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.

You climb a lighthouse while being chased by an armoured crab... my wallet never stood a chance.
It’s like Katana Zero but with a motorcycle.
I was intrigued by the concept of a “motorvania”, so l had no option but to add Laika on my library. The protagonist being a badass mother riding a motorcycle also had a certain charm to it. The ironic strong anti war messaging juxtaposed with backflipping on a motorcycle whilst mowing down dozens of soldiers also had its part in my decision.
Oh my god, what a ride. Such a masterpiece. This game is brave, in how it approaches story, gameplay, style... powerful and such a satisfying game. When I saw the trailer for this game, it looked like a total blast so I tried out the demo. From the get go, you see how brutal this game can get but I was NOT prepared for the story it would tell. To me, Laika is one of the best narrative metroidvania in recent years, standing shoulder to shoulder with the greats like Ori and Blasphemous.
The gameplay is an absolute thrill. It makes you feel so badass, rushing head first into a crowd of birds just to blow them to hell. Zooming around on your bike and shooting Birds is so much fun and I loved the abilities Laika gets, especially Dash. It made her able to jump at any time and refill bullets with ease. Blocking a bunch of bullets with Laika’s bike and taking out multiple enemies all before touching the ground is amazing. So fu*king sweet. Sometimes I had trouble with aiming since I was playing on Steam Deck, but I never got to the point where I was frustrated or wanted to rage quit. Checkpoints are so so so consistent that dying was never an issue.
Okay okay, so the story. MY GOD. This is BLEAK. Brutal. But it isn’t this way just to be edgy and I truly believe that. I don’t think a game has EVER affected me this much emotionally. When it comes down to it, this game tackles many themes but the main one is emotional abuse and growing up. Dialogue felt natural, I always felt Laika's actions during the plot were understandable, though her world is brutal. I think also the game is called “Aged Through Blood”, because the “curse” in the game is a metaphor for becoming a woman. It’s fascinating to see a game tackle the transition into womanhood like this. We don’t get many brutal post apocalyptic worlds with such a focus on a female story like this. That’s another reason I’m assuming almost every character in the game is female. What other game has a quest where you get menstrual pads for a character having their first period? I don't think any game has tackled the theme of menstruation like this, if ever, and in such a respectful, serious manner as well. Which is just so bold and unique. We shouldn’t be afraid to tackle these topics in game, and I deeply respect LAIKA for being badass and REAL. Some parts of the story are things I will think about and talk about for ages to come.
Additionally given the themes of gendered violence, Laika is also stand-in for women who are forced to bear children which is much more relevant in this political climate.   This game is not afraid to go to those places but it really tells a more emotionally affecting story without holding back. Laika has become my favorite female protagonist as well. And props to the devs for trying something different with a Metroidvania story! The game has a lot more going on than just this but I’d write a more ginormous essay if I started going into it. It’s so deep and complex and for a Metroidvania, having an unexpected story like this is so brilliant and emotionally affecting that I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
I never felt it was trying too hard, I think it was just a bleak world. But the story it was telling, while not unique on a grand sense, being through the female lens and tackling the discussions they did is SUPER unique for the Metroidvania genre and a gaming in general and should honestly be celebrated. There is also another angle that it feels like a lot of other reviews are overlooking. Laika is part of a dying tribe of people seemingly indigenous to the land. All of the herbs and side quests are part of living as much with this dying land as possible or remembering the dead in some way. Thus, Laika is also the story of an indigenous group defending themselves from an oppressive imperialistic force, while still maintaining the humanity of the individuals of this indigenous group: flaws included. Laika is a perfect game to me, and I don’t care what anyone says about that.
Even without the wonderful story, the gameplay was strong enough for me to enjoy it the whole way through, with a lot of different areas and ways you progress through them. Sure, there aren’t as many abilities as a typical Metroidvania but when you’re zipping around and flying across the screen and flipping everywhere, I was not really bothered by that. I had so much fun getting around and shooting enemies. Honestly, if it was only the story that was good, I wouldn’t have stayed playing, but a lot of the time I was thinking “we have a game with THIS artstyle, THIS gameplay; and THIS amazing story”. It all had to work together for me to be this amazing. I think that one has to know what can be expected from a game and what not. Laika is not a AAA game and the designers had to choose where and how to distribute the effort and the resources in the way of creating the game they wanted. In that regard, I think that the choices made were an absolute success.
I think that the strong points of Laika and what make this game unique and special, are the story and how is narrated, the art with a special mention to the music, and the central mechanic: the motorcycle combined with the shooting mechanic. The designers didn't choose to make an ordinary metroidvania and because of that, some mechanics and game dynamics are not developed as in other games of the genre. They instead, elaborated a very brave story to tell, not common in videogames, exploring sensible topics.
Not only the ones mentioned in my first couple of paragraphs, but also violence, politics, racism... and all of that taking stands, not in a manichean or idealistic way or falling in relativism. The characters, though some of them having very short appearances, are full of colour and personality. The art is outstanding, very carefully made starting from the music (the awesome mechanic of having to search the radiocassettes), the landscapes and scenarios, NPC’s... And the "innovative" central mechanics are overall well implemented and are very fun through almost all the game. It is a perfect game? Obviously not. Feels a bit too long, the backtracking is tedious in some points and some mechanics are not used or developed in their full potential. Beyond all this, the combo between it's strong points make the game original as few can and I seriously think that games like Laika expand and improve this art and are much more necessary to push it forward than most AAA games.
In conclusion, came for the gameplay, stayed for the story. Very powerful story and atmosphere that digs it's claws into you and doesn't let go till you're done, very tragic and brutal but at the same time, stunned that it was able to get this kind of emotional response out of me. The story is a dark, gritty reality that deals with loss, growing up, betrayal, death and genocide. It’s a stark look at a dying world and was compelling throughout. I definitely cared a lot about Laika, and was genuinely moved by the endgame. From a gameplay perspective, when this game is on, it’s on fire. Executing the maneuvers you want to make means laying waste to a dozen enemies in as many seconds and feeling like a badass while doing it. Can't recommend it enough personally, but I'm not a professional reviewer either, just some sap who fell for a video game coyote mom trying her best.
Finally, anyone ever feel that like, us furries are just better at art than other people? What's up with that?
10000000/10

