When this first came out I was surprised to hear it was actually really good since everyone thought it would be another Square Enix Avengers flop. I've been meaning to play this for a while now and I can finally report that I don't think it's nearly as good as the glowing reviews would have you believe.

Let me start with the good. The story and character work is top tier especially for a triple A comic book game. The guardians are a well fleshed out and realistic team that I really enjoyed getting to know. I think I can confidently say I enjoy this rendition of the guardians more than the MCUs version. The combat, while janky (I'll get back to this) is really interesting in concept and I really enjoyed the huddle up mechanic. It's technically a cheat but using a ton of 80's music over the combat sections was a nice touch. The graphics are very nice and the mocap and character models are some of the best I've seen. Rocket and peter specifically look amazing. All of that stuff is great but It's severely tarnished by a glaring level of unpolish.

There's nothing game breaking about the bugs/glitches I encountered but there were enough little things that made the whole thing feel like it needed more time in the oven. Little things like the subtitles not showing up for certain lines, audio being delayed for a second or so, flickering textures or just really poorly implemented animations kept popping up and never really went away. The way peter moves and feels is SUPER janky and never feels satisfying. His jump has no real animation so he just appears in air and his boost forward and up look awful. I know this isn't a platforming game but any time you try to jump from ledge to ledge or vault up to a higher platform it's a gamble if you'll actually make it because the controls are so imprecise.

I really am a fan of what they did with the combat in this despite but most of the enemies have FAR too much health and are repetitive with little to no skill involved. It's fun to use your teams super abilities but I never felt like I had to strategize even a little bit to win fights. The 3 bosses in the game are just bullet sponges that have basically no meaningful mechanics and take way too long. Though I did appreciate the first boss fights mechanics a little more.

Overall I did appreciate what this game was going for and really do mean that there is a good game in here but I cannot express enough how much this needed another pass or some kind of delay because man this feels like its about to fall apart at any moment. I'd say if you're interested watch some gameplay and decide if you're cool with all the jank before buying because I wish I knew before going in.

It's hard to put into words how much this game means to me and how often I find myself coming back to it despite usually being a one and done gamer. This game is a masterclass in world building and an excellent example of how simple mechanics can be so deep and meaningful. The story is hard to decipher at times but is so much more interesting than it has any right to be considering it's about a kingdom of bug people. The music compliments the eerie atmosphere perfectly and makes even the easiest boss battles feel climactic.

I recently played a handful of metroidvanias to better understand the genre and see if my HK obsession was justified or because I just love the genre. Ori 1 and 2, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Metroid Dread are all excellent games that had me questioning at times if they topped this (and there are things in those games I hope Team Cherry steals for Silksong) but ultimately after revisiting this, I can safely say this trumps those easily. There's something about the absolute mood of this game that's just so damn hard to top. It's peak gaming.

Now give me Silksong already dammit.