I very rarely drop games. Strider was one of them. I really wanted to like the reboot of such an iconic franchise, but it just doesn't click with me. This game is sorta like a Metroidvania, but it's level design is boring and rarely warrants exploring. As for the story, you're just dropped into the plot and told to go kill the villain. That's it. I understand that it's paying homage to the older games in the series, but it seriously needed an upgrade in the plot department. As for gameplay, it is fast-paced, but that's all I can say for it. At least until the point I dropped the game, your tool kit consisted only on spamming the attack button and using the odd charge attack to break through shields. Deflecting the enemy bullets with your attacks is fun, but considering Strider attacks so fast, you barely need any timing to deflect most of them. I was playing on Hard Mode, and the boss fights were piss easy, barely any challenge at all. They were fun and well designed though, just needed a wider moveset so the bosses aren't stuck repeating the same 4 attacks most of the time

Strider's glow up is simply amazing, and the fact this game isn't praised nearly as much as it should is tragic. Strider is mostly know from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 despite having 2 other games he starred in. Strider 2014 though easily sets up such a memorable version of himself that honestly whenever I think about the character, the fast paced, metroidvania version is all I think about.

The game is all about hitting hard and fast, like a ninja, and using the environment and enemies projectiles against them. A large portion of this games is simply rushing through enemy mobs as you reflect all the bullets they throw at you while performing cool tricks and triangle jump your way to the next location. With the way Strider 2014 uses movement also helps cement it as one of the cooler games to see when performed at higher play as there's just a cool amount of slips and slices that you can do while mowing down enemies. Bosses are even given great care to just how fun and challenging they can be, and while they can be brief, they are high action, and always a fun change of pace.
Aesthetically, Strider 2014 is a direct contrast of what you'd normally think of a ninja fighting an evil organization would look like. Everything about this game is super high tech, and all the environments and music help reinforce just how foreign Strider is to it, and how well he adapts to it throughout the game, often using various upgrades he finds throughout, both powering him up and helping him move even faster.

Mostly Strider 2014 is a hidden gem that Capcom doesn't advertise nearly as much as it should, and if you are interested in some high octane Metroidvania fun, Strider is easily a great pick.

Strider is a metroidvania style action game. The game has fun combat, climbing on walls or on the ceiling is enjoyable and gives you more options during battle and exploration, there are some good boss fights, and the game has good level design that makes use of gravity, traps, and your ability to climb walls. Enemies you face are varied, being equipped with different kinds of guns and shields, there are also a good variety of robotic enemies and a few stronger soldier types to face. While there is a good variety of enemies, no matter what gun they have they are going to be dealt with in the same way, running up to them and slashing, often before many will get a shot off. This can make the game feel very repetitive when fighting enemies in normal environments, the abundance of health in almost every area and from defeating enemies also means that you probably won't care much about being damaged most of the time.

I think a lot of the games problems come from it being designed in a metroidvania style. You don't have a wide variety of moves, only unlocking different things that your sword can do, freeze, burn, deflect, and fire a ranged attack, unlocking the ability to throw kunai, a charged sword attack, and three special moves that drain your energy meter. All of these weapons and abilities are gained automatically over the course of the game, which is only about three and a half hours long, but you won't find your first sword upgrade until you are nearing the halfway point, the kunai are even further in, and the last sword upgrade is almost at the end of the game. You will have a fairly limited amount of moves for a game like this and the additional swords are mostly only going to be useful for breaking through the enemy shields that they are strong against, if enemies don't have a shield the plasma sword is almost always the best weapon to use. What little exploration there is will just be to find pickups to expand your energy and health bars and to upgrade your kunai, which are really usually only useful to hit switches as they are very weak in combat compared to the sword you have when you find them. A lot of the health and energy pickups are very easy to find and are on your way, the game ends up being pretty easy on the normal setting giving you little reason to go out of your way to find more, I had almost gotten all of them without even going back to old areas. The other reason to explore more is to find the bodies of previous Striders that allow you to change your costume and to find hidden collectibles that can add art, character information, or challenge maps to the extras and new game section. These give you no new abilities during the game, the lack of interesting upgrades can make you feel like you have little reason to explore the map, making a short game even shorter. There is nothing that interesting about the world or characters that will make you care about finding all the extra collectibles. I think the game would have benefited from a more linear design that started you with all or most of your moves and weapons and had a greater focus on making each area interesting and unique like Strider 2 did.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/654745157560963072
https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/654747160177586176

The in-game clock tells me I took 7 hours and 14 minutes to beat Strider, but I was playing it for longer if you count the times I left the PS4 on. I ended the game with 80.3% game completion; I got all the upgrades except for one energy refill I missed and all of the gear except for one Plasma Catapult variation. I collected a good portion of the Concept Art and various other small extras, as well.

Personally, I can definitely understand why people see this game as mid or even mediocre, but I had a fun time with it. It was one of the few Metroidvanias where I didn't feel stuck to the point where I needed a guide to know where I am supposed to be going or how to solve a puzzle, though that might say more about my small brain than anything. I enjoyed the climbing mechanic, it was fun being able to grab onto just about any surface and it made for some interesting to reach secrets. I feel that this game might have been better off being a regular hack and slash sidescroller, though; the Metroidvania elements are pretty cool, but I don't think the game would lose much by dropping them. There are various extras littered throughout the maps to incentivize exploration, such as Concept Art, Story Intel, and Costumes, but these felt more like filler to pad out the exploration aspect of the game than rewards I actually wanted to earn. I did enjoy using the costumes but that was just because I love cosmetics in any game.

Mechanically, the game is pretty solid. The controls are responsive, if not a little oversensitive since there were a few times my attacks were angled upwards because I slightly tilted the stick up. I will say that it did crash on me twice in one day, but it wasn't a big deal since turning the PS4 off and then trying later made it to where the issue never happened again. My only real complaints with the mechanics are the awkward controls for using Kunai once you unlock them. I felt like the Kunai sometimes went where I was moving and other times they didn't, I would have liked it better if the Kunai always were thrown where you were facing rather than you having to aim where you throw them with the right stick. I am only complaining about this because I used the Kunai a lot for boss fights and some locked doors require you use Kunai to open them temporarily. Speaking of which...

Bosses were honestly an absolute joke once I got some stamina upgrades. To be entirely fair, I was playing on normal difficulty since I rarely ever go hard mode in games, but you can just spam the super moves you get and bosses drop like flies. Phoenix Flight (if I'm remembering the name correctly) is the first stamina move you get and it wrecks bosses. In the late game, I just spammed the Explosive Kunai and it obliterated bosses easily, especially when paired with occasional use of Phoenix Flight. The most I died to bosses was twice, even the final boss was not very hard.

Overall my opinions on this game are pretty positive, though I did have my gripes with it. I don't plan on revisiting it again, but that's expected at this point since most games don't get me replaying them from the beginning.