Gunk Reviews
Since its inception, Image & Form developer has been known for SteamWorld game series, featuring critically-acclaimed games like SteamWorld Digi and SteamWorld Heist. Now part of Thunderful Group, the studio has gone a different route for its next game, The Gunk, removed the 2D graphics of SteamWorld Xbox console game exclusive 3D platformer/action adventure title.
Exclusive Xbox console The Gunk is the story of Rani and Becks, two space explorers who travel across a mysterious, resource-rich planet that is terrorized by a hostile substance known simply as gunk. The relationship between Rani and Becks is at the heart of the game, as the two frequently communicate with each other throughout the adventure. Actors Fiona Nova and Abigail Turner (who play Rani and Becks respectively) both performed very well in their roles, although the game’s animations fail to deliver on their stellar performances.
The facial animations of Rani and Becks are wooden and completely expressionless. They are almost like puppets, and so the great emotion in the actors’ voices combines with the emotionless characters to create an unintentional creepy vibe during the cutscene. This reduces the hard work of the actors and makes it harder to really invest in the main characters’ relationships.
Fortunately, The Gunk doesn’t spend much time on cutscenes, with most of Rani and Becks’ interactions taking place through conversations while actually playing the game. About how it plays, The Gunk Unlike Kena: Bridge of Spirits was released earlier this year, where it apparently took cues from PS2-era hard disks. As the main character Rani, The Gunk The player must solve puzzles, complete mini-challenges on the platform and fight against enemies. Rani is equipped with a special vacuum that affects much of the gameplay, as it is used in combat, resource gathering, solving puzzles, and sucking up what are typically obstacles throughout the game.
In The Gunk, Rani’s main goal is to rid the planet of the toxic substance that poisoned it. Successfully removing all trash from an area heals it, allowing the player to progress and eliminate any remaining enemies. While it’s not a terribly fun mechanic to base the whole game around, exploring The GunkThe alien world and cleaning it up can be strangely relaxing. Cleaning up trash and exploring the world are also rewarding, with players often earning crafting materials for their troubles.
The Gunk provides players with crafting materials to purchase upgrades primarily designed to make combat easier. New upgrades are unlocked by scanning objects in the environment, and it can be fun to scan things and learn more about the strange world that Rani and Becks have found themselves in.
Every upgrade in The Gunk makes a lot of sense, and they make scanning objects and fully exploring the game world to create materials more enjoyable. However, there is a problem with The Gunkupgrades, and that’s the runtime of the game. The Gunk extremely short, with the player being able to beat it in about four hours if they take the time to see all the extras, and similarly three hours if they just focus on achieving the final boss. Achievement hunters can expect an extra hour of their playtime to clean up, but otherwise The Gunk can be fully completed in one sitting without much difficulty.
Because of The GunkGiven the short length, players will find that some of the upgrades they get at the end of the game never really get used to that much. So players will have a hard time scanning objects and gathering the crafting materials needed to purchase upgrades, but it won’t necessarily be worth it at the end as they will see the ending credits. ended too long ago. The Gunk It’s a good amount of time while it lasts, but it’s incredibly short and so it’s hard to advise anyone to pay full price for it.
Fortunately, anyone interested in playing The Gunk It is possible to do so without actually dropping any cash on the game itself. The Gunk available on Xbox Game Pass, and it truly is the perfect game for the service. With The Gunk available as Xbox Game Pass game day one, the blow from its extremely short playtime is considerably softened and becomes less important. It’s a lot easier to forgive a game so short when one doesn’t actually have to pay for the game.
The GunkThe short playtime is its biggest flaw, but it’s not the only problem in the game. While The Gunk is a mostly polished experience With slight glitches or technical glitches, there are issues with some platforms in the game. Many puzzles in The Gunk revolves around hurling alien organic objects into glowing green pits to sprout large leafy plants that the player can use to reach new areas. The Gunk Players will soon learn to wait an extra second or two after doing this, as the game will take longer than expected to register these cards as the foundation. So what will happen when The Gunk players try to jump on these leaves too soon as Rani will easily fall right over them as if they weren’t even there yet.
The Gunk player may also feel frustrated with the limited linearity of the game. The Gunk wants players to complete its platform challenges in a very specific way with no real room for experimentation, and this is best illustrated by its ledges. All over The Gunk, Rani will go over many ledges that she can obviously grab, but arbitrarily can’t. The only ledges Rani will take are the ones that have yellow stains on them, and so it seems like the other ledges should be made higher out of her reach as there’s no real reason why she should be. can’t get ledges other than the developers don’t want her to.
The Gunk It has its flaws, but it’s still a fun way to spend a few hours. It’s a short but sweet adventure with gameplay reminiscent of PS2-era platforming games and so fans of the genre should definitely check out Xbox Game Pass.
The Gunk is out now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant reviewed the game on Xbox Series X.
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