Duskfade

I went into Duskfade half-expecting a nostalgia cash-in and came out the other side genuinely impressed. Weird Beluga, the small Spanish studio behind Clid the Snail, has put together a 3D action-platformer that doesn't just reference the Jak and Daxter / Ratchet and Clank / Kingdom Hearts era - it actually understands why those games worked. The movement is the proof: Zirian starts with a double jump and dodge roll that together already feel responsive and satisfying, and the kit expands meaningfully as you progress. A grappling hook styled after grandfather-clock weight shells shows up mid-game, gliding wings arrive later, and the level design keeps pace with each unlock, threading secrets and hidden chests through areas in ways that reward going back. The clockpunk aesthetic is doing serious lifting here. The world runs on ticking motifs, rusted gears, and surreal clockwork architecture that ties the visual style directly to the story's central idea: time has stopped, a mysterious tower is responsible, and Zirian's sword - Minutero - is literally shaped like a clock hand. That kind of thematic consistency is rare in any game, let alone an indie one. Boss fights lean into it too, with each major encounter designed around whichever traversal ability you most recently unlocked - so the grapple fight genuinely tests your grapple skills rather than just asking you to wail on a health bar. The roughly 17-hour campaign takes you through ethereal forests, underwater realms, sunlit dunes, and elevated cloudy zones, each with their own visual identity. The weak spots are real, though, and worth naming. Combat is the thinnest part of the package. There are counters and perfect-dodge mechanics in the system, but straightforward dodge-and-attack will carry you through most standard encounters without any pressure to use the deeper toolkit. Some critics have also flagged repetitive level structure in the back half and collectibles that don't quite justify the detours needed to grab them. The story's writing leans young - the banter between Zirian and his mechanical cuckoo-bird companion, Cuckoo, is charming enough that most players will warm to it eventually, but the opening hours move slowly and the narrative never quite escalates to match the quality of the world it's set in. Where this lands for you depends almost entirely on what you want from a 3D platformer. If movement, world exploration, and boss design are your metrics, Duskfade scores consistently well across all three. If you need combat with genuine depth and collectibles that feel rewarding to chase, the gaps will chafe. The Steam community is sitting at 92% positive early on, and the Metacritic consensus across critics lands around a 79 - both pointing at a game that's good without being flawless, which is an honest read. Weird Beluga has made something that earns its inspirations rather than just borrowing their logos.

Alex · Scout Team

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