The first metroidvania I ever played. A great begginer friendly metroidvania is best way to describe Strider 2014. I remember the days of being a PS4 early adopter and recalling how barebones the releases on it felt back then or just how easy it was to whine about the new releases of 2014 before knowing what a backlog even was. I was feeling nostalgic(weird saying that, I know) and decided to just boot this game up again on PS5 for a quick trip down memory lane since it's a short game and it held up for the most part.
The way this reboot of Strider starts I can't help but love it in how straight to the point it is. No exposition dump, no cutscene or any quick rundown on the story, you are already in the middle of the action when you select your difficulty.
Controls take a little getting used to since it requires the analog stick to move but right away, Strider 2014 has a feel about it that feels unique back then and didn't feel again until playing Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. The way you go around levels has you quickly mowing down enemies with constant slashes with quick succession. You are constantly on the move mowing things down.
There's bigger robots to fight but you'll be sliding through them and then slashing them to take them down. A criticism to make is that the collision detection for the slide doesn't always work and it could get interrupted by the bigger robots.
Another criticism to make is that if you don't strike first or poorly time a charge attack it's easy to have your health drained very fast. The developers are aware of this since on normal there's health packs, save points and checkpoints litered everywhere.
Also bizarre is that while for the most part the bosses aren't too hard, both fights against Solo are very challenging and can beat me down multiple times. The first fight against him can feel like a huge difficulty spike. After his second fight is over the game never gets hard again until the freeze grenade gets introduced and there's a later game elevator climb where two mechs on each side hits you with freeze grenades and can stunlock you and can lead to a game over. The last one was easily the most frustrating part of the game. You'll need to get explosive kunai for this.
Some of the movement while climbing walls can be awkwardly unresponsive at times and it can get frustrating when there's flying enemies hurting you. The low gravity sections can also get a little disorienting too.
After all that criticizing, it sounds like I might not like the game that much but I still do. One great advantage the game has is quick and rapid fire the pacing can be. Outside of the Solo and late game elevator battles, everything goes by very quickly.
Remember how I said, it's a great begginner friendly metroidvania? This is what I mean. The map tells you were to go, there's constant save stations and checkpoints, there's health packs everywhere. If you want a quick and digestible metroidvania to play to get into the genre that doesn't take too long, this game is it. Bosses besides Solo can go down very quickly especially when timing in slashes and the phoenix attack to major damage.
It's brevity and accomadating nature is Strider 2014's greatest strength. Nothing in this game lasts overly long enough to the point it gets utterly grating minus the freeze grenade mecha elevator fight I mentioned.
You kill enemies, get upgrades, fight bosses in a rather quick and no nonsense package. You don't need to invest that much time into it to get to the end nor does it waste your time.
I was surprised to see Strider talk instead of being a generic silent protagonist. He's not super in depth but I like how stoic and to the point he can be.
Art direction can be rather striking and the music is great too. I'm amazed how I still remember the songs to this game 12 years after I originally beat it.
Overall, that's Strider 2014, it's worth checking out as a fast paced and concise metroidvania and was a solid trip down memory lane.
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