PREVIEW: Gungrave G.O.R.E

With Gungrave G.O.R.E., fans of third-person gunplay action can look forward to the return of Beyond The Grave, Yasuhiro Nightow's famed undead gunman. We were fortunate enough to sit down with the game for a quick preview.

Gungrave G.O.R.E. takes place after the events of 2004's Gungrave Overdose on PS2. Beyond The Grave and Mika Asagi are still tracking down the spread of the zombifying drug SEED, having followed the distribution lines of the drug to the seedy island of “Scumland” in South-East Asia.

Right away, Gungrave G.O.R.E. feels like a PS2 game—for better and for worse. The action is still simple and very satisfying on a primal level, while still having the kind of stiff clunky gameplay dating back from before character action games had been “figured out” as a genre. Grave has a combination of gunplay and melee attacks courtesy of his pistols and his Death Hauler coffin. He's certainly got plenty of ranged options, along with fun quirks like a “R.I.P.” cord for ranged grappling. Brandon can shoot an enemy at a range into a stun, grab him with a R.I.P. to finish them off, and keep on shooting. Grave can also shoot in a blitz all around him, while also utilizing a Storm Barrage once he's reached a 50-hit combo. His Death Hauler can knock rockets back at enemies or smack shields off of armored foes. Emphasis is definitely given to mobility: Grave can shoot while dodging, and the game tracks your “Art” if you finish off enemies stylishly. Shooting enemies and obstacles alike earns Grave “Demolition Points” that can be used for super attacks from his Death Hauler. And if it seems like that's not a lot, it's because you can unlock new moves, combos and stat upgrades for Grave from the Laboratory using points earned from clearing levels. Better performance earns more points. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, there's a degree of awkwardness in pulling off Grave's moves. The timing for his Death Hauler swings is weird, so it takes times to figure out the right time to smack rockets for deflecting them. While you can chain dodges fairly easily, Brandon moves very slowly, and the game doesn't always do a good job of indicating where off-screen enemies are until they're shooting you. What's worse is the act of shooting itself: pulling the R trigger fires off four shots from Brandon's pistols. In another character action game, you'd just hold down the trigger to keep shooting—but that's not how Gungrave G.O.R.E. works. Holding down the trigger charges up a stronger shot instead, and you have to be careful if you mash the R button, because tapping the R button four times is what hunkers Grave down into his blitz shot, rendering him immobile. The result is a bizarre setup where you have to “flutter” the R trigger to keep up a steady stream of shots, which is complicated by the need to tap the X button for your dodges.

The game's presentation also has some degree of clunkiness to it; menus are somewhat unelaborate, even though the character models and animations are as stylized and animated as you'd like. Brandon looks undeniably cool in action, true to the nature of any Nightow character, but the rest of the back-end of the game doesn't feel as cool. When you drop into a level, a banner made out of gears and wire-covered skulls drops onto the screen, encouraging you to “KICK THEIR ASS”. That's the kind of detail and character the whole game should have. When Grave falls in battle, the “continue” screen” shows him on his knees; quitting has him fall to the ground. The game gives you a second prompt offering to quit the game, leading to two Beyond The Graves being on-screen fighting for their life. If you choose to quit, he plops dead right over his own clone.

I don't want to make Gungrave G.O.R.E. sound like a bad game. It isn't. At its best, its over-the-top character designs and manic action—paired with some charming goofiness from the presentation and prompts—bring to mind an older time in games where things were perhaps a little more experimental. Unfortunately, at its worst moments, Gungrave G.O.R.E. feels like it's been made without taking into consideration all of the advancements and innovations that character action games have seen since 2004.

Fans hoping for a game with plenty of ass to kick can nevertheless look forward to Gungrave G.O.R.E. releasing on PS4, PS5, Xbox series, and Steam this November 22nd. With any luck, the undead gunslinger just needs a little more time to shake off the old cobwebs.