gaming - LesPlayGames

SCHiM Review – Style Over Substance

SCHiM is a game that immediately caught my eye after coming across a Reddit post from one of its creators, Ewoud van der Werf, five to six years ago: its striking visuals, genuinely interesting idea, and simple but pleasing gameplay mechanics (where a frog-like creature is seen jumping from shadow to shadow within an urban city environment) were met with a lot of interest and excitement on the creator’s post. It’s a game I found myself thinking about from time to time, thanks to its undeniable charm and unique premise.

After finally playing through it on Switch (via Switch 2) a year after its July 2024 release, SCHiM does succeed in nailing its charming environments and providing an undeniably adorable shadowy protagonist, but its main strengths unfortunately end there, with the end result offering an aesthetically pleasing but ultimately shallow experience.

You control a “schim”— a frog-like creature with the ability to jump from shadow to shadow.

You’ll spend 65 similarly-structured levels traversing as a frog-like shadow, or “schim”—a Dutch word that translates to “shadow, phantom, or soul”—that repeatedly tries to reunite with its owner after being suddenly separated near the start of the story. The gameplay is simple: utilize the shadows of everyday, often urban objects—such as moving vehicles, flying birds, or wandering pedestrians—to reach a specific area at the end of each level and keep chasing after your ever-elusive human counterpart.

The game is devoid of any dialogue, rather relying on simple environmental storytelling, which ends up working well: you’ll briefly shadow the life’s journey of a young boy, where you’ll see him transition from boyhood to adulthood, experience his first breakup, graduation, and first job, which he suddenly loses. His job termination acts as a major catalyst for the plot, where a sudden fall causes you to split from the down-on-his-luck human tether and continuously chase after him in hopes of reuniting and helping steer his life onto a better course.

Your chief goal is to somehow reunite with your human tether—a down-on-his-luck office worker who’s struggling to get back on his feet.

For its mechanics, you’re confined to jumping from shadow to shadow toward the end goal of each level, which you can preview at any time with the press of a button (ZR on Switch); this helps you stay on track if you happen to find yourself jumping to a dead end or chasing after optional hidden items peppered throughout most of the game’s levels. In addition to your main, long jump, you’re granted a much smaller hop to help reach your intended shadow, which works as a solid and well-implemented mechanic (I occasionally found myself juuust being able to reach my target thanks to this small secondary jump, which led to some satisfying moments).

The plethora of collectible items—which help reunite other lost schims to their specific tethers—offer some fun challenges, as well as urge deeper exploration and help prolong the game’s short runtime.

Rotating the camera opens up more shadows and angles to play around with, adding a layer of slightly deeper strategy that helps fight the monotony that starts to creep in after a dozen or so stages (although the camera angles do occasionally feel obstructive and somewhat frustrating in tight corners, resulting in a hit-or-miss leap of faith; though to the game’s credit, this kind of situation turned out to be pretty rare).

After the visually charming, but admittedly uneventful, first twenty or so minutes, the game starts to pick up more momentum and intrigue once the phantom becomes disconnected from its user, where you navigate the shadows of simple, common objects—like a loose box or a street lamp—to try to catch up to your human host. The game really opens up at this point, offering an initially promising sandbox that urges exploration.

Timing and navigating moving objects, like a passing moped or a walking pedestrian, offers some welcome variation and puzzle platforming to the mix.
When the environment lines up just right, you can find a satisfying rhythm to the movement and traversal that immediately draws you into the experience more. While all levels feature a genuinely charming and visually pleasing color palette and flair, some areas, like those with rain or dynamic shadows, feel especially immersive and creative, with the level design inviting more planning and strategy to your end-level goal. The game’s menu looks stylized and visually appealing as well; the small detail of having the schim leap from level to level in the stage selection screen feels like a nice touch.

Certain areas offer a more engaging experience, such as those that feature rain or dynamic shadows.

While many of the game’s levels do feel largely the same, despite their consistently charming design and changing color palettes, certain sections succeed in standing out more, offering a welcome break from monotony. A warehouse level, for example, feels like one of the game’s most satisfying, with the constantly moving machinery, clever jumping mechanics via slender/wire-line shadows, tricky conveyor belts, and an intricate level layout helping show off SCHiM’s true puzzle-platforming capabilities. (I really wish the game featured more levels like this one!)

Another favorite section of mine is a late-game area that reverses the roles of the shadow and its out-of-reach human, with the few levels offering a more surreal and daring feel to the game. At the same time, this area also unfortunately featured the sole glitch of my playthrough, with the glitched human—where he suddenly became stuck running in place, no matter where I moved—forcing me to restart the level. SCHiM never sends you far should you fail a jump or want to restart a level, but this moment was still a little surprising due to the game’s otherwise glitch and lag-free experience.

