Stinky af game. Boring and frustrating to play. Controls seemed appealing at first, but with the increasing challenge I found myself getting frustrated with the aiming. For some reason swinging at standing position swings downward. Trying to swing up while on the ground throws out a shitty upward swing with high end lag. In more chaotic sections I constantly got attached to walls and ceilings which would fuck me up. The controls cease to function entirely when gravity changes come into the picture.

It's a metroidvania but the map is extremely bland so I felt no inspiration to explore. You collect no meaningful abilities except MAYBE the ice sword. They are otherwise exclusively a color to match to certain doors. You play the same way the whole game, just with enemies that get increasingly frustrating to fight.

Everything about this game screams "budget." From the uninspired 2.5d visuals, to the stiff cutscenes and PS2 era loading screens. Idk if all Strider games are like this but not a good start.

Also the game crashed on me twice when entering a save room. Nice.