This game is absolutely a fuck1ng 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 fuck4ing 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!!!!

After completing 100% of the game I can finally say that…
Laika: aged through blood is a light 8 out of 10
The gameplay? GOOD, the soundtrack? GOOD, the cutscenes? GOATED
Although it can get repetitive at times making some of the side quests and trying to get some of the achievements, I also find it lacking both on worldbuilding and the main character and NPCS backstory I THINK that these 2 could easily expanded and told us more about the history and world that we are playing on.
other than that? It's a good game that should be played at least once for the unique gameplay it has.
Also laika can get five big booms
BOOM, BOOM , BOOM. BOOM, BOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!

This game has consumed me for several days straight and I just couldn't stop playing - I was so invested!!!
But even if I want everyone to enjoy it, I'll say what I honestly think
The good:
Awesome visuals
Amazing character designs!!
I really enjoyed the soundtrack
Gut-punching story (yes it's a good thing) and it doesn't feel like it's made filled with gore or hard topics just for the sake of it.
I was really interested in the world of Laika, so it's a point to the worldbuilding!
I enjoyed getting better at the game

The bad:
Too many weapons. Honestly 6 is tad too much and they don't really provide a lot of use over your revolver that you start with.
The most useful ones are: Revolver, Shotgun and Machine Gun
Why other weapons are not as good:
Sniper Rifle can pierce through enemies, but the camera is too zoomed in to allow for plays with it...
Crossbow is short-ranged and takes forever to reload
Rocket launcher appears too late into the game and I didn't even have to use it at all.
Backtracking. Though I had no issues with it, but I see how it can be annoying.
Hunting down traveling merchant to finish quests is annoying...
Bossfights are frustrating.... I get it that with saves they'd be too trivial, but.. I dunno. That's how I've felt xD
Some mechanics get introduced for a single location and aren't used ever again... like riding a rope or hook. They feel like gimicks more than anything.
You'll have to grind quite a bit if you want to 100% it.
This is all, but dooo check it out!! Even with all the "bad" things I've had great time with the game!

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.