RAVE: GRIME

     "And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you"

  - Friedrich Nietzsche

    I play videogames and occasionally I like to write reviews. Most of my reviews fall under a couple categories, RANT (which I do not like), OKAY (a decent affair, has good elements but also some problems I can't ignore), Rant (a great game, very few faults but missing the secret sauce) and RAVE (the highest recommendation and everything I want in a game). After a couple of just 'Rave' this year we have finally arrived at our first RAVE for this year and a game that is quickly becoming a favorite of mine along the lines of Darkest Dungeon I and II, Inscryption and Risk of Rain 2 (which all previously received RAVEs). This is my review of the dark, mysterious and completely engrossing GRIME.

    Get Bitten

    GRIME is classified as a metroidvania (mv) with Souls-like combat developed by Clover Bite/ Team Malignant and published by Akupara Games, Team Malignant however is the main force behind GRIME and for a relatively small indie studio of six developers and some back up teams, what they have accomplished is a true mark of dedication to your craft. GRIME looks amazing, its aesthetic is second to none, being alien and foreign but at the same time oddly familiar and the fact they made it all with the Unity game engine blows my mind. So many times when I was playing it I had to just marvel that they used the same engine that so many others used and it looks nothing like I seen done before. For an indie studio, they have some visuals up their with esteemed double A studios and the eerie and haunting atmosphere is why it was one of my first Steam Deck purchases. At that time, Grime was a PC only so I knew now that I had a PC, it would be one of the first games I bought for it and well, I'll save the story behind what happened next for a upcoming section. Coming back to Team Malignant, another reason why this game is so amazing is on the road to the 'Definitive Edition' which I am reviewing, GRIME was a labor of love for them and they constantly accepted feedback and made changes based on their passionate community. GRIME went through 3 named revisions 'Colors of Rot', 'Tinge of Terror' and 'Parting Shade' and each one added more content, more updates to the gameplay and more secrets and the craziest part was all of it was for free. It is why this whole section is dedicated to them because they deserve their flowers and I want to make sure I give it to them. Sure, it isn't unheard of in the indie/ double AA space to do free updates but still in a current market where most new releases are now $80 plus and live service this and season pass that, it is nice that some companies still want to just release content for free and to reward you for playing their game. This passion also extends into their game design as well.

    Hard as a Rock

    Released back in August 2021, GRIME is self described Action-Adventure RPG in which you crush your foes with living weapons and consume their remains with a black hole to strengthen your vessel. However to describe this game to gamers, GRIME is a metroidvania/ Souls-like. I have spoken before about my experiments with the metroidvania genre in my review for Ghost Song (which got an OKAY) but I've also completed other metroidvanias like Blasphemous, Shadow Complex and I have given some of them a try (the more popular ones like SteamWorld Dig 2, Hollow Knight and the father of the genre, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night). Overall, as a genre, I enjoy metroidvanias but they are not my favorite genre. I have definitely latched on to some more then others (Blasphemous vs Hollow Knight for example where I loved Blasphemous versus that I really did not 'get' Hollow Knight). One of the key corner-stones of metroidvanias is the exploration and just getting lost and I will not lie, I am usually not a fan of getting lost. For most of the Soulsborne games which I love, I usually have a walkthrough or a guide on hand so I explicitly do not get lost, it is just the way I programmed. I think it is why it took me a while to connect with metroidvanias in the first place. However now I understand why mv are structured the way they are and getting lost is part of the 'fun'. Metroidvanias are also structured around 'upgrades' like a air dash or a double jump and one of the best parts of mv is when you returned to a previously inaccessible area and you can now traverse it with your new upgrades. GRIME even make it more organic by making it apart of its story and the main character named Akhlan by some and Endgiver and Spiral Heart by others, uses the black hole it has for a head to absorb its defeated enemies to gain these new upgrades. Without a doubt, when you first start GRIME and you have barely any upgrades, Akhlan feels incomplete. They are slow, they have no stamina and they died instantly when touched and die you shall because GRIME is hard, rock hard even (pun intended) because whilst GRIME is definitely a metroidvania on the combat side it pulls directly from the Souls games. GRIME has a dodge, a stamina meter, a corpse run mechanic, a level up system similar to all Souls-like and top it off with challenging regular enemies, mini-bosses and some spectacular bosses all which can kill you with a touch (even the lowly cannon fodder have literal teeth), all hallmarks of the Souls-like mini genre. Also like staying true to Souls, there is no difficulty slider, the game starts hard and only gets harder (no pun intended this time lol) but so does Akhlan. As the endgiver grows in strength, they are able to wield stronger weapons, tank bigger hits and dash through the most dangerous attacks but one of the elements that makes them go to the next level is arguably my favorite mechanic in the game. GRIME has a parry mechanic and IT... IS... AMAZING. As a man who loves parry mechanics in his game, this is probably my favorite part of the game

