Grime

Grime (2021) is an operatic running, jumping, and fighting game in which you awaken as a man with a void in place of your head and fight your way through an unsettling alien world. Play involves fighting through each level with an arsenal of living weapons to kill enemies with perfectly timed counterattacks. It stands out for how you gain the traits of the enemies you absorb, evolving your abilities alongside the growing challenge of stronger foes.

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You enter the world, only able to harm enemies by absorbing them with a well-timed button press, but quickly earn a basic weapon to help you deal damage to stronger foes. If you defeat enough of the same type of enemy by absorbing them, you earn their trait - more health, defence or movement abilities. At times, traversal is as much of a challenge as combat, testing your timing and perseverance with complex, fast-paced platforming sequences.

As you progress, you face large boss fights that challenge you to learn their attacks and master timed counters. Through exploration, you find weapons of different classes, like a centipede whip or a sythe, each able to mutate its form to increase damage-dealing ability. You choose different upgrades that enhance your attributes and weapons, preparing you for more challenging combat.

The result is a dramatic game driven by exploration, where targeting specific enemies helps you evolve and become stronger. Running throughout is the mystery of the fantastically peculiar world you occupy, full of secrets you gradually uncover as you venture deeper.

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Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked Grime 11 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Ollie Robertson and updated 2 weeks ago.