A specific late-game area offers one of the more interesting sections, where the mechanics are inverted and the roles of the shadow and its human are suddenly reversed, resulting in some wonderfully surreal visuals.

While your schim is given the opportunity to interact with any object it jumps into, the effects end up being largely insignificant (e.g. a lamp briefly rocking back and forth, trash bins spewing trash that surprisingly lack any key items or purpose, and humans that merely cough or look around); the biggest use of the button is to control traffic lights, which do affect vehicular and pedestrian traffic, making for some interesting puzzle-platforming.

While the interactable traffic lights do feel like a nice touch, and it does feel satisfying to find the hidden objects scattered throughout the levels—which help in significantly adding to the story’s otherwise short runtime—it can’t help but feel like a strongly missed opportunity not to utilize the schim’s abilities more and further play around with the world you inhabit, such as by having the dedicated interaction button carry a stronger sense of purpose throughout your journey. At best, this function feels like a believable distraction; while momentarily interesting, there’s often just nothing there to sink into.

SCHiM’s world features lots of well-drawn and interactable objects …that unfortunately don’t do much of anything.

Regarding its story (which, like much of the game’s mechanics, is very simple), while witnessing your human tether’s struggles and attempts in bettering himself (e.g. via different jobs, hobbies, etc.) does help you form a stronger connection to the journey, it admittedly starts to feel tiresome and repetitive in having to repeatedly see your target move just out of reach over and over again for 60+ levels. Crafting more narrative-driven reasons for the schim’s continual inability to catch up to its owner would have greatly elevated the plot and overall experience, a nagging feeling that came to mind for much of my time with the game.

The final section of the game does feel a bit more narratively-focused, with the levels offering some palpable tension, more complex puzzles, and higher stakes, but the ending still ends up feeling underwhelming, causing your continuous chases, leaps, and efforts to lack a more satisfying sense of accomplishment, both mechanically and narratively.

SCHiM’s post-game options offer some additional challenges for subsequent playthroughs, such as turning off the extra jump or only limiting you to a set number of lives before having to restart the game, but due to the game’s thin plot and overly similar levels, I personally didn’t find the urge to dive back into the shadows, despite the charm and visual appeal.

A visually-dazzling but shallow adventure.

Verdict

SCHiM’s appealing and striking visuals, as well as its imaginative and charming premise, undoubtedly infuse this puzzle-platformer with lots of initial promise—but its repetitive gameplay loop, lack of stronger substance, and missed opportunities to explore its premise and mechanics further make for an ultimately underwhelming experience that never quite hits its stride.

I’m happy to have finally experienced the final product, and I found myself genuinely enjoying many aspects of the title’s beautifully crafted animation and ever-changing color palettes—I just wish there were more substance to complement its style.

6/10 OKAY

The Good

Undeniably unique premise, stylish visuals, and charming atmosphere, all of which work well in pulling you into the unfolding game
Moments of satisfying puzzle-platforming, especially in the more specific and themed levels
Late-game sections feel more narrative-driven and offer a stronger sense of excitement

The Bad

Gameplay loop quickly grows stale and often feels monotonous, causing the game’s short runtime to feel simultaneously overly long
Plot feels loosely-woven, even for an action-platformer
Missed opportunities to further explore and expand on the game’s premise, mechanics, and plot
Optional post-game modifiers lack a more compelling reason to revisit the game once you’re done

Les spent around five hours platforming and finding collectibles in SCHiM on the Nintendo Switch 2.

Maybe not Earth-shattering, but living up to the hype—Hollow Knight: Silksong impressions after playing for 4 hours straight (Spoiler Free)

As I’m in the middle of my playthrough of NORCO—which I’m enjoying a lot so far, but more on that soon—the Hollow Night: Silksong hype train has been barreling at me from pretty much all directions: Steam, Nintendo’s eShop, the PlayStation store, Reddit, and the whole internet itself seem to be either crashing and/or on fire after the near decade-long wait for Silksong finally came to a close early Thursday morning, when the internet was finally allowed to remove their clown makeup and readied themselves to play this mythical, unicorn of a game in the flesh.

After scrolling through Reddit and Twitter, and seeing pretty much universal praise (aside from those who just don’t like Metroidvanias or didn’t enjoy the first game [I totally understand these kinds of games are punishing at times, so they’re not for everyone]), I decided to put everything else on hold (including sleep; yep, it’s 4:00am right now) and dive into Silksong for a modest hour (which became nearly four).

