Ever play those Trials or Happy Wheels games on PC or XBox back in the day? Someone decided "Hey why don't we make a metroidvania out of it and make it really depressing?" ... And I love it.
The game is far more forgiving than a Trials game, but that doesn't mean it's as easy as riding a bike. The bike will move as fluidly up and down as you need, but not so much that it makes things way too slippery. This is nice because your gun play requires you to backflip to reload, and to forward flip to replenish a parry. You'll find yourself early game figuring out just how high of a slope you'll need for a flip (and quite often misjudging yourself). After a while, things become a lot more fluid and you figure out how to use your bullet time for easier aiming and reorienting your bike in mid-air. You'll find yourself doing the sickest maneuvers, dodging bullets, shooting 6 enemies after a reload, parrying that bomb just to shoot the guy in the head, then accidentally landing upside down due to the amount of blood and gore making you forget which way is up. Honestly, it's just so fun perfecting those parts, and the checkpoints are forgiving enough that trying again isn't a tedious chore and it actually made me laugh quite a couple times.
Speaking of laughter, the story is very somber and dark. You're in a war-ravaged tribe just trying to live day by day while your character is under a curse of undying, meaning you can respawn at checkpoints when you die, which means you run most of the town's chores. This isn't just a funny nod to video games, but is quite a crucial part of the story, as your character has come to terms that she is a weapon of her own tribe. This all wrapped in a story about her wanting the best for her daughter, the heir to her curse. It's deep and dark, and not just for edgy sake. I very much enjoyed the character interactions and personalities of everyone. You really get to understand how Laika feels about her place in the tribe as well as the characters she interacts with.
The side quests feel a little tedious at times, but are completely optional. There's something about good side quests that I come to appreciate when you go out of your way to do them: You feel the effects of your efforts. I feel like, at least for the majority of them, it's nice to see how your actions affect the interactions of people around you. Things seem a little brighter even though it feels like there's no end to the death and destruction around you. Also, don't worry about feeling like you have to rush quests. The game will let you know when the end game is here, and even then you can always just go back to your last save before the final encounter.
The music is gorgeous. I can't really gush about it enough. Very good melancholy vibes while rolling your motorcycle out into the world, blowing up birds. You can also change up the music at any time if you're just in a particular mood. Would highly recommend checking out the discography on Spotify or Bandcamp.
All in all, highly recommend. Spent 22 hours on this game and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think my only complaints is that sometimes navigating the map is a little tough, considering you aren't in a typical 2D metroidvania dungeon world and have to get creative with finding new areas vertically on the map display without them being, well, vertical. That and some more differentiated biomes would be nice, but the game is dreary so trying to blend dreary vibes with multiple creative biomes can be a trick. What they did with the map is great and this is just minor nitpicking. Game made me cry like 4 or 5 times and the music still makes me tear up. If that's not a glowing review I don't know what is. This game will stick with me for years to come.
The game is far more forgiving than a Trials game, but that doesn't mean it's as easy as riding a bike. The bike will move as fluidly up and down as you need, but not so much that it makes things way too slippery. This is nice because your gun play requires you to backflip to reload, and to forward flip to replenish a parry. You'll find yourself early game figuring out just how high of a slope you'll need for a flip (and quite often misjudging yourself). After a while, things become a lot more fluid and you figure out how to use your bullet time for easier aiming and reorienting your bike in mid-air. You'll find yourself doing the sickest maneuvers, dodging bullets, shooting 6 enemies after a reload, parrying that bomb just to shoot the guy in the head, then accidentally landing upside down due to the amount of blood and gore making you forget which way is up. Honestly, it's just so fun perfecting those parts, and the checkpoints are forgiving enough that trying again isn't a tedious chore and it actually made me laugh quite a couple times.
Speaking of laughter, the story is very somber and dark. You're in a war-ravaged tribe just trying to live day by day while your character is under a curse of undying, meaning you can respawn at checkpoints when you die, which means you run most of the town's chores. This isn't just a funny nod to video games, but is quite a crucial part of the story, as your character has come to terms that she is a weapon of her own tribe. This all wrapped in a story about her wanting the best for her daughter, the heir to her curse. It's deep and dark, and not just for edgy sake. I very much enjoyed the character interactions and personalities of everyone. You really get to understand how Laika feels about her place in the tribe as well as the characters she interacts with.
The side quests feel a little tedious at times, but are completely optional. There's something about good side quests that I come to appreciate when you go out of your way to do them: You feel the effects of your efforts. I feel like, at least for the majority of them, it's nice to see how your actions affect the interactions of people around you. Things seem a little brighter even though it feels like there's no end to the death and destruction around you. Also, don't worry about feeling like you have to rush quests. The game will let you know when the end game is here, and even then you can always just go back to your last save before the final encounter.
The music is gorgeous. I can't really gush about it enough. Very good melancholy vibes while rolling your motorcycle out into the world, blowing up birds. You can also change up the music at any time if you're just in a particular mood. Would highly recommend checking out the discography on Spotify or Bandcamp.
All in all, highly recommend. Spent 22 hours on this game and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think my only complaints is that sometimes navigating the map is a little tough, considering you aren't in a typical 2D metroidvania dungeon world and have to get creative with finding new areas vertically on the map display without them being, well, vertical. That and some more differentiated biomes would be nice, but the game is dreary so trying to blend dreary vibes with multiple creative biomes can be a trick. What they did with the map is great and this is just minor nitpicking. Game made me cry like 4 or 5 times and the music still makes me tear up. If that's not a glowing review I don't know what is. This game will stick with me for years to come.