Laika: Aged Through Blood

This game is an exploration of grief.
Laika's grief. Her daughter's grief. The grief of those around her. And last but not least, your own grief, whether that's at the somewhat tricky controls or just because the story is making you cry. Not that I wish to make light of the events portrayed in this game of course, but it bears mentioning right at the top: This game is hard to play, and I mean that in all the senses of the word. It's quite difficult, and it's full of very messed up stuff and people doing very messed up things to each other. That content warning almost undersells it, this game doesn't shy away from some deeply upsetting story beats.
And it is also hard to play, in a technical sense, because of somewhat clunky controls and a few bosses that are wildly out of place on the difficulty curve. Every boss in the game bar the very last isn't a healthbar to soak so much as it is a puzzle to solve. For the most part this is welcome and interesting right up until it becomes tedious and frustrating. Combat on the whole consists of brief moments of feeling like an incredible badass, buried by a heaping pile of getting whalloped or landing upside down and having to try again for the seventh time. This is ameliorated by the extremely generous distribution of respawn checkpoints. These things are literally everywhere.
The end result of Laika's general fragility in combat and generous respawns is that you will get minced repeatedly trying to survive a particular enemy ambush but you will also respawn literally right next to the encounter so you can try again almost immediately. This changes the game from something that would be punishing and unfun to play into something that is difficult but rewarding to play. Again I want to emphasize: the combat is hard, but pulling it off successfully feels incredible and it never stops feeling awesome.
I will also note that the game is generally pretty good about ramping up the difficulty level. I don't think I ever had a moment when I hit a skill wall that wasn't one of the two problem bosses, and in all other respects the game raises the difficulty steadily but fairly, both in complexity of terrain navigation and in enemy distribution and increased variety.
Finally, I want to repeat: this game is fully of heavy themes. The game opens with of the most gruesome and horrible things I have ever seen in a piece of media, full stop, and leads to a story thread later in the game that, well. It's. I don't really have words for it. It's probably the most upsetting thing I've ever seen in a piece of media. For all the game's expressions of depthless brutality though, it never felt gratuitous. Not a single story beat felt felt out of place or over the top. Only more and more gut wrenching, more and more heart-stopping.
I cried something like four or five times across completing this game.

This is...a weird one. You're either going to be into the game's crazy Trials-meets-Metroid gameplay, or you're not. Same goes for its tone, story and progression. It's a Marmite game.
Laika is a game about violence, and despite the aesthetic providing some distance it's actually one of the most violent games I've played in recent years, to the point I'd warn people who might be sensitive to that sort of thing. Put it this way: the very first thing that happens in the game, the opening scene, is a crucifixion. You collect the entrails of the enemies you kill to use as currency. If you're squeamish about lovingly-drawn eyeballs exploding from faces...maybe sit this one out.
Traveling across the wasteland is this strange mix of Trials biking puzzle, exploration of beautiful desolate landscapes and sudden sharp crescendos of bloody combat. The presentation is great, with the game's melancholy soundtrack suiting the bleak backdrops well. There's a good variety of places to visit that manage to have their own character while slowly introducing the mechanics you'll need to backtrack and unlock new areas in Metroidvania fashion.
Laika's combat I would most readily compare to Hotline Miami. As you get further into the game you are often outnumbered and outgunned, and you're usually having to pull dirt bike stunts while fighting groups of enemies that can and will kill you in one hit. Checkpoints are frequent and respawning is instantaneous, with a lighter version of a Souls-like's "dropping money on death" system to punish you and encourage you to go back in. There's challenge in trying to get the right position and speed, angling your bike correctly to block bullets, killling the enemies as quickly as possible, putting bullets into their airborne bodies to up your combo and maximise your monetary reward, picking the correct moment to reload and - at the end of all of that - making sure you don't screw up the landing and undo all your hard work with a stupid death. It's good stuff.
The game's storytelling is at times incredible and compelling, and at other times it's unfocused and messy. The focus is very much on the Wastelanders and their situation rather than on the overall gonzo plot of "immortal biker vs Nazi birds", which isn't too large a fault because the Wastelanders are great. Character designs in particular are varied and creative and cool, and you get to really know some of them, as well as how they relate to the decaying world they live in. I love the little details, like the way they name places by event or emotion rather than giving them a fixed name - "Where We Live", "Where Mother Groans", etc - reflecting both the nomadic tribe's emotional detachment from fixed places and Laika's protective emotional detachment from the people around her.
The story around Laika in particular - how she became cursed, her toxic relationship with her mother, why her child has no name - that's all really good stuff. The way in which her mystery is revealed was the game's highlight for sure. I can't really describe too much without excessive spoilers but her simultaneous desire to fulfil and reject the roles forced on her influence her actions perfectly.
Unfortunately, the game does a poor job of actually describing the game's antagonists. Sure, they're Nazi birds, but they're largely interchangeable goons. The more important birds who make up bosses aren't ever introduced before you kill them, there's no big bad you're building toward. You never get a sense of exactly what they're after or what their plans are.
The late-game in general suffers There needed to be a bit more enemy variety to sustain the game's length. Instead the game keeps the challenge up by turning every bird into a hyper-accurate sniper who can flatten you with a single bullet before you even know they're present. It can push the combat's balance over the edge into irritation.
The final ending comes out of nowhere and the game kind of abruptly stops. After all of the buildup, learning the personal stakes for Laika and experiencing the development of her relationships, after gathering all your friends and outfitting all your gear....you meet an ally you didn't know you had to take down a boss you've never heard named to stop a plan you had no idea was occurring. After all of that buildup around mutations and blood, the final plan is "what if I drop a huge bomb on you?" What a let-down! You kill the final boss in an easy fight, and the game just basically ALT-F4s.
I still really enjoyed my time playing, though. If you're the right kind of odd, I recommend this oddness.