    This parry mechanics is not tied to a specific weapon either, you will always have access to it since it is built into Akhlan and thanks to their blackhole instead of parrying per say, they absorb the attack into their abyss. The absorb mechanic is also balanced well, you can even absorb projectiles and throw them back at their senders (always an amazing feeling btw) but not everything can be absorbed and certain attacks/ obstacles still need to be dodged and certain mini-bosses/ bosses can be absorbed up until a certain point and then you need to finish them the good ol' fashion way aka beating them down with your weapon of choice. All of this combined with some very challenging platforming especially when you have all the upgrades gives you a game that us Souls vets like to say, you need to 'Git Gud' or die trying. Bosses have multi-phases that actually change their battle plan and some of them require you to use your traversal skills mid combat to really test your reactions. The gameplay loop of GRIME is so addictive that I found myself sinking hours upon hours into it and as I got closer to the end I did not want the first run to stop and I started seeking out more secrets (which this game has plenty of), more hidden nooks and crannies that hid more items, weapons and armor sets. Thanks to community feedback, the final version of the game you can unlock fast travel a lot sooner and they have added more short-cuts to each major area so when it came to achievement hunting it was made much easier. You want more? In this game when you kill the regular enemies enough times, you can unlock their 'traits' which you can also empower and build a playstyle around it. Want to focus on parrying? There is a trait for that. However lets say you ain't me and you want to focus on dodging and damaging enemies that way? There is trait for that playstyle too. You want more? How about armor sets that can be practical (aka with the stats like more damage/ health/ stamina you want and playing to the strengths of the aforementioned traits) but you can cosmetically wear the one you like so you do not look like a mis-matched clown with no shoes ala Dark Souls. How about when you die, you actually do not lose your souls or in this case 'mass' so you can still level up even after failing, instead your lost mass is tied to a currency multiplier and gives you a extra heal to boot when you claim it. I previously mentioned spectacular bosses with challenging multi phase fights, well if you want to relive those fights, once you beat the game you can re-fight any of the bosses at any time just to learn their patterns and feel the rush all over again of conquering them again. I am currently enjoying new game plus, something I rarely do in most games outside of my favorites and GRIME even addresses the new game plus fatigue by creating a true different experience, adding a hidden boss and giving everyone some new tricks to completely mess with your muscle memory and also letting you start with all your abilities unlocked so you can access later areas much earlier to almost break the regular way to play the game. This game truly is a complete package and it is amazing just how much love was poured into it. All I can say is if its upcoming sequel follows this model, I will again be signing up on day one. Speaking of.

