GRIME II

While GRIME 2 could play it safe and be a carbon copy of its predecessor, it decides to employ the very mechanic it puts forth, borrowing, but also building. Creating an experience you cannot miss.

89%Game Brain Score

gameplay, story

stability, optimization

92% User Score Based on 647 reviews

Critic Score 85%Based on 5 reviews

Platforms

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About GRIME II

GRIME II is a single player role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Clover Bite and was released on March 31, 2026. It received positive reviews from critics and very positive reviews from players.

Become a stealer of forms in GRIME II, the sequel to 2021's acclaimed action-adventure metroidvania. You are a Formless - an art mimic, absorbing creatures and summoning molds in their shape. Venture into a new and mysterious land in the GRIME universe, where danger and wonder await around every corner. Use your surroundings in tandem with your summoned molds to overcome deadly enemies and epic b…

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Reviews

92%Audience ScoreBased on 647 reviews

gameplay61 positive mentions

stability36 negative mentions

Stunning and unique art style with beautifully detailed and diverse environments.
Satisfying, fluid, and deep combat system with build variety, parry mechanics, and engaging boss fights.
Extensive map design with rewarding exploration, solid platforming that adds challenge and fun, with good progression mechanics.

The large map design leads to frustrating backtracking, numerous one-way paths, and confusing navigation.
Platforming sections can become tedious, overly long, or clunky with inconsistent controls and camera issues.
Some technical issues persist such as bugs, visual glitches, inconsistent hitboxes, performance drops, and occasional softlocks.

