Really fell in love with this game far more than I was expecting to. It has an amazing atmosphere and gorgeous colour palette, lots of dim blues and greens, beautifully lit. I loved how much freedom it gives you to explore, how it buries away secrets and encourages you to find them. There’s a great balance between how cute and funny the characters can be, and how dark and dangerous the setting and plot is. Straight away I fell in love with the Knight, the grubs, Hornet, Greenpath and the City of Tears, and knew I wanted to see more.

The soundtrack took me by surprise with how beautiful and melancholic it is. It adds to the atmosphere and adds to the identity of each area. There’s a great mix of areas that feel like the heart of civilisation, to wilder gardens and further reaches, to others feeling very mysterious and dangerous. The controls also feel superb too. The jumps, dashes, wall climbing, pogo-ing with your nail, it’s all introduced very well until the point it became second nature. It has a bug-like springiness to it, giving you both a sense of overcoming great odds, but also feeling a growing sense of power and expertise in your own character and abilities. I was also impressed by the upgrade charms, which all felt distinct, worthwhile, and fun to experiment with.

This game is BIG, especially if you delve into the optional stuff, which I did after I beat the story. I’ve still got some to do, which I’ll pick up as and when I feel like it. But I’ve done a lot of it and have beaten the Radiance, which felt like a good cut off point. I’m sad that there’s not really much more for me to discover, as that aspect of the game is second to none, but it’s still a lot of fun to jump into and try to beat a challenge. Really I just want to keep playing it, and like many people I will now be waiting eagerly for Silksong to arrive. No pressure!