[Don't] Let Go (2025)

[Don't] Let Go is a 3D puzzle platformer. The game has an amazing, From Soft-esque atmosphere and art. However, the platforming is a bit janky and the combat is even janky-er. Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed what I played especially for the low price of free and the fact that this was a student project; I'd say the team and the people on it, show quite the potential.

The strongest compliment I have for the game is the cool design aesthetic for the model of the main character. On the gameplay side however, the platforming and climbing feel half done. I suppose the devs had an idea that it could be used for a reference point and proof of concept for future projects.

Sooo, this game is janky if played on keyboard (I didn't play on gamepad so idk is it any better). The camera is.. very uncomfortable. [b] Especially [/b] in tight spaces, where it becomes nearly uncontrollable, or when it becomes fixed BUT DOESN'T ALIGN WITH LEVEL so if you will go just left you will fall. Animations are not very good as well, combat is strange, climbing is just bad. BUT this game is still fun! some puzzles are interesting, the reuse of some locations really helps the immersion, and if you accept the issues the platforming and combat may become fun as well. My favorite part of the game was trying to figure out how to get achievements and finding skips/speedrun tactics/bugs. Overall, I really liked this game, and I do recommend you to play it if you can tolerate the flaws and like this genre! 7/10

[Don’t] Let Go is a pretty good game. It’s clearly made by junior game developers, and a lot of hard work and passion went into it. Although I can agree with some of a negative comments this game has, I feel like it’s unfair to compare this game to other professional games with funding and large development teams. I love the art and modules in the game, and I can see the vision. It also isn’t a super long game. My first playthrough took me about 2.5 hours to beat, but am able to consistently beat it under an hour now. I liked some of the achievements the game has. The achievements force you to “replay” the game, but some achievements can be done just by reloading a save file and doing whatever that specific achievements needs you to do. It took me just over 6 hours to 100% the game, and to me, that’s not to bad, I have poured more hours into games I hate for the sake of completing them. The climbing and physics can be annoying at times, but from personal experience, I have played more annoying games before. Overall, I’d recommend at least trying the game. Even if you dislike the gameplay, the art in the game is lovely.

Feels a little mean to be leaving a negative review for a free student project, but the experience of playing it was so frustrating that I cant recommend it. Positives were that it generally looks pretty good, and while the animation and rigging is janky, the character is cute enough that it's a little charming. Also, little things like just picking a better font would have gone a long way. Unfortunately, the level design just sucked really really hard. It's still unclear to me whether standing on the cube for platforming is an intended mechanic on account of the grab-ledges being absolutely everywhere. I thought that jumping on the cube was pretty fun, so it was wild that it was replaced with pressing a single direction at every given opportunity. Puzzles were repetitive and didn't really make good use of the cube. Combat was clunky to a comical degree. Why were they all in a conga line every single time. I did enjoy the occasional forced camera angle giving it a little bit of cinematic flair, even if it sometimes messed with gameplay. Also, had a rope-related bug that required restarting game. Once again, it was extremely impressive for a student project, just not something I c…

cube is friend cube is forever.