Laika: Aged Through Blood

• Genre: Exploratory Action Platformer (Metroidvania)
• Time Played: 30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: A little too long, just because of the kind of game play it is, you end up redoing a lot of the areas over and over, and it's a bit more arduous than just passing through in a more standard metroidvania, and things never really get easier, you can never tank more hits to make early areas a breeze. In fact, they scale up with your progression.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Extremely pleased. I loved this game.
• Why I played: Mean coyote lady rides a motorcycle through a desert wasteland. This game was practically made for me specifically.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would... IF you like games like Trials. I am pretty sure there are others that have that kind of gameplay, I am just not thinking of them at the moment. But it's basically QWOP for motorcycles. You have to keep them balanced or else you fall over and die. But yeah, if 20+ hours of Motorcycle QWOP platforming gunfighting sounds like a good time to you, I definitely recommend it.

Laika: Aged Through Blood is a game that makes you go "Hell Yeah" when you launch your motorcycle off a ramp into a pit surrounded by enemies, pick off the first couple mid-air, then pull off a backflip to deflect incoming fire and reload, mid-air sideswipe to deflect a shot coming in from behind right back into the enemy, and fire off one more shot to clear your landing. At it's best it can be an exhilarating rush that puts you in the center of some of the best choreographed gunplay on a motorcycle.

At it's worst, it can be a bit frustrating because the controls are not always cooperative and you have to redo this entire section over and over. Or redo this entire boss fight which has several sequences that there is no way to hurry along. Or you have to return to this one area for the sixth time because of a side-quest. There aren't a ton of side-quests, so it feels important to do them, especially some more than others. But the rewards are minimal, just some materials you may already have a ton of or easier ways to farm. The currency, which is literally the blood of your enemies, could be a little easier to come by. I never "lost" any money past the first area of the game, and still had trouble affording everything I wanted by the end of the game. I had to play a lot of blackjack.

Overall the complaints are minor though. I had a hell of a time with Laika. The general gameplay is awesome, the music was amazing, and though each were very brief, the little animated scenes were a nice touch. The writing could have been a little better. It's pretty story heavy for the type of game. Some of the choices made and the subject matter in which they relate that to with the main story seems a little sloppy/clumsy, maybe in poor taste? But it's not terrible. It's just kind of "we get it" after they say something so many times. Kinda feels like they're trying to make a statement or prove something. That said, the game also made me cry several times, so the writing did well enough, but the atmosphere helps and they nailed that.