Grime II launches on March 31 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, bringing the sequel to Clover Bite's 2021 action-adventure metroidvania to consoles for the first time alongside its previously confirmed PC release. Publisher Kwalee and the studio revealed the console versions with a new trailer showcasing the game's combat, abilities, and the strange new land players will be stepping into.
The original Grime built its combat around absorption, letting players consume enemies and turn their forms into weapons. The sequel pushes that idea further with a system called molds. Defeat something and you can shape it into a mold, then deploy it as a special attack: throwing enemies, firing projectiles, stunning targets, or summoning the creature outright to fight alongside you. That absorption feeds directly into exploration too, since molds open up secret paths through the world. Combat itself runs on a parry and grasp system where the player sends out hand-tendrils to deflect incoming attacks or latch onto enemies, drawing them closer and learning their shape in the process. The environment plays an active role as well, offering opportunities to damage enemies from a distance or use surroundings to your advantage, though enemies can do the same. Between mold selection, weapon choice, and ability loadouts, the game is built to let players construct their own approach rather than funnelling everyone through the same build.
Clover Bite is an unusual studio. Founded in 2014 as the internal development team of Tiltan School of Design and Visual Communication, it draws on industry veterans alongside exceptional graduates and students. The team behind Grime II is Team Malignant, the same group whose debut was the original Grime, which holds an average rating of 87 out of 100. Publisher Kwalee, founded by Codemasters co-founder David Darling CBE and based in Leamington Spa, was recognised as Best Publisher at the TIGA Awards 2022.
There is something deliberately unsettling about the world Clover Bite builds. The player is a Formless, an art mimic that absorbs creatures and wears their shapes. The locations are constructed from painted nails and giant vases, each housing its own civilization and culture with characters to speak to. It is a world obsessed with art, surreal in its architecture and alien in its logic, but populated enough to feel lived in rather than merely hostile.
The Formless ventures into a new land within the Grime universe, a place the developers describe as filled with danger and wonder in equal measure. Every enemy absorbed is a tool gained, every mold summoned is a choice about how to fight and where to go next. Grime II is a game where the things you kill become the things you use, and the deeper you push into its world, the more forms you have to steal.