Cute anime girls vs. capitalism
(This
review contains minor spoilers!)
I never played the original Gravity Rush. In fact, I’d never even
heard of it until Gravity Rush 2 released
back in January. Knowing this, I decided to go in completely blind so I could
be as fresh as possible with no expectations whatsoever.
So what do I think of it as a result?
Yeah, it’s a pretty good game, albeit one with quite a few major flaws.
Gravity
Rush 2 is more or less a 3D platformer with a few elements of superhero
games mixed in. The main hook of the game is the titular gravity elements. At
any point in the game you can go into a zero gravity mode that allows you to
hover, fly and do all sorts of crazy combat maneuvers. The gravity controls do
take a bit of time to get used to, but once you figure out how to accurately
aim where you want to go without losing control, flying around is a lot of fun.
I enjoyed just spending time flying through wide open spaces to wherever the
next story point was.
The game follows the story of Kat, the
supposed “Gravity Queen” who’s looking to return to her homeworld after a
catastrophe. I assume it directly follows the events of the first game, but as
I never played it I couldn’t tell you. There isn’t much introduction given to
the characters as such (I spent a lot of time wondering which characters were
meant to be significant and which weren’t), and a lot of them felt pretty boring
and unmemorable. Kat herself is definitely the highlight, as her optimism and
can-do attitude often gave me the determination to keep going when I hit a
particularly hard level. Her character design is pretty nice as well, making
her stand out from the others while still fitting in with the world.
Speaking of the world, let’s talk
about that. Gravity Rush 2 features
numerous floating island locales to explore, each boasting plentiful amounts of
sidequests. It’s fun to explore around and see what the different areas are
like, but there are a few problems that make the open world more than a little
frustrating. First off, everything is spread out way too much. You only have a limited amount of time shifting
gravity, and the only way to recharge that is by turning the gravity off for a
few seconds or by collecting blue crystals. Oftentimes each mission would be so
spread out with no blue crystals in sight that I’d need to turn off gravity up
to three times while on my way there. And secondly, while there are plenty of
sidequests to do, ranging from collecting lost ducks to stealthily snapping
photos of secret business deals, none of them reward you with anything but the
satisfaction of a job well done. You don’t earn currency or experience from
most of them, leaving me to wonder why I should stray from the main storyline
at all.
You can find currency in the form of
red ore scattered around the various worlds, inside enemies and through mining
green rocks, and you use it to buff Kat’s various abilities, such as her combat
prowess and dodging speed. It also unlocks new combo strings, increases the
time of your special moves, and so on. While these additions definitely help
make yourself stronger, there’s a significant issue: the boosts are way too
expensive. Over two thirds into the game I still had barely even scratched the
surface of buffing Kat just because the game rarely gave me the ore to buff
her. The only way I can think would make it faster would be going on optional
mining sidequests, but that just makes it feel like filler content. If these
are so integral to beating the game, why not give me the ore I need to get them
by playing the main storyline?
One of the main reasons why I lost
interest in the sidequests quickly (aside from the fact that they seemed
pointless) was that the main story is actually really compelling. You wouldn’t
guess it from looking at the game, but Gravity
Rush 2 is a political thriller, and a surprisingly good one at that. A good
chunk of the story is spent dealing with the financial hierarchy of one of the
first worlds you visit, and it sends a pretty strong message. Whereas the
people living on the lowest island at first seem like the grimy underbelly of
the population, it turns out that they’re just doing what they have to in order
to feed their families. Conversely, while the people on the highest island appear
to be basically royalty, upon visiting them they turn out to be spoiled brats.
Easily the best part of the entire
game doesn’t involve fighting a monster or escaping the royal guard in style,
it instead follows a choice you need to make: one of the rich women orders you
to bring her a barrel of oil from the marketplace. You have the option of
bringing it to her and earning a monetary reward or giving it to the poor folk
just because it was the right thing to do. In games we’re so often guided to
whatever will give us the most value that seeing a game make a strong moral
choice like this is honestly a little groundbreaking. They could’ve made it a
necessary part of the mission to bring it to the poor instead of the rich, but
having that moment of choice makes it all the more satisfying.
Graphically, the game is passable.
Nothing mindblowing and it doesn’t even come close to some of the other stuff
on the PS4, but it’s not a piece of crap either. The cel-shaded style definitely
makes you feel like you’re playing through an anime, but I do wish the colour
palette was a bit more visually pleasing. A lot of the game is shaded in very
ugly browns and purples, and while some areas (such as a neon-lit casino
district you find later on) look interesting, overall the open world isn’t as
memorable as, say, ReCore’s.
There are also a few technical
problems with the game as it goes along. The game features enormous amounts of
lengthy loading times, way more than it deserves. Every time I booted it up I’d
have to sit through up to two minutes of loading before I got to play, and
every time a scene changed or a mission started or ended I’d need to sit through
another one. At first the colour-changing paw print the game uses as a loading
icon is cute, but as the game goes on you learn to loathe that paw print and
how often it appears. The other real problem involves the camera. It frequently
gets stuck or lost trying to follow you as you gravity jump around, especially
when you perform special moves and it doesn’t even bother trying to follow you
anymore, instead showing you what’s inside the floor.
I haven’t even talked about the combat
yet. The combat resembles the rest of the game in that it’s fun but has a
couple of major issues holding it back. Enemies range from corrupt soldiers to
goopy monsters, each of them fighting differently. You can fight them off using
standard on-ground combos, but the more efficient (and more entertaining) way
of fighting is through using gravity. You can unleash a gravity kick, firing
Kat directly at an enemy and often resulting in a satisfying one hit knockout,
or you can use something called a stasis field to grab nearby objects and fling
them at far away foes. Easily the best part of these is when fighting a giant
boss and flying back and forth while figuring out its weak spots and dealing
massive damage. Every once in a while you can also unleash an ultimate special
move that destroys every enemy in range, and while it is fun to wreak
destruction on a large group of dudes, because the camera can barely keep track
of the high speeds you’re at while you pull these moves off it’s better to just
put the controller down and wait until it’s over while they’re happening.
And now for the problem: the game goes
through an enormous difficulty spike midway through, and the combat that was
once awesome becomes immensely frustrating. Trust me when I say you’ll need to
make use of every single health kit the developers place in the battle arenas
to win. I tend to be a very patient and calm gamer, but I honestly had a few “throw
the controller” moments due to some of the later fights. Oftentimes the camera
will work against you in big battles, pointing in weird directions and disorienting
you to a point where you’re not even sure what direction is up anymore.
Gravity
Rush 2 is a fun game with an interesting story, but that’s about it.
Gravity shifting and flying around are very entertaining, and when the combat
isn’t being a huge pain in the rear taking out enemies is very fun and
satisfying. The story is definitely much more compelling than I initially
thought it would be, and it was enough to keep me too invested in the game to
quit. However, the long loading times, pointless sidequests, awful camera and
insane difficulty spike makes it hard for me to recommend this game for more
than a rental. If you’ve got a weekend coming up with nothing to play, this game
is a harmless choice. At its best it’s a good experience with something to say
about politics, and as a game that makes it something unique.
FINAL SCORE
7/10
Good
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