Grime is the most difficult metroidvania that I have ever played

I'm not saying it the toughest one in existence, it might be one of the most difficult, but it is certainly one of the most difficult that I have ever played.

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This is one of those games that based on the description, I would never have paid for it. it was part of my PS-Plus Extra holdings so I figured I would give it a try. I have to say that this isn't really my thing but there are certain aspects of it that I really like.

I think that most of the people that played this game gave up on it pretty quickly because after I defeated the very first boss in the game I looked at the achievements for having done so and across the entire PS network this is something that less than 30% of all people that ever downloaded it have accomplished. The first time I faced it, I thought to myself, I am never going to be able to defeat that thing as it killed me almost immediately with just a few hits. I went back in the 3rd time I think it was and changed my strategy to being more defensive and focusing on parries and well, that was what it took. It wasn't really even all that difficult once I changed strategies.

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Although I was happy that I defeated this thing that more than 70% of all players have failed to get past, it did kind of make me think that there isn't much chance I am going to make it very far in this game and perhaps I shouldn't really be investing any hours in it. I did eventually make it to the 2nd (I think) boss and once again it wiped the floor with me while I did very little in the way of damage to it.

I am more of a Hollow Knight sort of metroidvania fan in that it CAN be really difficult but most of the super tough stuff is optional. Getting to the first ending of that game is really challenging, mostly because of 2 of the non-optional bosses, but it isn't massively difficult. When I compare this to Grime, i can say that I most likely shouldn't be bothering because I can see already that I am not going to stay invested in this.

It is referred to as "Souls-like" which to me mostly means "something you are not good enough to play." I have at least tried to "git gud" as far as dodging and parrying is concerned but it gets a bit frustrating when if you make one single wrong move, chances are, you are going to die.

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To be fair to this game they do give you the chance to level up if you want to by running around and killing minor enemies over and over again and this grants you some sort of XP that you can spend on attributes. I guess this is helpful but it is still a very long road. Also, when I have upgraded one point in say strength, I didn't notice much of a damage output change. It does seem to be quite gradual.

There are also other stats that can be unlocked by defeating more and more of the same enemy as well as various pieces of armor and weapons that can be unlocked by doing the same thing. When you equip 3 of the same type of armor for example, there are bonuses that you get because of it. I guess this encourages people to explore the areas that are quite extensive, but it is a real slog if you ask me. I don't mind it as of yet because the extreme amount of repeating the same areas that you are almost certainly going to have to do, you end up knowing the attack patterns of minor enemies quite quickly.

The game's controls aren't terribly complicated since you only really use 3 buttons in active combat. The weapon swap button might come in handy for people considerably more talented than I am and I guess that would be the 27% of people that have also made it past the first boss.

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Grime's music, sound effects, graphics, and just the dreary environment you find yourself in are all wonderful and I applaud them for this. However, I think that I am more of an "Ender Lilies" type of person in that I prefer that the foes I face not actually be capable of killing me in two hits if I let down my guard for just a split second.

I will likely continue to play this for a bit longer but the reason for this is mostly because I don't really want to go down the road of starting another game completely from scratch just yet.

I don't know what my deal is. Just a few days ago I was talking about how Jedi: Fallen Order was the game for me but the nearly immediately after making that statement I started to notice how horribly repetitive all the action is. I suppose if were to give Grime a compliment on one aspect of the game it would be that combat is NEVER repetitive. It's frustratingly diverse.

I'll admit that I am difficult to please, ok?

This game is currently available for free as part of a PS-Plus Extra subscription