Grime II

Wish I could leave a neutral review. After all, I mostly enjoyed the game, and recognize that it's a solid improvement over the original in many ways. Better flow and pace of exploration, no more single use items, new platforming gimmicks, improved graphics, that's all great. But having beaten and platinum'd it on release, all that lingers months later is a bitter taste in my mouth, because I absolutely hated the shift in tone and narrative. [i]Grime[/i] was a game of few words, but it managed to convey unimaginable grandeur and solemnity that befitted our intractable predator protagonist, who made the world tremble with each step, a true power fantasy you rarely get to experience. Despite borrowing a lot of concepts from Souls, it bashed, clobbered, carved out its own niche and never felt derivative, while exploring themes of memory, art, and life, whether biological or metaphysical, in a way that never failed to spike your curiosity. The sequel isn't anything like that. It's more lighthearted, more wordy, and it's so much worse for it. Nearly all NPCs have some sort of sardonic or quirky way of speaking, which has been done to death by modern fantasy, with a miserable rate of success, it doesn't grip or captivate, just annoys you. The demon inside you might as well be Reptilian Brain from Disco Elysium, which is hilariously ill-fitting and something I could never take seriously while playing. The major conflict constantly referenced in the lore is pretty much an unserious slapfight between high school girls, which is completely and unnecessarily demystified in a flashback scene that I found to be just silly. The best parts of the game are the ones referencing the original title, but those are sadly few and far between. The conclusion is unsatisfying, both in terms of story, and the final duel, which is a far cry from The Final Performance and Shidra of The Worldpillar, and thematically, I found [i]Grime II[/i] to be mostly a retread of [i]Grime[/i] that doesn't feel fresh anymore. Since I mentioned bosses, while they are pretty decent, they don't quite manage to recapture the magic of [i]Grime's[/i] cast of baddies. I'd also like to bring up the visual style. Aesthetically, I found [i]Grime II[/i] to be a weaker game, trading body horror for flowing paint thingies of all kinds, though on the upside, the graphical fidelity has noticeably improved. To conclude, if you didn't play [i]Grime[/i], strongly prefer narratives that are less dark, more happy-go-lucky, or only care about the mechanics of the game, you should give [i]Grime II[/i] a try. As for me, the tonal deviation from the original simply cancelled out all the work that went into improving the formula.