gameplay
198 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31% positive mentions, 65% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
Grime 2 offers a rich and inventive metroidvania gameplay experience that builds substantially on the original, with fluid combat, challenging platforming, and a wide array of new mechanics that emphasize creativity and mastery. While many praise its polished, satisfying combat—especially the parry system—and engaging boss encounters, some find the abundant mechanics overwhelming or poorly integrated, and platforming occasionally frustrating. Overall, the gameplay is praised for its depth, smoothness, and variety, though technical issues and pacing detract for some players.
- “Gameplay-wise, both games are incredible, with Grime 2 offering a change of pace through its movement - no double jump, yet movement and platforming feel appropriately difficult and expansive.”
- “Many encounters require interacting with the environment or chaining together multiple mechanics in quick succession. These fights are mechanically creative, visually spectacular, and fully utilize the game’s unique systems.”
- “Grime 2 follows in the footsteps of its predecessor mechanically, structurally and narratively and manages to improve all of these aspects by either adding to them or reworking them.”
- “Dialogue is frequent, intrusive, and rarely meaningful to either the gameplay or story.”
- “The combat feels very over bloated with several unique combat mechanics that don't work together and leave you feeling like you are misplaying by ignoring them; the parry feels bad as enemies have insanely weird attack patterns that are hard to read and you have a very short parry window; the normal attacks feel slow and sluggish; the summons feel useless, unfun and actively detrimental as they stick you in place; the pull into enemy does close to nothing besides refill a heal.”
- “The farther in you get the more the bosses just get annoying and extremely heavy on one-shot mechanics that have nothing to do with your build or gear or anything else and are all about gotcha-mechanics that you have no choice but to repetitiously do and memorize because there is no time to learn them or react; you just know what it is right away and do it or die; also the attacks seem randomized, so you may not get an attack even one single time early in a fight that would help telegraph what to do farther in.”
story
132 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25% positive mentions, 73% neutral mentions, 2% negative mentions
The story in this game is generally praised for its intriguing, mysterious, and atmospheric qualities, with improved accessibility and more dialogue compared to its predecessor. However, some players find it overly abstract, occasionally vague, and less emotionally complex or satisfying than the first game, with a few pacing and narrative cohesion issues. Overall, the story appeals primarily to those who enjoy environmental storytelling and lore-rich worlds, while others may find it secondary or less impactful.
- “I could not ask for a better continuation of grime, the music that made the first game so special was improved, the fighting made you actually use every system in a meaningful way, the map felt easier to explore, and the bosses each felt unique and special, while incorporating it into an incredible story with interesting characters.”
- “The environments and soundtrack are stunning, the combat flows even better than before with expanded mechanics, the platforming movement is so fluid as it builds up, the story is far more involved, the worldbuilding is expanded upon, and all in all it's just a wonderful game.”
- “The story is a mix of character driven narrative and environmental storytelling which intertwine very successfully along the experience.”
- “Dialogue is frequent, intrusive, and rarely meaningful to either the gameplay or story.”
- “In a story already filled with abstract concepts and vague lore, unclear phrasing makes following the narrative more difficult than it needs to be.”
- “Ultimately, I honestly found it pretty unsatisfying given all the gameplay foibles, fussy mechanics and bosses that turn into QTEs more than build/combat style, and the story falling flat pretty hard for me with too many illusory choices and options that aren't options combined with a not very well thought out narrative.”
music
105 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
66% positive mentions, 31% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions
The music in the game, composed by Alex Roe, is widely praised for its beauty, atmospheric fit, and emotional depth, often enhancing the game's eerie and surreal world. Reviewers highlight the soundtrack as a standout feature that complements exploration, combat, and narrative, with memorable boss themes and ambient tracks that many add to their personal playlists. Overall, the soundtrack is considered an exceptional and integral part of the game's immersive experience.
- “The soundtrack Alex Roe, you are an absolute genius. The entire soundtrack of Grime II has been such a pleasure to listen to, and the boss tracks are absolute bangers!”
- “Alex Roe has done it again with the sequel by composing a soundtrack that not only fits the game narratively but also stays with you for days.”
- “Some music tracks are genuinely beautiful and fit the atmosphere really well.”
- “I also started running into more bugs farther in - insta-kill spikes that didn't load, chunks of a wall missing (that made it look like it had a dash-into-the-hole secret), the music in one of the later areas just stopped playing and left it dead silent.”
- “Some of these bosses took me 1-2 hours, usually requiring me to turn off the music and ambience, focusing on sfxs and the cues they brought.”
- “These are things like mantling not properly working on certain corners, missing descriptions or typos and music ceasing to play.”
graphics
83 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52% positive mentions, 44% neutral mentions, 4% negative mentions
The game's graphics receive widespread praise for their stunning, unique, and immersive 2.5D art style that blends grotesque and alien aesthetics with detailed environments and well-designed characters. While the visuals significantly enhance the atmosphere and world-building, some players note occasional optimization issues, such as stuttering and graphic glitches on certain hardware, which may require lowering settings for smoother performance. Overall, the graphics are considered a standout feature that sets a high bar for visual design in metroidvania games.
- “The artstyle is as beautiful and grotesque as ever with the added benefit of more varied environments (reef is a definite standout, but there are many, many stunning locations).”
- “The game mixes challenging fights, exploration, and a very unique art style that makes the whole world feel alive, unsettling, and fascinating at the same time.”
- “Even a lack of polish couldn't stop me from loving almost every second of this game, such a wonderfully constructed world with beautiful visuals, great music, and some really awesome build variety, exploration, and combat to complement it all, do yourself a favor and play this one, it's amazing.”
- “Grime II runs pretty well on my Lenovo Legion S handheld—but only after I significantly reduced the graphics quality.”
- “With high texture and shadow quality, the device struggles and the graphics stutter.”
- “While the game retains the novel aesthetic of the first, it hasn't been nearly refined enough, such that often something that should look uncanny often just looks like an unbaked asset got dropped into the world.”
stability
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Grime 2 experiences frequent minor to moderate bugs, including platforming glitches, buggy controls, and occasional crashes, particularly worsening in later stages. While these issues can cause frustration and hinder smooth gameplay, the developers are actively addressing them with ongoing patches, and most problems are not game-breaking. Despite stability concerns, many players still find the overall experience enjoyable and anticipate improvements over time.
