Release Date: November 22, 2022
Developer: Iggymob
Series: Gungrave
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Cloud Gaming
Publishers: Prime Matter, Plaion
Genres: Third-Person Shooter, Fighting Action Adventure
Not good is what I would use when summing up my brief playtime with Gungrave G.O.R.E. It’s a game that clearly needed a bigger budget, more talent as well ambition from the developer and publisher end. It’s a shame because I was actually looking forward to playing this game.
I mean, I did recently finish watching the entire Gungrave anime on HULU. I had some hype going into this. From what I played however, Brandon Heat didn’t even say a word in Gungrave G.O.R.E. Anyways, Gungrave G.O.R.E is an action third person shooter centered around Brandon Heat aka “Beyond The Grave” and a few other members of his team of hunters.
Gungrave G.O.R.E’s story revolves around stopping the manufacturing of a drug called SEED in Scumland. Beyond the Grave aka Brandon Heat along with other SEED Hunters helped by agent Quartz must take out the Four Raven Clan bosses.
I played through a few Chapters of Gungrave G.O.R.E which featured a plethora of tutorial gameplay mechanics. Basically, you walk around and shoot, grapple hook enemies, melee, fill up gauges to activate specials and counterattacks. You unlock points to level up Beyond The Grave’s abilities like more health or special Demolition Attacks.
Enemies ranged from grunts, punks, mutants and giant machines. I played on Normal difficulty. Game difficulty isn’t hard per se but more janky in regards to it’s mechanics, animations and enemy sticky points. For instance, during a sewer level you have to escape a killer drill machine that pushes you into mobs with a super slow protagonist.
If a mob surrounds you, you can’t really attack and free yourself. You end up dying almost immediately. The latter is just bad game design mechanics rolled into one. Not fun. I played Gungrave G.O.R.E on my Xbox Series X via Gamepass (thank you Gamepass). I played on performance mode. For the most part, the game ran well.
Graphics were low-tier from last generation. Blurry textures everywhere. Just an uninspired look for this game in regards to art, textures and the game’s levels. Main characters and bossfights had nice visuals and art but other than that. Nadda!
The audio was weirdly, oddly loud as hell and featured a mix of house, techno and metal. The soundtrack in-game while playing wasn’t that bad actually. It was more the sound mixing of music and voice overs from Quartz that sounded like hammered ass.
Gungrave G.O.R.E is free on gamepass so it doesn’t hurt for you to try it for yourself. I just thought the game was a steaming turd from a gameplay mechanic and setting perspective. Gungrave G.O.R.E got repetitive after three Missions in for me. And this game has over 20+ missions. No thanks!
From what I read you can play as different hunters but who cares when I have games like Sonic Frontiers and Evil Dead sitting here waiting for me to put time into. If you are inclined to watch gameplay of this game check out Gungrave G.O.R.E Video Playlist. Not many videos there but you’ll get the hint. Thank you for reading – Jason
