It's a little janky, but it's grown on me.

There are some mechanics introduced in the later levels that are just kind of unfair (like some fairies that trigger random controller inputs) but for the *most* part it stays in challenging-but-fair territory.

Main character started out fun but she kinda started to grate on me by the end of the game. Your mileage may vary. (Thankfully from your second run onward there's no dialogue to interrupt you)

EDIT: I'm coming back to this review after spending like another dozen or so hours speedrunning this game.

I'm not, like, a BIG speedrunner but I do enjoy doing speedruns from time to time. The problem I have with most games, though, is that at one end of the spectrum you've got the "Rehearse an optimal run" speedrun games, like Mario and Celeste, and then on the other end of the spectrum you've got the "Try over and over again and hope for perfect RNG" speedrun games like Minecraft and Spelunky. And I just don't really have the patience for either end of the spectrum.

We Are Eva really manages to hit that sweet spot between the two extremes. There's mutators on every single level, but they're not *totally* random. When you start playing and replaying the game you'll get familiar scenes, you'll get used to knowing some good routes, but there's just enough that changes between runs that you've got to do analysis and reaction in real-time, too.

The end result is a game that lights up all of the same parts of my brain that have fun speed-solving a Rubik's Cube.

Also I just want to give a nod to how responsive the developers are. I brought up an issue with one of their recent patches and they had a fix within less than 24 hours. Bravo!

It's a little janky, but it's grown on me. There are some mechanics introduced in the later levels that are just kind of unfair (like some fairies that trigger random controller inputs) but for the *most* part it stays in challenging-but-fair territory. Main character started out fun but she kinda started to grate on me by the end of the game. Your mileage may vary. (Thankfully from your second run onward there's no dialogue to interrupt you) EDIT: I'm coming back to this review after spending like another dozen or so hours speedrunning this game. I'm not, like, a BIG speedrunner but I do enjoy doing speedruns from time to time. The problem I have with most games, though, is that at one end of the spectrum you've got the "Rehearse an optimal run" speedrun games, like Mario and Celeste, and then on the other end of the spectrum you've got the "Try over and over again and hope for perfect RNG" speedrun games like Minecraft and Spelunky. And I just don't really have the patience for either end of the spectrum. We Are Eva really manages to hit that sweet spot between the two extremes. There's mutators on every single level, but they're not *totally* random. When you start playing and replaying the game you'll get familiar scenes, you'll get used to knowing some good routes, but there's just enough that changes between runs that you've got to do analysis and reaction in real-time, too. The end result is a game that lights up all of the same parts of my brain that have fun speed-solving a Rubik's Cube. Also I just want to give a nod to how responsive the developers are. I brought up an issue with one of their recent patches and they had a fix within less than 24 hours. Bravo!