If you asked us to guess which PS2 game would get a sequel in the year 2022, there's no chance we'd have said Gungrave. The original launched back in 2002 and was the brainchild of mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow, best known for writing the critically acclaimed Trigun. The original Gungrave was a stylish, albeit incredibly basic, third-person shooter about a man named Grave. Armed with two pistols, unlimited ammo, and a giant coffin, he takes on a drug syndicate and the four bosses that run it.
After 20 years, a sequel, an anime series, and two VR titles comes Gungrave G.O.R.E.; a stylish, incredibly basic third-person shooter in which Grave takes on a drug syndicate and the four bosses that run it. Yes, for better or worse, this is Gungrave.
The main gameplay loop is walking down corridors and shooting everything in sight with your dual pistols. You'll be shooting constantly as you make your way through hordes of enemies, with the odd super move, grab, or basic melee combo to break things up. As pistols aren't automatic, neither is shooting. Expect to mash the R2 button like the sweatiest 15-year-old in a CoD lobby. If you don't do permanent damage to your hands, you're definitely damaging the trigger. This is especially annoying since the original game had a hold-to-fire toggle.
When the game takes a break from corridors, it offers up level design like the train level early on, which is frankly atrocious. The difficulty doesn't feel earned considering how clunky the game feels. This is bad enough during normal missions, but when you can fall off the side of a small platform for an instant game over, it's even worse. The game repeats this trick multiple times throughout.
If you're someone who heard "a new Gungrave" and got excited, this is a game for you. For what it's worth, it nails that. It genuinely feels like a lost PS2 game, and that's the kind of thing we love. Although, the original game had the benefit of only being around two hours long, while G.O.R.E. clocks in at about 12. However, we can't in good faith recommend someone to spend £45 on this, outside of those with an affinity for the series.
Comments 12
Despite giving it a 4 I did enjoy Gungrave, it feels like a new version of that PS2 game.
But yeah this isn't one I can in good faith tell you to spend your money on. I do reccomend checking it out on game pass if you have the means to!
They can release a game that crashes every time you try to start a new campaign and there will still be at least one person commenting 'I enjoyed it!'
I'm still in. It looks ridiculous and I'm on Game pass so I can get my fun without spending on this title!
TBH, this kind of title is perfect for a sub service, so hopefully it will appear on PSN in the future..
Somebody actually made an argument to me few weeks back how this game made it worth getting GP for November on it's own..
That didn't work out quite well.
Ever since gameplay trailer it was obvious it wasn't going to be very good.
Thank god its on Gamepass. Evil West- I mean Gungrave looks fun but I didn’t know how they could make that work for a 10-15 hour game.
Edit: Just played the first level on Gamepass streaming on my phone with a backbone controller. It’s very responsive but the melee leave something to be desired, and I think they showed me almost all the moves on the first level so I’m not sure how much it’s going to change up. Overall its good for a short beat-‘em-up/shooter session when you want something mindless, but this will definitely not keep your attention for hours on end.
@SMcCrae95
Game Pass it is for this one, then. Good review.
I'll give it a whirl on Xbox (Game Pass); but the lack of auto-fire seems like a terrible decision!
Playing it just now and its not as bad as made out.Perfect GP fodder.
I kind of knew it was going to bad with that trailer posted a few days ago it just didn’t look fun. I decided to go with evil west and I’m glad I did that game is fun as hell
No wonder they kept showing those awesome cg trailers for this game, the actual game in those screenshots look so bad by comparison.
Oof that's a terrible release state. I'll wait a few years until it's $10 or cheaper, or free with PS+ Essential or Extra.
Might not be good for the average player, but this will be great for Gungrave superfans!
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