- “Just like the first Grime on release, this game is also buggy as hell right now. I encountered a bug where a story boss's HP bar disappeared and the boss died without me doing anything when I entered the arena; another story boss's second phase's HP bar wasn't visible the whole time, so I had no idea if I was actually damaging it before I died. The bosses themselves aren't really challenging enough; you die to bugs or unresponsive controls much more than your own skill issues. One boss is basically a cinematic experience where you watch the boss do stuff and react occasionally.”
- “There are pretty obvious optimization issues in the late game sections: frame dropping, stuttering, and graphic glitches become constant, although the early to mid game has little to none. Controls become so clunky that during long platforming sections you might have to start over because your character refuses to grapple, slide, or jump at certain points. Enemies (not bosses) become damage sponges and many have strange or missing startup animations, making it difficult to react properly. The game lacks recovery invulnerability frames, so taking damage often leads to death due to follow-up hits, which makes the game unnecessarily frustrating and unfair compared to other similar games.”
- “[Spoiler] This game is buggy as hell, especially after the last sculptor boss. Whenever I press the jump button, my character stands still for at least a second before actually jumping. I tried a new controller and restarting my PC but the problem persisted. After beating the boss, platforming becomes insufferable: the grapple slide is very unresponsive, sometimes sliding normally and other times failing to grapple properly even when right next to a grapple point. These many buggy annoyances make it hard to recommend the game before a massive patch or a definitive version is released.”
atmosphere
28 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54% positive mentions, 35% neutral mentions, 11% negative mentions
The "atmosphere" across the Grime series is widely praised for its bleak, moody, and immersive qualities, enhanced by unique art direction, cryptic storytelling, and a fitting soundtrack. While the original Grime is celebrated for its cohesive and compelling atmosphere, some find the sequel’s atmosphere less focused due to intrusive writing and mixed artistic direction, though it still delivers a strong, dark, and engaging experience. Overall, the atmosphere remains a standout element that deeply draws players into the game's world.
- “The first Grime stood out for its bleak atmosphere, subtle worldbuilding, and mysterious tone.”
- “Combined with the art direction, which remains one of the most visually unique styles in gaming, the atmosphere is incredible.”
- “A moody, atmospheric masterpiece.”
- “Ultimately, Grime II delivers strong gameplay and memorable boss encounters, but its unfocused artistic direction and overly intrusive writing prevent it from matching the atmosphere and cohesion that made the original memorable.”
- “For me, that clashes with the world and atmosphere and the experience as a whole.”
- “Overall I preferred the atmosphere of Grime 1 more, but this game's art design is still gorgeous.”
optimization
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15% positive mentions, 63% neutral mentions, 22% negative mentions
Optimization for the game is mixed, with many players reporting performance issues such as stuttering, frame drops, and occasional lag, especially in later areas and during complex platforming sections. While some minor bugs and glitches have been patched, the game still struggles to maintain consistent high frame rates even on mid-tier PCs, indicating room for better CPU and overall optimization. However, a few users experience smooth gameplay and find performance acceptable when lowering settings.
- “The only issues I had were performance related and minor bugs, and those all have been patched out pretty quickly.”
- “But if you turn the quality down, it runs smoothly—and still looks damn good.”
- “I have what I consider a mid-tier PC, but the performance on this game is incredible, and graphically it's stunning, I've had zero bugs thus far.”
- “So while at its core Grime 2 is a great game, it is severely lacking in polish and plagued by performance issues that the first one did not have at launch from what I can recall.”
- “It gets progressively jankier as you discover new zones; there are inexplicable performance hitches that exceed the hitches of the first game in frequency and severity.”
- “Edit: forgot to mention that this game has some pretty obvious optimization issues in the late game sections. Frame-dropping and stuttering and graphic glitches become constant even though in the early to middle game there's little to none; controls become so clunky that during long platforming sections you can just straight up have to start over because your character simply refuses to grapple/slide/jump at a certain point.”
grinding
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 94% negative mentions
Grinding in Grime 2 is widely described as tedious and frustrating due to poor platforming mechanics, confusing map design, and frequent backtracking. While some players found occasional improvements from developer updates, the overall experience often feels more like a chore than enjoyable exploration. However, a few noted that grinding provided useful healing benefits, slightly alleviating the monotony.
- “There were genuinely moments that felt like the idea of 'fun' was sacrificed for 'how can we make this as obnoxious or tedious as possible.'”
- “Literally every inch of the game has some incredibly tedious, frustrating, unfun aspect to it that just adds up the more you play.”
- “The majority of the game just feels tedious.”
humor
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The humor in the game is appreciated for its hilarious dialogues and light-hearted glitches that often provoke chuckles. It blends humor with tragedy and emotional depth, contributing to an engaging and quirky world that keeps players invested.
- “Hilarious dialogs.”
- “There are still some funny (very small!) glitches here and there, but they made me chuckle more than anything.”
- “The world is just as weird as the first game with a smidge of humor this time, and I'm invested in learning about it.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game's emotional impact is strong, offering a poignant and nuanced narrative that explores deep themes like creativity and obsession. While the story may feel slightly less complex than its predecessor, it effectively evokes feelings of despair and determination, making players feel lost yet deeply engaged. The blend of compelling interactions and challenging encounters creates a moving and immersive emotional experience.
- “The game’s narrative is incredibly poignant, nuanced, and moving, touching upon themes of artistic integrity, creativity, censorship, obsession, and the feeling of nothing ever being enough. These topics are explored through interactions with the world’s numerous residents as well as observation of the environments themselves.”
- “More impressed that this game made me feel lost like the first one did, after some expectations of what to expect.”
- “In summary: even though its story feels a bit less emotionally complex than the first game, everything else is a step above.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The character development in the game is praised for its strong design and integration with immersive worldbuilding, continuing the strengths of the original. Players appreciate the detailed character design that complements the game's atmosphere and lore.
- “The devs still excelled at what they did best with 1: the world and atmosphere, lore, character design, and music.”
- “I like the game's worldbuilding and character design.”
- “Everything I loved about Grime (challenging combat, stunning visuals, cool character design, and satisfying movement to name a few) is stepped up in Grime II.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game offers a variety of build options and approaches that enhance replayability compared to its predecessor, though its smaller size somewhat limits the overall experience.
- “Unlike the first game, this game leaves you with many options for builds and approaches, creating enough differences to make the game replayable, despite some limitations in size.”