Hello fellow gamers, Gambus Kahn here to give you a review of Gungrave, a hyper-kinetic action game that’s inspired by anime. As a matter of fact the character designer of the popular anime series Trigun did the art for this game, and it shows, I almost felt that I was playing a game that took place in the same universe as Trigun. So how does this game stack-up, let us dive in shall we?
Gungrave is like anime meets John Woo on crack, I mean it, my ears are still ringing from the sounds of constant gunfire! The gameplay is like a ground-based beat-em-up, but with guns and rocket launchers. The movement of the game is kind of slow, since the main character is carrying around his own coffin that doubles as a rocket launcher, also jumping can be very unresponsive making the game seem like a chore at times.
Another thing about Gungrave that everyone should know about is that the game is almost always in slow-motion, and no it’s not meant to be that way, it’s because the game slows down to a crawl. This game really needed to be on the X Box in order to take advantage of all the moving objects that are blowing up all over the screen. The stages have good stage design, something that other games can take note on ( cough cough Hunter cough cough). Don’t get me wrong this is one of the most intense games that I’ve ever played, but after awhile it starts to get old. Basically you kick lots and lots of ass.
The graphics in Gungrave looks like an episode of Trigun. The main character looks like he should be one of the Gun Ho Guns, and some of the other characters just scream out Vash or Wolfwood. The environments are also anime inspired since the whole game uses the now cliché cell-shading technique, but I feel that it really goes well with this game. The environments can also be destroyed for the most part; chairs, tables, counters, etc. can all be destroyed.
The sound department in Gungrave pretty much lacks. It basically consists of guns blasting in your ears and sometimes you will hear the sound of objects exploding around you. About the music, what music, nuff said. The developers should have put more effort into the sound; perhaps making the different guns sound different, just a thought!
Overall, Gungrave is a good $25 dollar game, oh wait it’s not $25. Perhaps if you really want to play an anime looking game in slow-motion then take the dive. It is pretty fun for awhile.
