Videogame Review: Gravity Rush 1+2
Had a blast with the Gravity Rush PS4 collection last weekend. I enjoyed the original on Playstation Vita back in the day and it was nice to revisit the sequel that just upped all the antes. Gravity Rush is an underrated Playstation franchise. It offers a fresh take on the open world superhero genre thanks to a charming protagonist, creative movement, fun combat, and a simple but lovable story. It isn’t the most ambitious or complex triple A game out there, but it is still very much worth a look if the concept grabs you.
You play the game as Kat, an amnesiac young girl who awakes in the town of Hekesville with a mysterious black cat companion. The setting has a neat steampunk vibe with its floating cities. The mystery of what lies below the clouds is a big part of the plot. Kat soon discovers that she has the ability to manipulate gravity allowing her to ‘fall’ in any direction and walk on the sides of buildings. The city has troubles of its own suffering attacks from violent purple aliens called ‘Nevi’ seemingly orchestrated by a criminal called ‘Alias’. Kat gets swept up in the action and is dubbed the ‘Gravity Queen’ by the townsfolk eventually becoming the local superhero and solving all manner of problems for the people.
The plot has some neat twists and turns. Eventually Kat meets another ‘shifter’ named Raven as well as a mysterious man called the ‘Creator.’ There are lots of side quests to pad out the adventure and some truly neat lore about Kat herself and the nature of her world. Still I wouldn’t say this is a game you play for the story. The writing is quite shallow at times leaning on cheesy anime tropes and “just so” plotting to get things to happen as needed. It’s very videogame-y in both good and bad ways.
Gravity Rush’s biggest draw is in its satisfying movement and platforming. Being able to change the direction of gravity and fly around in all sorts of zany ways never gets old. I love the speed challenges and puzzles. Combat is fairly straightforward but enjoyable with Kat’s special attacks and kicks. It’s not a particularly challenging game. The sequel adds new gravity modes to expand Kat’s options as well as some really cool new cityscapes and environments to explore. You also get to play as Raven and get lots of neat costumes for Kat.
The aesthetics are solid too. The music is nice if not super memorable. The art style is colorful and distinct. Both the visual design and storytelling approach are decidedly comic book. It has the feel of a shonen manga. I think it worked perfectly for the game’s atmosphere. It’s cartoonish in a good way. A more photorealistic approach would have been jarring.
Not much else to say. Both games are fun. You can skip the first if you really want to get to the expanded content right away; the sequel is basically a direct upgrade. The first game holds up pretty well though and neither are terribly long. If you need a break from all the squad shooters and 200 hour RPG’s I’d say give this a spin.
Grade: B+
