After 8 long years, I finally have my first playthrough of STRIDER in the books. I bought this at launch, kept picking it up and putting it down over the years, tried starting new files, etc. etc. etc. and just nothing seemed to stick, but I can finally say after all this time that the game does kick more ass than my mind was letting on all this time.
Now I know this sounds a bit like I'm putting the game down at the jump, but it's far from an indictment of this game's ability to entertain; on the contrary, STRIDER wastes basically no time getting you on your feet and the pacing stays pretty much breakneck throughout. My final time clocked in just short of 5 hours, and even that was with some meandering for items and upgrades. Collectibles range from viewable pieces of concept art, world lore, and additional challenge stages to alternate color palette costumes for the titular Strider Hiryu and actual upgrades that help Hiryu more elegantly dispatch enemies en route to the next objective. It's a decent reason to spend time off-roading, so to speak, and the game will always ensure that players collect anything actually required to finish the critical path.
The moment to moment gameplay is a fast and intense affair, fairly balanced on Normal difficulty, though enemies don't vary much beyond a few main archetypes. It can be somewhat demanding on the hands, as it can require a lot of attack button presses, so I'd highly recommend a controller with a turbo setting for casual play (you will also need to charge your attacks from time to time by holding a button down, so keep that in mind) if you have access to one. It's definitely not as bestiary-focused as some of its genre peers and tends to focus on movement tech over actual combat, but there are a fair few encounters including some of the game's massive bosses to provide a challenge. This is further spiced up by a combat incentive that rewards players for not getting hit by bestowing Hiryu with immense power for a limited time. Visually, it holds up pretty well as a game from the PS3/360 era, with reasonably varied environments and some flashy effects. Music is mostly ambient, though there were some high-energy tracks that got me through some of the more grand set pieces toward the end of the game.
As a Metroidvania, unfortunately, STRIDER's a little bit linear -- most of the game's zones either require a key item obtained from the last area's boss or won't let you proceed without one from the current -- I'd like to see what kind of sequence breaking, if any, is possible but there is specific gating that seems to indicate that linear progression is required. It's not a terrible thing, I think Strider would much more strongly lend itself to speedruns than, say, randomizer content (a rabbit hole I'm currently gearing up to head down) but for anyone looking for the more variable content this one might not be for you.
Overall, STRIDER's pretty solid as an action game, and passable as a metroidvania-style game. Hiryu is such a badass character and it's honestly a little criminal Capcom hasn't set aside the time to get the guy in anything outside of MVC in the last near-decade, but this is a pretty solid game to sit on if any would be his last. I recommend it, even more so when it goes on sale on Steam (which it does fairly often). Kinda unbeatable at a price like $5 USD, but I'd say it's even worth it for the 20 or whatever it's usually offered at.
Now I know this sounds a bit like I'm putting the game down at the jump, but it's far from an indictment of this game's ability to entertain; on the contrary, STRIDER wastes basically no time getting you on your feet and the pacing stays pretty much breakneck throughout. My final time clocked in just short of 5 hours, and even that was with some meandering for items and upgrades. Collectibles range from viewable pieces of concept art, world lore, and additional challenge stages to alternate color palette costumes for the titular Strider Hiryu and actual upgrades that help Hiryu more elegantly dispatch enemies en route to the next objective. It's a decent reason to spend time off-roading, so to speak, and the game will always ensure that players collect anything actually required to finish the critical path.
The moment to moment gameplay is a fast and intense affair, fairly balanced on Normal difficulty, though enemies don't vary much beyond a few main archetypes. It can be somewhat demanding on the hands, as it can require a lot of attack button presses, so I'd highly recommend a controller with a turbo setting for casual play (you will also need to charge your attacks from time to time by holding a button down, so keep that in mind) if you have access to one. It's definitely not as bestiary-focused as some of its genre peers and tends to focus on movement tech over actual combat, but there are a fair few encounters including some of the game's massive bosses to provide a challenge. This is further spiced up by a combat incentive that rewards players for not getting hit by bestowing Hiryu with immense power for a limited time. Visually, it holds up pretty well as a game from the PS3/360 era, with reasonably varied environments and some flashy effects. Music is mostly ambient, though there were some high-energy tracks that got me through some of the more grand set pieces toward the end of the game.
As a Metroidvania, unfortunately, STRIDER's a little bit linear -- most of the game's zones either require a key item obtained from the last area's boss or won't let you proceed without one from the current -- I'd like to see what kind of sequence breaking, if any, is possible but there is specific gating that seems to indicate that linear progression is required. It's not a terrible thing, I think Strider would much more strongly lend itself to speedruns than, say, randomizer content (a rabbit hole I'm currently gearing up to head down) but for anyone looking for the more variable content this one might not be for you.
Overall, STRIDER's pretty solid as an action game, and passable as a metroidvania-style game. Hiryu is such a badass character and it's honestly a little criminal Capcom hasn't set aside the time to get the guy in anything outside of MVC in the last near-decade, but this is a pretty solid game to sit on if any would be his last. I recommend it, even more so when it goes on sale on Steam (which it does fairly often). Kinda unbeatable at a price like $5 USD, but I'd say it's even worth it for the 20 or whatever it's usually offered at.
FallenGrace
2 years ago