Surrealist Metroidvania GRIME from Akupara Games and Clover Bite is ready for you on PS5. Learn more in our GRIME review!
Happy New Year, everybody! I hope you all had a fantastic couple of weeks with your friends and family over the festive period. We at PS4.blog.net are starting the new year with a slew of reviews coming at you for the entirety of 2023. Let’s hope gaming is a fantastic year for us all! With so many games launching in December, we’re still playing catch-up with some of the late 2022 releases. This time around, we’re checking out Metroidvania GRIME from Akupara Games and Clover Bite.
To be honest, GRIME is a game that I would not have checked out on my own on PlayStation 5. But after playing it for an hour, I found myself enjoying it a lot! It’s certainly very unique and felt like a breath of fresh air and a great way to kick off my 2023. You begin the game as nothing but a bit of liquid on the ground, and you’re then suddenly squeezed into existence. GRIME is a dark Metroidvania where your goal is to absorb, grow and destroy. The game has a decent map with markers to help you keep track of where you are and where you have been, so if you miss anything, your map has you covered.
The game is a Metroidvania at its core, but it also adds elements from other genres to spice things up. You got a dash of Souslike, as well as some RPG elements to consider. You don’t have any weapons, to begin with, and the enemies you come by you can simply absorb with the R1 button as they are about to attack you. You will eventually get weapons a short while into the game, which will kick things into high gear. You can grow these weapons and make them more powerful so that you can stand a chance at taking on the more challenging and deadly opponents in your path.
The game will lull you into a sense of security, making you think that you can take on anything it throws at you… and that’s when the Soulslike side gets going. Enemies will be very powerful and can defeat you with a few quick swats, which is why I’m very happy about the checkpoints that are evenly spread out across the world of GRIME. When you die, you will respawn at the last created surrogate – that would be the last checkpoint you activated. Some enemies will drop Mass, which you can use to boost your stats since it serves as the game’s currency. When you die, you’ll lose your Mass, but you can retrieve it from the exact spot where you died.
And if you destroy much stronger enemies, you will gain their Hunt Points as a reward. Hunt Points can be invested to unlock traits that you can take from a surrogate point. You can only get traits by using absorb! The absorb mechanic is brilliant. I used it more than I used conventional weapons during my time with GRIME, but you can definitely choose to use conventional weapons if you want to play this one like a more traditional Metroidvania. And be sure to give your weapon a good swing as you reach any obstacle that dares to block your path.
Battles are not a button-mashing affair. Some enemies will glow red, which keeps you from absorbing them. You’ll have to attack them with your weapon until you find the right opportunity to defeat them. This is twice as important during boss fights! Bosses do the game’s Soulslike side justice, so if you don’t take a moment to really pay attention to their movement and attack patterns… you’re going to end up dying a ton! Stamina mismanagement can lead to death. Every action you take costs you stamina, so it is important to keep an eye on your stamina so that you’re not caught sans stamina at the worst of times. Defeat a boss, and along with feeling a great sense of accomplishment, you’ll also be rewarded with a new shiny trophy.
Speaking of which, GRIME has a full trophy list for you to work on. The list includes 12 Bronze trophies, 20 Silver trophies, and 2 Gold trophies, and it’s going to be a challenging trophy run for you to take on! There are also trophies to unlock after activating the first surrogate, completing a trait, gaining a Hunt Point, acquiring all weapons, as well as for beating the game. There are some other miscellaneous trophies to obtain, but I’ll let you find them on your own!
For its PlayStation 5 debut, along with the base game, we’re also getting the Colors of Rot DLC at no extra cost. What this DLC pack does is add new abilities, new weapons, new enemies, new bosses, a new large area to explore, new abilities, new music, as well as new challenges when going back to some of the areas that you previously explored, and more. This expands on what the world of GRIME has to offer, and you can’t complain about free content, right?
GRIME is a challenging Metroidvania on PlayStation 5 with a dash of Soulslike as well as some RPG elements to help you on your journey through the surrealist environments the game has to offer. The controls are tight, there’s plenty of content to explore, and the challenge is dialed up to 11 for you to showcase your skills. Despite the game’s challenge, I thoroughly enjoyed playing. GRIME is out on PlayStation 5 at a $24.99 price, and your purchase will also give you access to the Colors of Rot DLC at no extra cost.
Disclaimer
This GRIME review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Akupara Games.
