Honestly, I don't even know how to write a review for this game, it is quite a unique experience that can't quite be put into words. It is a magical experience that everyone should experience themselves. I won't go too far into the experience but I will say the gameplay, even for a walking simulator, it has a lot of good ideas. It is visually one of the most beautiful game I've ever played and it also has one of the best soundtrack I've ever heard so in that sense it is also magical. I know this is barely a review but this is one I don't really wanna spoil people on, just play it.

10/10

It's not just the trademark ripping and tearing -- it's the viscerality of even the quieter moments: shoving a severed head into an eye-scanner, prying a weapon from the cold dead fingers of a corpse, stomping carefully engineered relics of scientific ingenuity into dust, locking and twisting a beefy gun mod into place, brute-force heaving a hydraulic door open... These things are character development.

I missed these little touches SO BAD in Doom Eternal back when it came out, and wondered recently if it had colored my opinion of the gameplay too much. So, before revisiting it, I decided to complete my fourth playthrough of this, its predecessor, on the normal difficulty mode. (I did one Ultra-Violence clear back in 2018 and liked it, but to me the game really sings not when you feel vulnerable, but rather--more in accordance with the narrative--when you feel like a fucking unstoppable God).

I can barely think of one other game of this length that I've completed that many times. It's a little confounding even to me why I keep getting drawn back to it... the confidence of its simple story and world are a marvel to me, its buttery-smooth performance is a rapture, its design is ratcheted down so tight that even the tiniest flaws (one-too-many stupid Mancubi in a particular enemy hive, or the fact that you inevitably have to hunt down one stray imp to end every battle) couldn't be more glaring... but none of those qualities, or even their combination, is unique to DOOM.

What is unique to DOOM is its array of curious dichotomies. Its music blends metal seamlessly with hard techno; its world depicts the folkloric fires of hell against the frigid corridors of scientific and capitalist bloat and overreach; its game mechanics mix a surprising amount of platforming, of all things, in with the shooting (next to Respawn's endeavors, it's the best platforming in an FPS)...

And, it could not be more linear, yet it feels more open with gameplay possibility than many "Open World" games; each room a killing-puzzle that could be conquered countless satisfying ways with countless different dopamine-drenching weapon combos, pathway choices and tactics.

A violent reverie.

"A Treasure To Play"

A legendary collection of one of the greatest platforming series ever made, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove provides memorable, engaging gameplay for a discounted price. I've done minor reviews of the titles included separately, so check those out if you're interested!

Overall, this collection is an absolute steal and easily one of the best money can buy. You owe it to yourself to check out this series, as it's a refreshing look into the platforming genre which oozes with humor, charm, and love throughout! I can easily Recommend it as it's one of the best platforming series around!

Overall Final Verdict: 9/10

“An Onslaught Of Mediocre Comedy”

After finding frustration with “Rayman 2: The Great Escape” and its confusing hub interface, weird level structure, and less than compelling cast of characters, I went into this third title with a bit of skepticism. I was unsure if I was really seeing much of the solid platforming of the Rayman series at this point, and instead felt like I was being bombarded with one awful design choice after another. This title definitely upped the quality of the gameplay a decent bit, but decided to force loads of awful dialogue and attempts at comedy while also having a terribly boring premise which ended up leaving me with a stagnant feeling towards the franchise as a whole.

This game made some good strides for gameplay that helped the platforming feel smoother and more dynamic. The hook shot is cleaned up here, and the combat is a bit cleaner as well allowing you to keep your momentum more often. However, it still felt underwhelming a lot of the time. The power ups that were introduced felt forced into a role where they served as ways to solve puzzles rather than allow you combat or platforming freedom. This led to these powers feeling far more restrictive than they should’ve been, and ultimately led to inconsistencies with the gameplay.

The story here is really dumb as well. You basically have to stop a hoodlum named “Andre” from taking over the world or something, yet the entire first third of the game (possibly longer because of how long it takes) you try to get him out of Globox’s stomach after he is swallowed. None of the characters are established very well, and the plot just involves Rayman and Globox traveling to different doctors in hopes of getting Andre removed. It’s really repetitive and boring, and unfortunately very bogged down by the game’s crummy humor…

This game is not funny in the slightest. There are a lot of forced one-liners that don’t land, and many visual gags that feel completely random and stupid. There’s also some weird racist humor in here, once with the Teensies in Jewish clothing dancing to suggestive music and another time with a doctor who has a very awful and offensive Asian accent. It's even in the weird phrasing of the "black Lums causing havoc" and the most evil Lum being named "Andre". Hopefully I'm not reaching too far with this stuff, but it came off in really bad taste, and if the game has to resort to random racist humor after failing to provide clever jokes, interesting writing, or funny gags, it means that it's not funny at all to me. This made not only the story insufferable to experience, but the characters insufferable as well. This was my most hated aspect of this game since it was so poorly done yet included in such a great amount.

Visually, the game is fine. There’s an impressive amount of color and the art design is cool, but the character models are super blocky and textures are lacking. It isn’t much of a visual upgrade from “Rayman 2: The Great Escape” on the surface, but it introduces some cool worlds. I just wish they would have properly connected these locations. In the previous game they were connected via a hub world, but didn’t make sense due to the varying scales and environments - here they just teleport you between worlds and call it a day, which doesn’t help with the story feeling like a “journey” at the end of the day.

Overall I just felt that this sequel took some small steps forward for its gameplay and a huge step back for its story and characters. The platforming was okay, but having to endure each character and their terrible jokes while progressing through a pretty mundane story was too much of an obstacle to my enjoyment for me to endure. I would Not Recommend playing this one unless you were already a huge fan of the previous game - in that case, you’d obviously want to continue the fun with Rayman yet again. Unfortunately for myself, I haven’t really found much fun to begin with.

Final Verdict: 4/10 (Poor)