This is only 1/5 of the entire map. Yeah its that big

    A Rocky Road

    As I previously mentioned, GRIME was one of the first game I bought when I got my Steam Deck. The minute I saw the initial trailer I was hooked and I always knew I would buy it because it gave me Blasphemous vibes which I previously played and loved on my PS4. Well the funniest story is when I started playing it initially I did not immediately connect with it. Sure, I've played metriodvanias before but each one I played after Blasphemous did not hit the same highs I did when I played them. It also did not help, most of my initial playthrough was an uphill battle and one thing you'll have to get used to in GRIME is your first playthrough is that you are very weak with barely any weapon options, limited heals and the game is relentless and unforgiving. I must have died on the first boss 'Amalgam' more times then I can count. All this combined with the fact I was playing it on the actual Steam Deck itself and not the set up I now prefer which is my Steam Deck hooked up to an external monitor with an external controller cause the Steam Deck controls do not cut it when you play something as intense as this. I think after getting lost for hours and finally finding a save spot at the 1/3 mark of the game I gave up and I started playing other games. I was still however entranced by the constant updates and content GRIME was putting out and I kept saying to myself, one day, I will try it again. About a year ago I completed my second metroidvania, Ghost Song and as per my review, I enjoyed it, especially the story but the game itself felt lacking and again, one of my biggest gripes with it was getting lost. Ghost Song had some other fundamental issues like horrible dodge windows, bullet sponge enemies, wonky controls in a game where precise jumps are always needed and artificially lengthening the game by making back tracking mandatory (something GRIME does not do thankfully) so I gave it my first OKAY rating. It was a recommendation but barely and once I beat the game and got all the easy achievements I was done with it. Ghost Song let me know I can finish metroidvanias and enjoy them if I stick with it. It however did not make me want to rush and play another one through so it truly did not make me a fan of the genre. All whilst this was happening, I still remembered I still had GRIME to play. I kept telling myself when I had the time for it I was going to give it a real try and that finally happened this month and man am I so happy I did because this game has ticked all my boxes, I not only beat the game, I am on task to beat the game again in new game plus even with the extra challenges, I am also not only easy achievement hunting, I aim to get all the achievements for it, I've watched lore videos to fully understand what is going on and its biggest compliment, it has made me a fan of the genre. Even while playing GRIME, when the going got good (and ironically it started happening after I gave up the first time lol) I started thinking of replicating this feeling in other metroidvanias. I am no longer scared of the challenge and getting lost in Hollow Knight, so now I want to see what all the hype is about, I want to unlock all the abilities in SteamWorld Dig 2 and see what you can do and due to Epic and Good Old Games (GOG) free games programs I have other metroidvanias to try like Death's Gambit Afterlife, Moonscars and Under Lillies at my fingertips just wanting to be played. GRIME biggest accomplishment is like what Dark Souls 3 did for Souls and Souls-like, it finally made me understand a genre that countless other people love and invest tons of time into. I finally GET metroidvanias and now I want to play more of them. However I do have one fear, just like how I compared Ghost Song to GRIME, will I now compare every mv after to it and will they exceed the mark like GRIME did? Time will tell.

Fallen for the Dark Side

    One of the darker elements of GRIME is it story. In typical Souls fashion, it is not told you to explicitly, letting you put together piece after piece by talking to NPCs, item descriptions and environmental storytelling. However you are able to piece together one consistent narrative, you are the villain. Akhlan is called the endgiver for a reason. Their goal is to absorb everything and anyone in their way and nothing can stop them. It is rare to play a game where the main character is fear, reviled but also at the same *MINOR SPOILERS* blessed and praised at the same time. Unlike my previous game that I reviewed earlier this month 'SteamWorld Quest Hand of Gilgamech' where I could not stand the main character, GRIME's protagonist/ antagonist pulled me into their vortex and by the end I wanted to see their mission to completion all without them saying one word. That is the power of a good character design versus a character where you feel shoe-horned into cheering for them and you just can not. The greater narrative of GRIME is definitely something you should look into if you are a fan of the game but all I can say is, do not expect sunshine and rainbows when the credits roll. It is not that type of game. However I must say, playing someone that people rightfully fear is definitely a power trip and another reason why this game is sticking with me so much.

