Currently playing Yooka-Laylee
My take on it for anyone on the fence:
It's a pretty good game. I like the atmosphere and kinda retro feel of it. Most of the game's puzzles aren't terribly taxing, so it's a nice game to chill with.
However, if you're going into it expecting "Banjo-Kazooie" magic, give that up right now. Because you will be disappointed. The game is, unfortunately, closer to Banjo-Tooie. And it suffers from the same problems. In Yooka-Laylee, the levels are FAR too big. You will get lost a lot, and get frustrated at seeing things you can't do anything with because you don't have a move or ability available, that you will need to buy in a later level. Sorry, but in collect-a-thons, NOTHING is more annoying than knowing you can't collect everything in one go, and have to come back to a previous level. That's exactly where Banjo-Tooie fell down, and Playtonic apparently didn't learn from it.
In Banjo-Kazooie, you could gather everything from a level during your first visit, if you planned properly. Sure, there were sections that could be made easier if you came back with a new ability, but if you had the skill, you could get it done in one go. That was the beauty of Banjo-Kazooie. It's what makes the game so deliciously re-playable, even if you've beaten the game 43 times already. Banjo Tooie and Yooka Laylee suffered from getting big budgets (B-T got a bigger budget from the success of B-K, and Y-L had a massive Kickstarter success) and that made the devs think BIGGER IS BETTER.
Thing is, with collect-a-thon platformers, less is more. Always. No exceptions. The bigger you make the levels, with more and more things to collect, the players will get bored. They're going to get sick of trudging around these giant empty levels searching for that last fucking music note. And then, if you force them to have to come back, to do something they can't accomplish right now, because they lack an ability: they're going to get fed up even faster.
I think that's why a lot of reviewers complained about Yooka-Laylee's collect-a-thon being a drudgery. At first I thought they were just bitching because they were complaining about a game style that is dated. But nope, the complaints are valid. There's just too much stuff to get. Only die-hard fans will stick it out and try to get everything. And even they will get bored doing it.
There's a lot to like about Yooka-Laylee. But unfortunately, it gets buried underneath huge levels with largely nothing to do in them. I kinda wish Playtonic hadn't got as much money during their kickstarter. I feel like maybe their attempt would have been a bit more low-key, like the first Banjo-Kazooie was. And we might have gotten a game actually WORTHY of being a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie.
Oh, one more thing I want to complain about. The fucking Ghost Writers. They are essentially the Jinjos of Yooka-Laylee. Only more annoying. Instead of just finding them and rescuing them, you have to use different tactics to collect them. One requires you to catch it, and you have to be near pixel perfect, because it WILL turn at the last second as you're about to get it. Another outright attacks you until you beat some sense into it. yes... a collectible in the collect-a-thon can in fact KILL YOU. I don't know who approved the ghost writers but they need to not be allowed to have ideas anymore. Just let me collect them. I already have to go to the trouble of FINDING THE FUCKERS, why are you making me jump through more hoops?!
TLDR: Is it worth your money? Depends what you are coming into it for. If you're expecting greatness the likes of Banjo-Kazooie, then I would wait for it to drop in price a bit.
