In our PAX West coverage earlier last month we got to try an early build of Gungrave G.O.R.E and it felt like a fun throwback to the mid-2000s era of character action games. Fast forward a month and we got to try a lengthier build that gave a better idea of what the game is going to be like when it drops later in November.
This new build features the first four chapters of the game (the first of which was the one I played at PAX) and gave a better look at the plot of the game. Following the events of Gungrave: Overdose and Gungrave VR, G.O.R.E sees Mika and Grave looking to take out a new organization known as the Raven Clan, along with four of its leaders to stop the spread of SEEDS. I’m not entirely sure what a SEEDS even is, but I’ve been dropped in some city called Scumland with two big guns and a lot of dudes to shoot at with so I’m just rolling with it.
For better or worse, my initial impressions of the game feeling like it was ripped straight from the PS2 era are still here. It feels very much like a game of that time, and plays like it too. It’s got a confidently cool, but goofily edgy feel to the whole thing, which is very much intentional, but in a similar vein to something like a No More Heroes: you’re either down to clown or you’re not. To give you a brief idea of what I mean, the beginning of every level starts with a skull encrusted banner popping up with a big “KICK THEIR ASS” emblazoned across it. That’s Gungrave G.O.R.E.
After running through the first chapter I did previously at PAX, Gungrave G.O.R.E took me deep into some city streets and sewers where it was especially nice to see you’ll be fighting more monstrous enemies than the soldier goons I’d been mowing my way through. In the thick of the action, it still feels as cool as it did when I played it at PAX, with goons getting shredded to pieces from Grave’s absurdly powerful guns and the new abilities I got to play with. Spinning the camera while shooting at any unfortunate soul that gets in my way and seeing the combo counter skyrocketing puts a dumb smile on the face.
I will say however, having to repeatedly mash the trigger to shoot is an absolute killer to the fingers. There’s no option to simply press and hold to fire since holding the trigger is tied to an ability. There’s an almost visceral feeling with doing it, as you feel the rumble of the controller go off with each shot, but the strain it puts on your finger can be a bit much even in the hour and a half my demo took me.
Something I couldn’t do in the PAX demo was access the “lab”, which is where you’ll use the currency you collect at the end of each mission to buy new abilities or upgrades. In my previous demo I had access to four special abilities that I assumed were it, but I learned otherwise as the shop had a decent chunk of other options to choose from. Grave also had a handful of combos I could unlock; the lack thereof in my PAX demo was a main complaint from me so it’s nice to see they’re actually in the game.
My only issue with the demo was the oddly choppy framerate. I’d be running the game at well over 100fps when it would suddenly drop 20-30fps then very rapidly back up. It happened regardless if there was action on-screen or not and wasn’t something I encountered in the PAX demo. Adjusting various settings didn’t seem to affect much and there wasn’t a framerate cap option to see if that’d work either. There were also some areas where it was very easy for enemies to group up and stunlock you into some environmental objects, with no way of rolling past them.
Despite the wonky framerate, I had a lot more fun with this build after being able to access a lot more of Grave’s abilities than before. Looking forward to some more dumb anime action when the game drops next month.