Completing this game should earn you a visit from one of the devs to come give you hugs and aftercare because it is mean, rude, abusive, and then as a reward you get EMOTIONALLY DEVASTATED.

This game is absolutely a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece in every meaning imaginable. The story is beautiful and it actually f3cking touched my soul at the end, it makes you know and care about the characters in it and the fact that they're actually endearing and memorable really sells the inmersive world building of this dystopian world.
The gameplay is easy to pick up but hard to master, the controls are perfectly responsive and don't have any issues with them! With a lot of secrets and side missions to discover. I really like that there's really not anything so ridiculously hidden that you would never be able to find without the help guides unlike other metroidvanias. Everything is pretty much hidden in plain sight and it's so rewarding to discover everything by yourself!
Though there's a couple of flaws that I need to adress; sometimes the gore and mainly blood splatter effects from killing enemies actually wind up blocking sight of your character and you end up dying since you couldn't actually manage to land properly and I would say it's a bit unfair and it happens a lot of the time LOL an option to reduce the blood effects in the settings would be nice.
Appart from that, this game is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ masterpiece yeah and everyone should play it!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS MY FAVORITE GAME EVER!!!
The music is incredible and has a playlist/cassette system where you can pick what you are listening to!!!
the gameplay is interesting, easy to learn, and i would say decently hard to master!
the story is one of few that have made me cry and the fact that there are small details (such as some enemies being scared to attack you) that depict war in such a real and "Nobody wins" way, it is beautiful.
ALSO THE ART IS INCREDIBLE!!!!

+
Bloody
An interesting concept
Good music
-
Complex controls
High difficulty
8.5/10 Interesting and unusual metroidvania
The game is a symbiosis of arcade motorcycle racing and shooting within the framework of metroidvania
Yes, it takes a long time to get used to the game because you need to simultaneously monitor the position of your motorcycle and manage to kill enemies.
If at least your character didn't die when falling on his head, in my opinion it would be better. And so get ready to constantly die not from enemies, but from head impacts on different surfaces. And you will die more than in all the dark souls combined. )) But fortunately, there are a lot of checkpoints here, so it compensates for the high complexity.
In any case, if you were looking for an interesting and unusual metroidvania, then it's definitely worth a try.

One of the best games I have ever played.
The gameplay is very unique and extremely satisfying (especially on gamepad).
The story made me tear up multiple times.
The music is straight up perfect, I will be listening to it again.
And the arstyle is very nice and coherent all the way.
My only complaint would be a slight lack of warp points on the map, combined with the fact side quests are fairly unrewarding, made me really reluctant to do many side quests.
I don't think this game has a lot of replay value, but it doesn't need it, the first ride was memorable.