3.5/5 ★ – hunkypet's review of Strider.

One of the few games that I have put the time into master completely and do all there is to do. Like a lot of the early PS Plus games on offer, I dabbled in them, left them and would come back to them and then probably give up again. A few years ago during the height of my trophy hunting craze I remembered this game had a really nice feel to it and I thought why not, let’s platinum it. The game is hard, at times frustratingly hard. Of course to get the Platinum, the things I had to do were demonic and not what most peoples experiences would be. Even on lesser difficulties until you memorise the maps, enemy spawns, attack patterns and learn the ability to identify the type of enemy in a split second you’re going to suck. This is where Strider... strides (sorry). It manages to perfectly balance intense and exciting action with non frustrating trial and error. On the PS4 it runs at a near perfect 60FPS so everything feels silky smooth. With it being as much of a Metroidvania as it is a hack ‘n slash game you will soon learn the lay of the land and all its secrets with the many times you will be backtracking and unlocking new passage ways. The game is decent looking but full of relatively bland environments, a few splurges here and there of intense colour from character designs and special moves spice things up but it’s just not going to wow that often. Though It does have strong enough art direction to create a believable and tangible world. The soundtrack however is awesome, it still sticks vividly in my head now, a real treat. Strider is not very forgiving at first but it is very playable and very beatable once you master its mechanics. The game gradually gives you access to new moves, power ups and slowly everything starts to click. I can’t give it higher because it just doesn’t have that little something to really make it special like the greats do. It’s well worth anyone’s time who is a fan of rich and rewarding gameplay. Played on PS4