If you're a fan of metroidvanias, solving lots of puzzles, and a 3d world, then this is the perfect game for you!

The combat is a little awkward but it's not remotely the focus so it can be looked over. Instead the vast majority of your time will be solving clever and well thought out puzzles, and exploration.

+I'm impressed at how well the puzzles are implemented. The world is so dense and there are puzzles all over the place. True to a metroidvania you will come across puzzles you can't solve yet until you get new abilities.
+The abilities you get are mostly unique and all are very fun to use.
+Collectibles and hidden chests all over the place!
+Eventually you can unlock a map and draw on it to remind yourself of stuff. I recommend using lines to track shortcut launchers.
+It's a blast taking your new abilities and seeing what you can do with them, see where you can go. And if you can go there, odds are good the devs have hidden something there so you are almost always rewarded.
+The story is very simple but for a game like this it doesn't need to be complicated.
+A good amount of post game content, mainly finding the stuff you missed. Of which you are aided with detectors and things.
+Game (not counting dlc which is a separate campaign) will take 10-15 hours to beat the story depending on how thorough you are, with more time spent going for 100%.

-The sword becomes 99% useless once you get the gun (which is pretty early in the game). You do not want to be engaging with enemies in close range.
-The ground stomp is underutilized and nearly useless as a weapon even once upgraded.
-In the late game there are a few mechanics not explicitly spelled out that will get you stuck. A big one is realizing your gun changes color when it passes through something. So do other things... Most heinous though is a warp pipe that spits everything back out, except for your force cube. No indication of this and this mechanic was never used before. Otherwise at the time of this review I'm at 75% collection rate and solved everything myself, needing hints only for a couple examples above.

I haven't played the Crash dlc, but it's basically more of the same.

Buy this game and dlc, especially on sale!

If you're a fan of metroidvanias, solving lots of puzzles, and a 3d world, then this is the perfect game for you! The combat is a little awkward but it's not remotely the focus so it can be looked over. Instead the vast majority of your time will be solving clever and well thought out puzzles, and exploration. [h1]Pros[/h1] +I'm impressed at how well the puzzles are implemented. The world is so dense and there are puzzles all over the place. True to a metroidvania you will come across puzzles you can't solve yet until you get new abilities. +The abilities you get are mostly unique and all are very fun to use. +Collectibles and hidden chests all over the place! +Eventually you can unlock a map and draw on it to remind yourself of stuff. I recommend using lines to track shortcut launchers. +It's a blast taking your new abilities and seeing what you can do with them, see where you can go. And if you can go there, odds are good the devs have hidden something there so you are almost always rewarded. +The story is very simple but for a game like this it doesn't need to be complicated. +A good amount of post game content, mainly finding the stuff you missed. Of which you are aided with detectors and things. +Game (not counting dlc which is a separate campaign) will take 10-15 hours to beat the story depending on how thorough you are, with more time spent going for 100%. [h1]Cons[/h1] -The sword becomes 99% useless once you get the gun (which is pretty early in the game). You do not want to be engaging with enemies in close range. -The ground stomp is underutilized and nearly useless as a weapon even once upgraded. -In the late game there are a few mechanics not explicitly spelled out that will get you stuck. A big one is realizing your gun changes color when it passes through something. So do other things... Most heinous though is a warp pipe that spits everything back out, except for your force cube. No indication of this and this mechanic was never used before. Otherwise at the time of this review I'm at 75% collection rate and solved everything myself, needing hints only for a couple examples above. I haven't played the Crash dlc, but it's basically more of the same. Buy this game and dlc, especially on sale!