Gungrave

"Guns a blazing, it comes, in a relative way, close to DMC"

GUNGRAVE is one of those games that comes out once in a blue moon that is actually wonderful but never gets the advertising that it disserved (I'm comparing this to the advertising of a game like Mortal Kombat or the Grand Theft Auto series). But despite the lack of advertisement of the game, the game itself prevails with out being over hyped. Every thing about GUNGRAVE seemed to fit right in to an interlocking puzzle. IMO, the game takes much of its style from the ever-popular cartoon, Cowboy Bebop. The drawings and music are very similar between the cartoon and this cell-shaded break through. Sega has brought us yet again, another game that will stay in our minds until we pass off…

GUNGRAVE's system is basically based on a checkpoint system (in other words, you have to complete a certain amount of criteria to move on to the next point in the game). Through the game your main objective in every lever is to run around in a totally 3D, cell shaded environment and blast the crap out of big punks with machine guns. Things from GUNGRAVE seem to be taken from other popular, out to date titles. The ability to never run out of ammunition along with your main character's (Grave) look seem to have been taking from the Devil May Cry series. Your two special hand made hand guns never run out of ammunition. Seem familiar? Well at least the way you get the guns is different, not to mention there names are too (a dying girl brings them to you in a brief case o_0, guns are named Cereberos).

The second equal comparison is to the Red Faction series. With your two guns you are able to but bullet holes in anything in the environment. You are given the ability to blow up cars which can cause death to people around them. Impressively, the bullet holes will stay there, no matter how many you put into a room and when you come back in, there still there.

The details and jaw dropping visuals are sure to stun any age of game, big or small, fan or no fan of cartoons. The game's main meaning is represented with one phrase that is shown before the start of each level, Kick Their Ass. This lead me to believe that the game was going to end up harsh in language and jump way onto the naughty side but in reality, the game stays clear of foul language. In fact, the only English in the game is written in subtitles, not dubbed. The Japanese original recorded voices are still in there. This just gives the game that extra bit of coolness on top of its stunning visuals and minor major flaws. Did I just say minor major flaws? Hmm….

Yeah, Sega failed to deliver GUNGRAVE perfectly, but it was over all very well done, don't get me wrong. Things still clicked to some extent. The action in the game was kick ass but the game was over all to short and stingy. What I mean is that there was not much to the levels themselves…

The other major minor flaw is the lag. When I first encountered the lag in the second level I thought, “Hmm, this game must be very detailed and full of 30+ levels at least.” (Assumption based on games like something MGS2 or the GTA series, where there are tons of moving objects at once) GUNGRAVE failed surpass or to at least match that. When you reach a point in the game when you have 20 people shooting at you, the game slows down dramatically, to a stage of almost stopped. Ok, ok, maybe not stopped, but its still slow. But I guess that's still impressive.

Levels throughout GUNGRAVE were short but got straight to the point. In some levels, you had the ability to kill a few people and run the next checkpoint. Now, this will not get you a high over all score at the end of the level by any means but the option to avoid fighting seems to be a little bit --- kiddy, which doesn't seem to belong in a game set for 17+ year olds. After about five equally easy stages in the levels, the level ends. The fights contained in the levels don't even put up a lot of a challenge to be considered hard (but that's why Sega included some extra features and specials in the menu). The environment is filled with 3D objects such as cars, oil drums, and boxes for you to shoot and blow up which builds up your beat count.

Special features that are in the in time part of GUNGRAVE is very elaborate despite the lack of length in levels. Everything revolves around your Beat Count. Like I just mentioned, by shooting things, your beat count raises. Your beat count is the number of hits you have had in a row. As this number grows, it fills up the demolition shot gauge. Once this gauge is full, you are granted a demolition shot, you can have up to 9 of them. These shots are much more powerful than your regular shot. There are 4 different demolition shots and a health refill (only on easy mode). You have the Death Blow, which fires a huge rocket at your foes, Bullet Dance, which fires a machine gun like effect around in a circle, Hellhound Roar, which is like the Death Blow but shoots out three homing like missiles, and Raging Inferno, which is like the Bullet Dance but fires shots in a circle at multiple levels.

GUNGRAVE is a totally 3D, cell shaded game, much like the cartoons on TV today. Neat little bonus, the artist for the popular TRIGUN series is the artist for this game(can be found on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network). Everything in the game has that unique shading technique done to it, enemies, boxes, kegs, pipes, everything. This is the first time I've seen a game fully pull that off. It really seemed to be the start of all the recent break through in cell shaded games.

After you beat the game, you unlock more possibilities under your options menu; characters, game difficulty, level selection, and more. It'll keep you busy for a while.

Story 9/10
Touching as it truly is, It's just as good if not better that some of the sorry excuses for games out today. Your trying to get back at the Syndicate that betrayed you. I don't want to tell too much

Gameplay 9/10
Action is almost always constant and to the fullest. Although there are a few slowdowns here and there, it's nothing to get mad about

Control 10/10
Pretty much made the best use of the control pad as possible, did everything that needed to be done.

Graphics 10/10
It's just a fine piece of art overall.

Sound 10/10
Beautiful gunshots, falling shells, bodies dropping and some of the best background music in world.

~*~*~

I highly recommend picking this little dandy of a game up, and the best thing of all, is that's it is only $15 or so now. Besides the little downsides, the game exceeds to it's full potential for all that it could have gotten.

Pros +
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- Killer graphics
- Great story line
- Kick Ass weapons
- High replay value
- Nice touch of Japanese
- Nice Cinematic's
- Detailed levels

Cons –
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- Short levels
- Short game in general
- Weak bosses
- Iffy boss AI

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/03, Updated 05/04/03