Here are my impressions thus far, as someone who loved 2017’s Hollow Knight and loves Metroidvanias:

**This time around you’ll be playing as Hornet, a skilled, needle-wielding warrior who was introduced in the first Hollow Knight.**

The Good Stuff

The world is drop-dead gorgeous: Beautiful environments, animation, and sound design, which do a fantastic job of pulling you into the unfolding journey. Just like in 2017’s Hollow Knight, the atmosphere is spot on.

Hornet plays as a strong lead; although the game doesn’t provide you with a lot of deep lore or exposition, the story still feels good and comes across as compelling, with Hornet’s chief, simple goal being to simply make her way up through the labyrinthian world. Unlike the previous game’s silent hero, Hornet does provide some Hollow Knight-themed gibberish voice acting here (paired with normal text dialogue), which, to my slight surprise, helps her come across as more three-dimensional and personable. Her character’s animations are also really satisfying; I especially love the way her red dress billows in the wind as you run forward.

The music is very atmospheric and often ethereal, which fits the tone and environment perfectly.

Finding beads and collecting shards (which both serve as currency in this world), as well as discovering hidden rooms, all feel satisfying. Very much a game for those who love to explore and find hidden stuff.

While hit-or-miss (as mentioned below), pulling off the diagonal downward attack does feel pretty slick against specific, traversal-related platforms. The acrobatics in these moments offer great-looking visual flair as well, which plays well into Hornet’s natural athleticism and dancer-like physique.

**Not quite Mordor, but awfully close.**

…The So-So Stuff

So the map isn’t the best (at least so far), but it’s serviceable. Map markers could allow more precise placements (i.e. by allowing the player to zoom into the map more; I’m always dumbfounded when Metroidvanias limit how many markers you can place or how far into the map you can zoom in, though the game does let you purchase more markers a little later on).

Certain areas on the map are left looking “undiscovered” even if you’ve already been there (i.e. corridors/openings that appear as though you haven’t been through them yet, causing you to go back and then realize you’ve already been there… making you look at the map again and annoyingly scratch your head). This can result in occasional confusion and needless backtracking, hurting the game’s pacing.

The downward attack, at least for combat, is almost useless. It hits at a fairly-wide angle and is very fidgety in actually landing on a foe, resulting in needless accidental health damage; the only real use I’ve had for it, at least thus far, is for maneuvering over platforms specifically made to be bounced over (pictured below).

It’ll very likely unlock soon, but the lack of a dash early in the game has made Hornet’s movements just a tad too sluggish (but again, I’m sure the ability is close at hand, since I’ve come across two areas that now require it).

**These little red bulbs require the use of Hornet’s downward attack for traversal, a mechanic that can unfortunately be hit-or-miss.**

Is it Earth-shattering? No, but it’s still damn good.

Hollow Knight: Silksong’s long, long wait has made it seem like this is the game to end all games, due to its near-impossible expectations after constant delays and the promise of something truly special, especially since the first game was such a smash hit.

I loved 2017’s Hollow Knight and love Metroidvanias in general, so I might be a bit overly-familiar with the genre and its mechanics, but while Silksong doesn’t feel like it’s reinventing the wheel or bringing something brand new to the table, at the same time it doesn’t have to—So far, it just feels like a really great game that, while a lot like its predecessor, largely elevates everything to a higher degree.

The fact that I couldn’t put the game down, and very, very reluctantly decided to put my Switch 2 to sleep after nearly four hours straight, is proof, in my eyes, that this is a game that’s worth your time and is easy to lose yourself in.

If you’re on the fence on whether to give it a try, whether you want to wait or aren’t sure if the tough combat is your cup of tea (by the way, combat doesn’t feel excessively punishing either, just take your time with the bosses and/or come back later to a stronger, optional foe), I’d say jump on in and let yourself be absorbed by this beautiful, melancholic labyrinth. (You don’t need to have played the first game either.) For $19.99, it’s a straight-up steal.

Laika: Aged Through Blood Review – Bloody Good Time

In an increasingly competitive and over-saturated genre, it can be difficult, if not impossible, for an indie Metroidvania to truly stand out among the crowd, but Laika: Aged Through Blood very much succeeds in pulling the player into its dystopian world through the eyes of its titular, canine rebel, with the gritty and visceral experience leaving a lasting impression long after the credits roll.

