I'm very hesitant about this game. Whilst I feel like it invokes that survival game charm in a particularly good way that most others seem to fail at, at the same time it feels rather soulless in it's presentation. The company itself is pretty weird, with evidence that it may have used AI to create it's Pals, the CEO saying he doesn't care for making original games, but rather ones that follow trends, and their history of discontinuing Early Access games fairly early on, it certainly gives me a lot of reasons not to support them. That being said, as mentioned before, the core game here is actually quite fun, and there is no concrete proof that these Pals were AI generated, merely (pretty credible) suspicions.

I see mad potential for this game. This is the most fun I've had with a game since Fortnite first came out, which for you simpletons, is a long time. I'm currently nearing 100 hours and still haven't gotten bored and am discovering new things every time I play, even while watching content like a hawk on the game as well. Anything I could really pick out as complaints from the game are either nitpicks due to it being a new release, or balancing issues, again due to it being a new release. So far Embark has been fantastic with communication, and it really does seem like they care about the game. I have high hopes for it and really want to see it succeed, because in my eyes it's near perfection. The destructibility is crumbly enough to be believable but at the same time the pieces are connected enough to make it fun instead of everything just disintegrating as the game goes on, and having an entire building fall on top of you mid-gunfight is still an experience I don't think can be replicated by anything else. Speaking of gunfights, in my opinion they really nailed it. The recoil on most guns isn't terrible (besides the M60), the TTK is perfect (which a lot of recent releases have definitely failed at doing), and the environment lends itself perfectly to these situations. I honestly could go on and on and on, but as I'm in class whilst typing this, I don't think I necessarily have the time lol.
Edit: DONT FORGET THE MOVEMENT OH MY THE MOVEMENT IS SO BUTTERY SMOOTH AND BEAUTIFUL IN THIS GAME I LOVE IT SO MUCH LIKE HOW DID THEY MAKE IT FUN TO JUST GO ACROSS THE MAP WTF

I'll definitely have to come back sometime soon to write up an in-depth review, but as of now, I just beat the story, and I can confidently say this is the best game I have ever played. The story is cute, weaves beautifully into the gameplay, is incredibly memorable as well as being easy to understand. The gameplay itself is utterly perfect. This game taught me my hand eye coordination when it comes to dashes is TERRIBLE lmao. The music, OH THE MUSIC. CHEF'S KISS BEAUTIFUL. I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH. Whenever I would put this game on, I had to turn off whatever video I was watching or whatever I was listening to on Spotify, because the sound design has just such a way of getting you immersed, it is absolutely magical. It's honestly so easy to fall into this game and not come out for a long while, and the only reason I didn't beat this in one or two days was because I always was playing right before going to sleep. Some people don't like the artstyle but personally I think it's extremely artistically pleasing. The only problem I had was sometimes I didn't notice some foreground platforms, or had some trouble distinguishing background and foreground elements, but then again I tend to tunnel vision SUPER hard when I play games, so frankly I would just chalk it up to that. I'm really thinking and the only complaint I could possibly give is that Theo is pretty cringe most of the time, but I was perfectly able to cope with it, it's not like it took me out of the moment while playing. I'm just thinking back to those intense sequences (which i will not specify for the sake of spoilers) where I was zooming through sections first try, not even knowing how I was doing what I was doing, and feeling like an absolute god. Madeline's movement is SSS+ Platinum Rank exceptional feeling and I absolutely love it, which is amazing and I'm so happy they were able to nail that. Something as simple as how your character controls can easily change the feeling of a game like this from something engaging and rewarding, to frustrating and unfair feeling, and I am extremely happy to report that this lands in the former's territory. Overall, this is gaming excellence, and I wouldn't change a single thing about Celeste. It's beautiful and heartwarming every single step of the way.