    Stonewalled

    Now GRIME is getting my highest recommendation however it does have some small flaws which I am using this section to bring up. My biggest fault with the game is how long it takes for you to become the unstoppable machine you later become, as mentioned before the 1/3rd mark is where I gave up last time and by that point I was feeling like I was not getting anywhere and the frustration was getting to me. The game does not do a traditional map and only after feedback did they decided to add footsteps to help mark where you have travelled on a invisible at first map to help with backtracking to where you previously explored. Of course you get a detailed map for a area when you find a beacon but 90% of those beacons are not found until you have nearly completed the area, heck, one of these helpful beacons is even blocked by a very tough, challenging boss, so basically your access to the beacon is stonewalled. Another issue I have is actually much later in the game is once you pass a certain section, the game no longer has enemies other than the final bosses, everything just becomes a traversal challenge and whilst they are not bad challenges and real push your platforming skills to the limit, it really takes away from one of the elements I really enjoy about it, the combat. Speaking of traversal challenges, my final gripe is actually not a big one but I need to say it never-less, a lot of the high level traversal challenges normally end with decent loot, be it a weapon, armor piece/ set or a consumable with tons of mass to level you up but the challenge to get it does not feel proportionate with the challenges you faced to get their. Mind you, my current new game plus weapon is the weapon you earned for completing the hardest traversal challenge in the game and it is amazing so I guess sometimes it is worth it, however in new game + the same weapons/ armor are now just upgrade material which you should have plenty of. My only change here would be in new game plus to change the new items to mass to level up which will always be useful, no matter how early or late you are in the game. Beating the mini bosses and main bosses in new game plus however does give you some substantial rewards and in both cases they drop upgrade materials either for your weapons to become even more powerful and to enhance already maxed out traits to newer levels and just make Spiral Heart a even more dangerous foe. Again these a minor gripes and definitely does not take away from its final rating.

    Push & Pull

    This RAVE is getting pretty long so in this section I am going to just drop some quick facts and wrap up my final thoughts. The music by Alex Roe, a artist who seems to be a accomplished musician and has even made remixes of Dark Souls song, is really suitable for this type of game. He created a great menu song and the soundtrack is filled with some good tracks especially for the bosses, a good thing since if you are like me, you be dying a lot to them and restarting at the beginning, speaking of, I enjoy GRIME has placed boss and mini-bosses relatively close to their rest areas so the runbacks to them are not that long, especially if you unlocked the shortcuts and it gets you back into the action much faster. The sound effects are nice and crunchy with the right amount of emphasis on the right things, not the egregious sounds that Ghost Song made when your character ran out of stamina, the vacuum sound of your black hole when you are absorbing is especially satisfying and NPCs are voiced in their own unique language. 

    Speaking frankly; Blasphemous used to be my favorite metroidvania and I believe it will forever have a place in my heart. I also have very fond memories of Shadow Complex on my Xbox360 but other than those two, I have never had a metroidvania captivate me as much as GRIME. This is the game that made me finally get mv's and now I want more. As I said earlier I now want to play SteamWorld Dig 2 and actually finish it, I want to revisit Shadow Complex but maybe on Steam since its no longer exclusive to consoles. I even want to visit more dark indie titles in the vein of GRIME, like Moonscars and The Last Faith and see if they are hidden gems. I also want to give Hollow Knight a honest try and this time and see if it can connect with me on a second playthrough like how I did with GRIME, because GRIME is now my favorite metroidvania and if the other games can make me lock in like this one did, I know I'll have a great time again.

    I used the chapter title 'push and pull' for this final section because this game simply pushes you beyond your limits especially in the platforming challenges and some of the boss battles too but its pull is so magnetic that you want to just keep playing. I am actually want to complete this RAVE so I am jump back in and complete my new game plus run and get some final achievements along the way, GRIME has me in its gravity and I can not escape. I have stared into the abyss and it has stared back into me and I am no longer afraid of the challenges before me.

AV