While it does carry some minor frustrations and narrative shortcomings, Laika is the kind of game you can easily lose yourself in, thanks to the story’s formidable protagonist, clever Trials-esque game mechanics, beautifully-crafted, screenshot-worthy world (I have a whole album saved to my PS5, along with a new home screen backdrop), and outstanding original soundtrack that’s great to listen to both in and out of the game (I ended up quickly adding the OST to my Apple Music playlist, and have since turned more and more people onto Beícoli’s wonderfully haunting, melancholic melodies).

**You’ll come across a variety of melancholic tapes throughout your journey, either through natural discovery, scattered gas stations, or after key story events.**

On paper, Laika’s motorbike-themed movements and gameplay—which feel reminiscent of games like Trials—may sound a bit strange within the world of Metroidvanias, where one is used to plodding on foot, jumping, crouching, and sometimes parrying for precise movement and kills. Instead of traveling on foot, outside of a few specific areas—such as your homebase and a few shops scattered across the map—you’ll spend the majority of the game atop your trusty motorbike.

While Laika’s bike mechanics do admittedly take a little while to get used to (I won’t lie: It is very easy to die in this game, be it from a poorly-timed jump, an enemy’s single, errant bullet, or simply face-planting while standing still), those who give it a chance will find themselves quickly adapting to the bike’s movements and satisfying tricks, at which point the road opens itself up to a dazzling journey filled with beautifully-crafted landscapes, such as desolate deserts, floating cities, and steampunk-esque facilities that house the story’s avian villains and their dangerous plans for world domination.

There’s genuinely a lot to like here—those who enjoy Metroidvania-themed sidescrollers and emotionally-charged adventures will most likely find themselves right at home throughout Laika’s 18+ hour journey.

**The most important tool in the game: Your trusty bike.**

The hero’s motorbike is an extension of both herself and the player—it will be your best friend throughout Laika’s journey, and it feels genuinely satisfying to pull off its slick tricks as you navigate perilous obstacles and deadly avian soldiers. Performing a mid-air backflip reloads your gun, a front spin reloads your deflect/parry, and you activate a satisfying mid-drive directional change with the hold of a button (square on PS5), which, in addition to changing the direction you’re facing, deflects an enemy’s bullet, via a satisfying metal *ping* off the bike’s body, right back at them (I’m a sucker for a parry, and really enjoyed Brainwash Gang’s personal spin on this mechanic).

The game offers a small selection of weapons, where you start off with a simple, two-ammo-capacity revolver and eventually unlock more weapons as you make your way through the story, like a shotgun, crossbow, and sniper; while the guns don’t necessarily carry Earth-shattering differences (aside from the shotgun, which helps propel you to harder-to-reach places thanks to its handy knock-back), it’s still satisfying to gradually upgrade them via acquired environmental materials, and the adrenalin of quickly juggling your remaining ammo, while facing perilous obstacles and strategically-placed enemies and their encroaching gunfire, never loses its appeal.

When everything goes right, you feel like Mad Max kicking ass on the open road, and when everything falls apart (which it often will), a quick checkpoint, which is mercifully never far from your last place of death, is there to put you right back in the action to try again.

**The game’s stoic protagonist—Laika—feels like a badass Mad Max-esque gunslinger that you’ll quickly become invested in.**

A lot of what makes or breaks a Metroidvania are its map and settings, and thankfully Laika offers a varied and visually-pleasing environment that urges exploration.

While in the middle of a main mission, I often found myself just hitting the road and exploring new areas, which would result in a sudden change of scenery, be it a junkyard-themed landscape, rusted pipes, or floral treetops. Laika really nails the gratifying itch of discovering new areas, and its fun to hunt down the strategically-placed, mysterious map-holding figure, who grants you a map of each new section for a small fee called “Viscera” (which consists of meaty chunks of your dead enemies that are magnetically pulled to your character), all while lovingly calling you a silly wanker.

Although I genuinely enjoyed almost every area of the map, certain sections do tend to drag a bit and/or feel unnecessarily long or tedious—the boat-themed section, and a later pyramid-themed area, in particular, while still fairly enjoyable, ended up being as some of my least-favorite parts of the game, largely due to a specific harpoon-themed tool that ends up being largely useless in the open world, and excessive backtracking that felt more like forced filler than well-crafted puzzle solving. Thankfully, these kinds of sections are few and far between, and ended up not really detracting from the overall experience.

**You’ll need to get quickly acclimated to constant ramps and navigating various obstacles along the way, which will often take place amidst beautiful scenery.**

For its narrative, you’ll find yourself quickly invested in the plot, where you play as a coyote named Laika—a nihilistic, battle-worn, and bike-toting gunslinger who possesses an ability to resurrect herself from death. At the start of the game you’re tasked in locating a couple of missing denizens from Laika’s small village, which launches an emotional journey where Laika’s daughter, aptly named Puppy, urges you to find her friend’s missing body so as to lay its spirit to rest, all while you attempt to avoid all-out war with the authoritarian bird-themed militia responsible for the merciless killings.

