have a bright future to it but for the time being my final score to this game is a 7 out of 10

Grime is to put it simply a game that is just 'quite decent', not really awful in any aspect but also, not extremely outstanding in any way either. To start, the combat. The combat is functional but not ground breaking by any means. As with most games considered 'souls like' it basically features the 2 key parts of the combat, a dodge and a parry. Nothing is really wrong with this, the parry is extremely easy to hit on most enemies but this is offset by enemies having health bars split into fractions, some parts can be full parried to delete the whole segment and some are armoured and because of that the attack they throw out is just deflected and not fully parried, an upgrade is required for it to deal damage, but still wont hurt as much as a full parry. The combat is solid if in a situation where you are fighting just one enemy, but later in the game you get bombarded with enemies, and sometimes even have ranged enemies beyond the bounds of your screen hurling things at you, which is just annoying. It seems in development of the combat system it wasnt really considered that you may not just be in a perpetual one versus one situation, and due to that the combat when overwhelmed is quite poor. As for bossfights they are generally okay, some a bit too simple, with only 4-5 moves, some so extremely complex you could convince me they just randomly generate moves. However exploiting parries and the 'burst lantern' weapon trivialise all but the last bosses. Considering it appears combat is the main focus of the game, mediocre combat is a real big downside. The story of the game is absolutely miserable, i tried my very hardest to actually focus on what was going on, but it all felt so unengaging and generic. It seems like the developers tried to go for the dark souls/bloodborne story telling route of a more ambiguous story, however unlike those games there aren't item descriptions in abundance to fill in the blanks, and because the world of the game is uninspired and drab looking, it makes the player far less interested in the areas they are exploring, at least in my experience. The platforming in the game is simplistic, but fun. The use of momentum from a moving platform to jump higher or further was a novel idea, when it functioned, and was the most innovative idea in the game from my perspective. Every other part of the platforming was exactly what is expected of a metroidvania. Do big jump, do long dash, grapple thing. Getting to the 'when it functioned' part, this game has glitches, not cyberpunk 2077 esque, but still a bit more frequent than you'd hope to see from a mostly linear 2d game. Sometimes you'd fall through the world, sometimes the game would reposition you after a fall into your instant death. Just more minor bugs overall but quite disruptive in gameplay. Most of the glitches were to do with platforming though so didn't ruin any boss fights for me. A final note is about the item stat requirements. In this game you can level health, force (stamina), strength, dexterity, and opulence (magic stat). You level with 'mass' which is basically souls. by the end of the game it is likely your character will be around level 55 ish. The issue with item level requirements is a lot of the weapons will literally require you to have 30-35 of your stat points invested in purely combat stats, and to make it worse you cant respec levels, and so you'll be stuck with whatever build you go for permanently. i feel like being forced to have low health and stamina just to experience new weapons is a downside because it discourages any experimentation. I personally finished the game with 20 dex, 18 opulence, 10 strength and 8 force. Some of these high stat requirement weapons can be found earlier on in the game too, so you just have an inventory full of unusable weapons. Furthermore it is simply ungratifying to find a new weapon just to know there is a no chance you can use it for at least 15 or more levels, which is an hour or two of game time away. Most of the weapons in the game you find require at least 20 of some stat, and often require more than one stat investment. For example 8 dex 17 opulence. Meaning going for a single stat build is really miserable and you will not be able to use many different weapons through the run. Overall, Grime is a sort of okay game. I've pointed out lots of negatives, but they don't make the game totally unenjoyable. The combat is bareable, platforming fun, story awful. That's why i cant justify giving the game any more than a 5, it is just unexceptional, another 'metroidvania souls like' game, that just isn't anything great.

This is a good game, but far from being a 10. The travel system is really annoying or non-existing. Boss difficulty goes from insanely easy to "spend 3 hours memorizing every single move to be able to defeat it", which I know is souls like, but I find it bad gameplay. However, is always good to have a nice-looking Metroidvania (more souls) game.

Ok, this game has completely blown me away so far I’m about 8 hours into it. If you are looking for casual gameplay this is not it, this game is brutal in a way similar to how the souls games are. If you’ve ever played Blasphemous, think of it similar to that but in my opinion this is way more polished.

Fantastic metroidvania game with soulslike elements and surreal graphics. 10/10