As a fan of the original PS One Crash Bandicoot trilogy, I was super excited when this was announced. Then it was offered as part of PlayStation Plus monthly games so I happily started playing it.
The game has an insane amount of content; if you really enjoy what it has to offer, you can spend a long, long time on it. There's lots of creativity and variations on each level and they feel big in scale. On top of Crash and Coco's regular levels - which are the required ones to finish the game - you have a handful of levels where you play as 3 other characters, each with a different set of movements and skills.
Each regular level can also be replayed in "reverse" or "mirrored" with a few differences from the original and a distinct visual "filter" applied to it.
All in all, you get a big amount of different ways to enjoy the game.
But the more I continued playing the more frustrated I got with the game. By the time I reached around the last 5 levels I was just rushing to finish it to get it over with.
Every level is just. too. looooong - frustratingly so, and there are too few checkpoints in them. So you spend a long time on each section of a level and when you die, you're set back a huge distance, and given that the game is very challenging overall, this happens a lot. By the time you finish a level, any sense of accomplishment has been drained by the frustration of the lack of checkpoints and the ridiculous lengths.
Now I honestly want to replay Crash 3 to verify that those levels were not as difficult, frustrating or long as these ones. Maybe they were I just don't have the time and patience for it anymore.
But I do think Crash 4 is unfortunately just too much.
The game has an insane amount of content; if you really enjoy what it has to offer, you can spend a long, long time on it. There's lots of creativity and variations on each level and they feel big in scale. On top of Crash and Coco's regular levels - which are the required ones to finish the game - you have a handful of levels where you play as 3 other characters, each with a different set of movements and skills.
Each regular level can also be replayed in "reverse" or "mirrored" with a few differences from the original and a distinct visual "filter" applied to it.
All in all, you get a big amount of different ways to enjoy the game.
But the more I continued playing the more frustrated I got with the game. By the time I reached around the last 5 levels I was just rushing to finish it to get it over with.
Every level is just. too. looooong - frustratingly so, and there are too few checkpoints in them. So you spend a long time on each section of a level and when you die, you're set back a huge distance, and given that the game is very challenging overall, this happens a lot. By the time you finish a level, any sense of accomplishment has been drained by the frustration of the lack of checkpoints and the ridiculous lengths.
Now I honestly want to replay Crash 3 to verify that those levels were not as difficult, frustrating or long as these ones. Maybe they were I just don't have the time and patience for it anymore.
But I do think Crash 4 is unfortunately just too much.
Reviewed on Nov 20, 2022