There’s a lot of mysticism and spirituality in play, with Laika possessing the power to resurrect herself after death thanks to her family’s hereditary, blood-based powers, which become a central point to the villain’s motives; this also works as a clever way to incorporate your countless deaths into the story itself. Certain other story elements, like the magical totem poles/bone memorials, which are peppered throughout the map and serve as save points, characters’ discussions regarding life, death, and spirituality, and the often melancholic soundtrack, also greatly add to the distinct feel of the world and the characters that inhabit it.

**These bone memorials—which resemble totem poles—are never far from your last death, ensuring you’ll be back in the action in no time.**

I often found myself getting lost in these spiritual and introspective moments, which, in turn, made me careful not to rush through the story and to allow myself to soak up the game’s surprisingly transcendental undertones, which juxtapose well with the narrative’s often violent key plot points. It’s the kind of game where you find yourself reflecting on your own life, putting yourself in certain characters’ shoes, and attempting to understand the motives behind the more unfavorable individuals in the game’s unforgiving world.

**Laika’s village features an assortment of distinct characters, which help to further immerse the player into the game’s dystopian world.**

Aside from the game’s tricky movement-based mechanics, and instances of minor glitches (I had to reset my game a couple of times due to my character suddenly being frozen in place, and the map not allowing me to move its cursor or teleport to a new area, in addition to a couple of other minor visual and audio glitches), the story’s ending ended up being as one of the weakest points of the game, with its head-scratchingly-easy final boss (compared to the much harder earlier boss fights, one of which took me close to twenty tries to finally defeat), and rushed/somewhat abrupt final cutscene making it feel like Brainwash Gang simply wanted to wrap the story up rather than reach a more satisfying or rewarding sense of closure.

While subjective, since the story did such a great job of pulling me in and making me care for its characters and the world they inhabit, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by how much the final act fumbled in sticking the landing, resulting in a “what could have been” kind of moment as I watched the credits roll. Laika’s lack of NG+ or multiple endings—which is a bit surprising for a Metroidvania-themed game—sadly kills the game’s replayability as well; unless you want to upgrade all your weapons, collect all the music tapes, and complete every side quest (which you’ll likely get close to achieving in your first playthrough anyway, if you take your time like I did), there’s admittedly not a lot of incentive for multiple playthroughs.

Regarding its performance, while I played Laika on a base PS5, where I enjoyed crisp graphics and a 60 FPS experience—in addition to a few minor hiccups, as mentioned before—the Nintendo Switch’s 30 FPS version may prove to be less fluid by comparison, as well as graphically softer around the edges. For a game like this, where timing is everything, I’d recommend choosing a version that hits those sixty frames per second.

Verdict

While Laika: Aged Through Blood does demand a lot from the player, due to the game’s sensitive motorbike-centric mechanics, once you get a firmer grasp on the controls (and the bike’s handlebars), the game immediately rewards you with satisfying gunplay and bike tricks, a likable, badass protagonist, a beautifully-drawn world, and stellar OST, making the price of entry—i.e. a brief amount of patience to get used to the controls—very much worth the journey.

The game’s minor glitches, occasional excessive backtracking, and rushed ending do bog the experience down a bit, but Laika: Aged Through Blood is nonetheless a unique and exciting Metroidvania that sticks in your brain long after you watch the credits roll; a kind of game that oozes artistic inspiration and, in many ways, helps elevate the video game medium.

8/10 GREAT

The Good

Beautifully-crafted and visually-rich world that urges exploration
Three-dimensional-sounding characters that immediately pull you into the narrative
Slick motorbike-themed mechanics that feel well-implemented and satisfying to pull off, at least once you get accustomed to the controls
Satisfying gunplay and a couple of genuinely memorable boss fights
Wonderful OST that serves as a great backdrop to the story and environment as you explore the desolate wasteland

The Bad

The game’s reliance on its squirrely and specific bike-themed mechanics may be a turnoff for some players
A couple of needlessly-heavy backtracking areas feel more like filler than clever puzzle solving
Certain sections and mechanics/tools end up lacking stronger intrigue or usefulness (looking at you, harpoon)
Underwhelming and abrupt conclusion to an otherwise immersive and captivating story

Les clocked in close to 30 hours during his time with Laika: Aged Through Blood on PS5, where he completed nearly every side quest and acquired nearly every collectible throughout his blood-soaked journey.