Blasphemous: Deluxe Edition

Blasphemous is an eery Metroidvania with gorgeous animations and combat that's just a tad too one-dimensional.

Blasphemous is an exciting dark-fantasy adventure with religious undertones, yet it struggles to maintain its poise throughout.

A tough, well-wrought action-platformer distinguished by some toe-curling portrayals of sin.

Lack of depth and variety, and some platforming missteps, stain an otherwise great, oppressive experience.

Blasphemous is unforgiving, brutal, and at times, unfair. Beneath the drudgery is a compelling and dark tale waiting to be uncovered. If you are willing to endure its frustrations, you’ll be rewarded with grim and spectacular visuals that’ll be forever burned into your mind, and an equally twisted story to match them.

I can't get Blasphemous off my mind. I may never fully grasp the opaque story even with the inevitable community-led theories and explainers lending a hand, but that's okay. Even taken as a fanatical fever-dream, this game delivers. Some aspects aren't as fine-tuned or ambitious as they could've been, leading to unevenness, but there's so much for metroidvania fans to latch onto here.

If you’re skilled, you can speed through in a little over ten hours, though exploring every nook and cranny of the map and finding all of the collectables can take upwards of double that, especially considering there are two endings to experience. At any rate, Blasphemous is torturously fun, and one of the best the genre has to offer.

Blasphemous is a beautifully crafted Soulslike/Metroidvania action game set in a delightfully unhinged, deliriously gory world filled with well-designed enemies, satisfyingly meaty combat and some truly memorable and grotesque boss battles.

Blasphemous is a fantastic souls-like Metroidvania, featuring an exceptional aesthetic design that adds to what is one of the most macabre worlds in gaming today. In addition to this, outstanding combat and a range of interesting enemies, bosses and more - supported by some great level design (with some issues in navigation), this is a game that I can do nothing but recommend to anybody and everybody. It's difficult, challenging and most of all, fun.

Praise be to Blasphemous, for it's an impressive game that has truly joined together the peanut-butter-and-chocolate-style union that is souls-likes and metroidvania games.