The only positive thing I can say about my experience is I'm glad it was part of PS Plus and I didn't have to pay for it, I'd feel cheated.
I heard before that it was hard and I was ok with not going for 100% like I did with the previous games and sure enough, trying to get all boxes/gems etc. was quite brutal and I gave up early on that. Unfortunately, as you keep progressing the difficulty only goes up and
by a lot. At the final world, I completely gave up on even picking the easiest of boxes/fruit considering how many times I had to retry. On the last level I played (Cortex castle) I gave up after about 50 deaths. The game is not difficult, it's sadistic to the point I had to question whoever designed it and tested it (or didn't). Was it really the intention of the developers for the game to be like this? I have to ask, who is it meant for? If I had to go a little more in-depth with my complaints:
- Some of the sequences you are required to complete are absolutely insane with zero margin for error, even having to anticipate the timing of obstacles/enemies that are off-screen and far into the sequence.
- The new masks while great for the new perspective on platforming they offer, were unfortunately used as a tool to increaste difficulty even more. How about going a little easier on us when playing with fresh mechanics? The zero-margin-for-error platforming is already very difficult, adding the dimension of gravity or time as well takes it on a whole new level.
- The levels were simply too long and with far too few checkpoints in between. You have to die many times for a few more to pop up. Considering the difficulty they were going for, reducing checkpoints is sadistic.
I don't mind the idea of games being brutally difficult, but was it really necessary to turn crash into super meatboy? It's a sequel, the majority of people playing will be those invested in the previous games that were nothing like it. Why alieanate the existing fans? The visuals, controls, story were all excellent which made it all the more disappointing that they had to ruin the game like this to the point I didn't even finish it. As a Crash fan, i feel like 4 even ruined the previous games for me. I don't even want to think about playing any of them.