The lore of Grime is really interesting, but it's also really complicated, so here's the summary.
Happy Halloween :D
Story spoiler-free review of the game if you're interested:
Grime is a really fun Metroidvania. The combat is really satisfying, and all the bosses were a ton of fun to fight. I don't think there's anything bad I have to say about the combat side of things. The platforming puzzles (at least towards the end of the game) are pretty fun too, even if the mechanics are a little jank at first. The visuals and atmosphere of the game are just superb as well. On the more neutral side, the game is fairly linear. The map is very expansive, but you can't go to major areas out of order. Each area itself is usually designed well though with lots of optional paths, rewards and secrets to be found, and excellent shortcuts for making runbacks quicker.
My only two gripes with the game are a mid-game spike in platforming challenges and lackluster rewards towards the end of the game. The mid-game spike was super annoying because hard platforming challenges were coupled with annoying enemies that chip away at your health, forcing a lot of deaths and long runbacks. This stopped being as bad towards the end of the game where platforming and fighting enemies started to be separated better. As for exploration rewards (a more minor gripe), I wasn't finding really exciting rewards on optional paths by the end of the game. Hunt points were by far the most exciting thing to get late game, as it's the only way to make progress on your abilities in an interesting way, but I would often just find weapon upgrade materials (of which I didn't need any more of), one-time consumables (which while useful, were not that exciting), and lore. Maybe I was just really bad at finding hunt points but I think there should have been more of them towards of the end of the game.
I give it a 5/7, there's a little something for everyone.
Stuff - Otis McDonald
Creepy Vibes - David Fesliyan
Endless Motion - Bensound