What a beautiful game! It was especially great because the gameplay itself really hooked me, the precise platforming, fast pace, great atmosphere, and music, but the more the character and story unfolded, the more special the game became. Through the first three chapters I was comparing it to Super Meat Boy, but with some of the later chapter mechanics and the character progression, it ended up standing in a league of its own. Each chapter really stands on its own while meshing together very cohesively, a fact that is very apparent during the final summit, where you're going through a bit of a chapter "gauntlet" to beat the game. I really enjoyed its characterization of anxiety/depression and how it really preaches acceptance of oneself.

Reviewed on Monday, January 30th, 2023, 12:31pm.

I cannot imagine playing another GTA-styled expansive mission-oriented game where I cannot freely swing and fly above the buildings to get wherever I am going. The freedom of movement and power portrayal is so unbelievably satisfying that the somewhat grindy way these types of games can feel to me at times was completely absent. I had no problem going from one end of New York City to the other, solving crimes, snapping pics of monuments, grabbing backpacks, and doing it all over again because it was so fun to do. The story was engrossing and progressed in a way that kept me interested till the very end. The only gripe I might have is the absolute chaos in act 3 made any of the side-quest items kind of impossible to do, so once I got to that point, it was a quick succession of main story missions to complete the game, which means to do some of the side quest stuff you have to go back and complete it after beating the game, which kind of fell off my radar after a bit. I might go back to finish that stuff later though, maybe when I feel like playing the DLC.

Reviewed on Tuesday, September 5th, 2023, 12:53pm.