Grime

GRIME is a 2021 Metroidvania developed by the Israeli independent studio Clover Bite and published by Akupara Games, released August 2, 2021 for PC and Google Stadia, with PlayStation and Xbox versions following in 2022 and a Nintendo Switch Definitive Edition arriving in January 2024. It holds an OpenCritic score of 81 (“Strong”) with 78% of critics recommending it — strong enough that it built a genuine cult following, even though it never broke through to the mainstream recognition some of its Metroidvania peers received.

Worth clearing up immediately: this is not related to the UK music genre of the same name — a distinction that matters practically, since a search for “Grime” returns dictionary definitions and music history about as often as it returns the game itself.

Technical Specifications

An Israeli Indie Studio’s Body Horror World

Clover Bite built GRIME as its first major release, developing a distinct anatomical, cosmic-horror aesthetic largely from scratch — a world built from living rock, flesh, and half-formed bodies rather than the stone castles or organic caverns the Metroidvania genre usually defaults to. Akupara Games, an indie-focused publisher, backed the project through its original 2021 launch and stayed involved through several years of substantial post-launch support that followed.

A Vessel With a Black Hole for a Head

Players control a humanoid vessel — never given a proper name — whose head is a literal black hole, wandering a surreal, anatomical world governed by an ongoing cycle of creation and destruction. Rather than simply defeating the strange creatures inhabiting this world, the vessel consumes their essence directly, absorbing abilities and traits from what it kills as a core part of both combat and progression, tying the game’s central metaphor directly into how players actually get stronger.

The Absorb System

GRIME’s signature mechanic, Absorb, replaces the traditional block-and-dodge toolkit most Soulslikes rely on with precise, parry-timing-based counters: successfully absorbing an incoming attack heals the player and builds resources rather than simply avoiding damage. It’s a distinctive, high-risk approach to defense that critics generally praised as a genuinely different spin on Souls-derived combat — though it proved divisive among players over time. A recurring criticism in user reviews was that once the Absorb timing clicks for a given player, it can make major encounters feel closer to a rhythm-timing puzzle than a fight, and the vessel’s deliberately heavy, weighty movement drew some frustration for clashing with the split-second precision the parry system demands.

Three Years of Free Content

Clover Bite committed to GRIME well beyond its original release, shipping three major free content updates over the following three years: Colors of Rot (2022) added a new area called the Childbed along with additional bosses; Tinge of Terror (2023) introduced a substantially reworked New Game Plus mode with modified enemy behavior; and Parting Shade (2024) served as a final content update before the studio’s attention shifted fully to its sequel. It’s a support cycle genre fans have compared favorably to Dead Cells‘ own reputation for sustained free post-launch content.

A Quietly Overlooked Cult Favorite

Despite strong critical reception, GRIME never achieved the same level of mainstream visibility as contemporaries like Hollow Knight — a gap pronounced enough that it’s become its own recurring topic of discussion on Metroidvania-focused communities, with threads specifically asking why the game isn’t more widely considered among the genre’s best. Its reputation has grown steadily through word of mouth in the years since rather than through any single breakout moment.

Reception

Critics were largely positive: reviewers praised GRIME’s alien, unsettling art direction, weapon variety, and the ambition of its Absorb-based combat, with NME’s review memorably describing the game as “hideous, tortured and impossibly moreish.” The Switch Definitive Edition, however, drew a notably harsher response than every other platform — reviewers reported stuttering, frame drops, screen tearing, and missing textures severe enough that several outlets explicitly recommended playing the game anywhere else if given the choice, a disappointing footnote to what critics otherwise agreed was a genuinely accomplished game.

GRIME II

Clover Bite’s sequel, GRIME II, released March 31, 2026 for PC and consoles, published by Kwalee rather than Akupara. It swaps the original’s black-hole vessel for a new protagonist known as the Formless, replacing the Absorb mechanic with an ability to mimic and summon “molds” of defeated enemies, in a new region of the same GRIME universe. Early reviews have been strongly positive, with Metacritic’s review roundup generally describing it as a direct improvement over the original in nearly every respect, while carrying forward the same distinctive visual identity that built the first game’s cult following.

Where to Play It Today

GRIME is available on Steam, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Given the Switch version’s documented performance issues, players with a choice of platform are generally better served picking up the game on PC or a current-generation console instead.