Rating: 5 out of 5

Platform: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC

The first 10 minutes of Ori and the Blind Forest depict a beautiful, soul-crushing story of friendship, selflessness and loss. They recall the opening minutes of Pixar’s Up, the introduction provides an emotional foundation for the life-affirming journey that follows.

It is a phenomenal opening—a short and wordless tale,by two expressive characters that demonstrate pure affection toward each other.

There’s a certain smoothness to the game’s initial sorrow, and it translates to the way the player moves through this enchanting 2D platformer.

Ori and The Blind Forest is, on a fundamental level, structured as so many other platformers are: as you gain abilities new areas of the world open up.

As the nimble Ori, you leap and run with fantastic freedom, and as Ori’s abilities improve and get upgraded, so do the joys of navigating his world.

As the player learns how to climb walls, Ori responds wonderfully to subtle movements of the analog stick, allowing him to finesse Ori into exactly the right place, like a sliver of stone embedded within a sea of lava. When you gain your double-jump ability, Ori somersaults like an acrobat and reacts in mid-air to the slightest motion of the controller.

It’s important, however, not to mistake Ori and the Blind Forest for being simply beautiful. It certainly is, but it is also a very smart game. It constantly surprises with new tricks: gravitational challenges, new ways to move through space, like gliding through the air with ease or squeezing through tight corridors. This game has carefully designed levels that require the player to think quickly and respond.

It is not as snappy as, say, a typical Mario platformer. While Mario is more about going from left to right, Ori and the Blind Forest is much less linear, letting players explore every corner of the forest and not just move across the screen in the same direction. The gameplay allows Ori and the Blind Forest to build joy on a bed of heartache, adding a new layer of mechanical complexity with each ray of hope.

The story radiates its theme about hope and never giving up throughout the first 30 minutes. The gameplay was flawless and a masterpiece — so easy to pick up and play. The music is absolutely breathtaking and the best part about this game. This may be one of my favorite games of all time.

This is a video of the first 10 minutes of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFxUSxtSSOQ