Xbox One Critic Reviews

Razed might frustrate, annoy and even make you rage, but it's addictive gameplay, excellent soundtrack and your desire to master the leaderboards will pull you right back in.

At the end of the day, Razed is one of the more superior games to come out of the ID@Xbox initiative; it gets a lot of things spot on, and it never feels unfair which – for a game of this type – is an achievement in itself.

This may indeed be somewhat of a cliché, but this game is the definition of easy to pick up, yet very hard to master. Despite its unforgiving steep difficulty curve, Razed is a fun, vibrant, and engaging speedrunner. The pace of the game is sensational, and its constant introduction of new and interesting mechanics ensures that repetition is kept at bay, throughout.

Razed is fun and flashy. It’s a platformer focused on speed and precision and it’s backed up with fair level design and good mechanics. In its dash towards the finish line, it hits every step almost perfectly. Unfortunately, the couple misses hold it back from top marks. It’s got an uneven difficulty curve that will undoubtedly turn away some casual players. It’s also got an almost required backtracking element to find hidden upgrades and that’s not fun when all you want to do is break records and keep moving through the levels. Razed is nevertheless a joy to play on many occasions and that’s often enough to make it worth playing.

The neon sights and off-the-wall premise of Razed make it stand out as a unique and enjoyable indie. However, its reliance on memorization makes mastering its stages eventually become more tedious than fun.

The difficulty in this platformer is beyond frustrating. It has its moments but falls just as often as you will. You won’t even worry about your times; you’ll be more concerned with surviving. The ranks end up feeling like you have to find the faster routes which require a lot of upgrades. It’s either you complete the level with a low ranking, or you find an alternate route to get a cheated S rank. There’s really not much in-between. This leaves the whole idea of speed running in the dust. It just doesn’t work, and I don’t feel many people will enjoy trying to obtain better times. Razed is playable even with its flaws, but how much you play will be up to your patience and determination.