A weak game from a great mind.
Yes Edmund McMillen was one of the minds behind Super Meat Boy, he was one of the minds behind the Binding of Isaac, both are some of my favorite games. So I have huge respect for the creator.
The problem is this is a 2004 physics puzzler. No one had an idea how to do these types of games at the time, and it shows. Yes it came out before Half Life 2 and was impressive for it's time.
Only thing is I'm writing this in 2016, there's been over 10 years of development in physics, and honestly if Gish came out today? It'd get horrible reviews. The controls are weak (And I know I'm supposed to use momentum, I do, and yet I can't make the motion I want to half the time, it seems luck based often. Plus you often if you lose momentum the level become painful) The levels are interesting the first time but overused. There's no level select so if you miss a secret or a achievement it seems you have to play the game again.
But let's talk about the game itself. While the levels can be interesting, the game itself is just not interesting. The story is typical (Someone stole you're girl) but the levels aren't really related to that and aren't that unique.
I feel like this is an unpolished game, maybe it was rushed, maybe the team didn't know how to "finish" a game, and released it too early, maybe it just has too many issues under the hood but it just doesn't feel "finished" it doesn't have a nice polish that it needs, and that hurts a lot.
My advice, pay the extra money, go get Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy. Leave Gish in the past where it belongs, because it was a novel concept now, but Edmund's become a far better designer since these days, and that's a good thing.
2.0