Grime - If Scorn were a game instead of an installation

"A debut project from an indie developer" is an unsettling parable. Just as all journalists secretly dream of being writers, developers secretly dream of their game. Clover Bite are our dreamers of today. Today's dreamers, but not the next. Unlike their peers, Clover Bite decided not to even try to reinvent their wheel, and follow the well-trodden path of glory of the Hollow Knight metroidvania. However, Clover Bite is not only one platforming, they went even further and looked up to Hidetaka Miyazaki, molded a chimera of genres and styles from their Grime...

A public statement?

We didn't just compare Grime with Scorn. Even if the comparison is somewhat incorrect, because Scorn came out much later, both of these games flirt with the biopunk style. But the biopunk of both games came from different sources of inspiration: the creators of Scorn were inspired by Hans Giger, while the creators of Grime were inspired by Peter Morbacher. And if the film "Alien" needs no introduction, then Morbacher is not so famous in the mass media. The only outstanding examples of his works are drawings for the legendary card game Magic: The Gathering. However, you shouldn't belittle Morbacher's creativity, because his creative impulse is the main motivator for Grime's creation.

The world of Grime is something unpleasant, repulsive with great pretensions to art house. After a mysterious but pathos-laden introductory video, we are introduced to the main character, a certain animated rock with a black hole instead of a head, henceforth we will call him Hole-head for convenience.

Hole-head falls from the sky and finds himself in a bizarre world. Revived pieces of flesh on the walls and animate fossils are the flora and fauna of Grime's world. In fact, the game's title perfectly describes what the player will experience for the lion's share of the game.

However, Holehead is an outsider in this world, only his body proportions match the local ideals of beauty. Another story about the chosen one? Not really. Holehead almost immediately encounters xenophobia. He is hated because of envy, because he is different, because Hole-head is too lucky from birth, when the rest of us have to beg for rebirth at the altars.

The hatred of Dyroholovy is not widespread; he meets an amusing creature among the hating natives. The creature instantly recognizes in Dyroholovy an ideal and seeks to help him. It is this creature that is the only thread of involvement in the world's lore. If it weren't for the Creature, all Grime would be about a different kind of person who fights off envious people by accidentally causing genocide in an already horrible world.

Souls'like for those who care about the nervous system

The story is the first thing in which Clover Bite relied on the talent of the Souls'like progenitor, Hidetaka Miyazaki. The game has a scenario, the world is elaborated, but there are no introductory parts and explanations of what's going on in front of the player. As if with amnesia, Hole-head learns the world around him at the same time as the player. Neither the backstory, nor the motivation of the main character, nor the antagonist - the player will not see any of this. But the player will see both familiar mechanics and fresh, previously unseen elsewhere. So for the gameplay basis is taken two-dimensional Souls'like with a recognizable emphasis on the endurance scale. Hole-head spends stamina for literally every movement except walking. That is, the division of weapons into light, but low-damage, and powerful weapons, but slow; the same rolls, only in Grime the protagonist turns into a cloud and moves lightning-fast over short distances instead of tumbling; the same emphasis on timings and memorizing enemy behavior patterns.

The differences start with the parry mechanics. In the classic Souls'like, a block pressed in time cancels the damage to the player, but in Grime a fraction of a second is allotted to parry, but if successfully parried, Holehead sucks opponents into his black hole.

The second difference from the classic Souls'like parry mechanics is that there are no estus flasks. Estus is for the hollow!

Grime skillfully rewards the player for his reaction time and significantly penalizes him for sluggishness. To regain health, the player is required to fill the "breathing" bar - a series of successful parries. In words, these mechanics seem fair and uncomplicated, until you encounter them in the game.

Grime is not Souls'like metroidvania, but Souls'like metroidvania. Every skirmish with even a rank-and-file opponent can be the last, because the world here is not filled with the same type of opponents, each new foe requires learning its behavior model. If the player accepts these rules of the game, he begins to navigate the local bestiary and benefit from it:

Another familiar Souls'like mechanic - collecting souls. Except that Grime is much more humane to the player in this respect: every enemy you encounter leaves a mass after death - an analogue of experience points, except that after the death of the Dyroholovy the mass is not lost. It is by this simplification that Grime saves millions of nerve cells, there is no penalty for death. If you always dreamed to touch Souls'like, but stories about broken gamepads and battles with bosses for twenty hours frightened you - Grime will be a good introduction.

But what else is Souls'like famous for? What is most often flashing on the footage and what many players around the world catch a nervous breakdown? That's right - the bosses. Bosses are the best thing about Grime. Even the first ostensibly simple initial boss will require a modicum of intelligence, agility, and patience from the player.

The difficulty curve will only grow with each passing act. The game will not wait until the player deigns to swing to mind-blowing characteristics and pass the game with left heel. The rule works both ways: the further the player passes, the less reparative tasks are placed in front of him.

The only misstep made is a non-intuitive map and illogically placed checkpoints. If in the Souls'like genre Grime has succeeded, then in Metroidvania...

Hollow Knight is not threatened by anything. Still the best.

...Grime did not make it. The map is branched, often not filled with interesting secrets, monotonous. At times you catch yourself thinking that you get tired of walking. Let the opponents, like in Souls'like, are revived after the protagonist's death or during loading, it doesn't make wandering through corridors any variety. Moreover, secret rooms are not that hard to find, but the rewards in them are unsatisfactory - either useless weapons or the same useless consumables.

But what Clover Bite did not go wrong - it's in filling locations with platforming sections. Hole-head is able to overcome large obstacles almost instantly, but the levels are built so that the ability to quickly press the keys will be a necessity. For example, after defeating one of the bosses, Holehead acquires a new ability - to attract selected objects of the environment with his head. The game will immediately adjust to the new ability, and another variable will appear in the gameplay equation. If at the beginning of the game the player is not required to have any special skills, then towards the middle of the game half of the deaths will fall from great heights, spikes and deaths in traps.

Sometimes gravity in Grime is more trouble than enemies. Alas, if you consider platformers a relic of the past, then Grime is definitely not for you. You will not be able to jump between the blocks unobtrusively. Sometimes the player is given multi-button tasks, sometimes - tasks for attention. You can take a break from the combat only in the main menu, the platforming is not any easier.

And this is only in the first half of the game. Then the platforming will synergize with the battles and even with the bossfights. Well, who says Souls'like can be simple...?

Is Grime worth buying?

Despite its good quality, Grime is not a game for everyone. The overly obscure setting, awkward keyboard and mouse controls, and a slightly inflated price tag make it impossible to label Grime a "must-see" game. But at -80% off, it's not a bad deal.