Gungrave

"I Really Wanted To Like This Game..."

Lumbering around city streets, subways, bars, and various other locations mowing down seemingly endless hordes of gun toting baddies may not be the most novel and under-used idea for a videogame, but it certainly does hold a soft-spot in many gamer's hearts to be able to sit back and enjoy the simpler concepts. Gungrave is just that - utterly simple.

This game had all the potential to be something memorable. The main character alone is enough to make anime fanboys go nuts, but this game just keeps punishing itself and the player the further you delve into it.

Graphics: 5
The animated introduction and cutscenes between levels are the highlight. Excellent use of cell animation helps move the story (meh) along quite nicely. It's smooth, stylish, and very detailed. The in-game graphics however seem to lack any inspiration whatsoever. Most of the detail goes into your main character who is very nicely animated and detailed using very nice cell shading. The backgrounds are just far too bland to really leave an impression or even immerse the player. Enemies are so hideously uninspired that it's ridiculous. The camera angles don't help either and they can't be manipulated. The camera usually puts your character in the way most of the time. Good thing the game's not all that difficult or this might be a huge problem.

Sound: 5
Same blah, you've heard it all before gunshots, screams, bullet casings hitting the floor, and footsteps you've heard before. The soundtrack might as well be mute as it's drowned out most of the time from your's and your enemies' gunfire. Not one memorable tune really.

Control: 7
Controlling Grave isn't hard and it's not easy. You move your character using the left analog stick but no matter how far forward you have it pressed your character only walks unless you use an assigned run button which just feels awkward for some reason. You can jump which is also odd. Sometimes he'll just lunge forward, sometimes he'll leap very high. You can dive backward or forward while firing at enemies which is both easy and effective in all situations. The target button is also your strafe which means once you've wasted the guy you auto-target you're still stuck aiming at his dead corpse while strafing, trying to get your bullet path lined up with the next enemy. Very sloppy. The controls are very responsive but they're just not utilized in an effective manner.

Gameplay: 6
It can be both hard and easy to play this game. Not because of the difficulty, because I've been through it on all and the game is just a pushover even on ''Kick-ass'' difficulty. It's pretty straight forward. As you do damage and hit targets your ''Beat'' count goes up which leads to more ''Demolition Shots.'' Demolition Shots are room emptying special attacks, but they lack any real creativity unless used against a boss which results in a usually campy, under polished fatality scene. The real killers here, though are the fact that your character is almost invincible and the game is too short. You have an armor gauge that takes damage before your actual health gauge, but it fills back up to maximum in a matter of seconds. Meaning you can walk into a room, hose down a few baddies, take some armor damage, walk back out to recharge and go back in. And the boss enemies rarely have attacks that diminish your armor gauge, and if they do, the damage they do to you is really superficial. You're just too unstoppable. The camera can sometimes make finding your character a problem but since you're so unstoppable it really doesn't factor into the difficulty too much (not that it ever should for ANY game.) The game also suffers from being way too short. Six lousy missions and it's over. The ending and extras aren't really even worth unlocking. Most are going to put this one down without finishing it and those that do will probably never play it again.

Overall: 4
I really wanted to like this game. But it really just ends up being Diet Devil May Cry, containing far less, and leaving a nasty after taste. Don't buy this game new if you simply must own it. Wait for it to hit the bargain bin or just rent it a few times. It's definitely not worth the $50 you'd be throwing away. Just go pick up Devil May Cry if you want to spend $50 and not feel ripped off.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/03, Updated 02/11/03