Not to step back earlier in the thread, but I can’t take many of these reviews too seriously. It’s one thing to dislike linearity, fair enough, but to compare it to a post-1997 Castleroid under the dubious auspice of exploration being a series staple—while at the same time taking into consideration this is a reboot—is somewhat puzzling and contradictory.
“Metroidvania this is not,” wrote IGN. No, indeed. I can see their point because the Castleroids are brilliant and a fully realised 3D one could be something else. But, why expect it? An objective reviewer would take the “reboot” for what it was, accept it, and simply evaluate it.
I’ll have to go with CVG here and their re-imagining of a 16-bit classic, sounds much more reasonable. If only, because they’ve played the old stuff and can draw a proper parallel.
There do seem to be framerate issues, but Darksiders suffered the same. Was a gem of a game.