First Impressions With Gungrave G.O.R.E

Gungrave G.O.R.E is a PS2-ass PS2 game. I love it because of that. I bring this up because it’s the latest entry in the Gungrave series, a video game series and anime that I thought was Trigun as fuck. Mainly because it turns out that its story and characters were co-created by Yasuhiro Nightow, the creator of Trigun. And if the first 7-10 missions are any indication, it’s a pretty decent video game. Get your revolvers and Death Haulers ready, I’m talking about my first impressions with Gungrave G.O.R.E.

The main story setup is that you play as Beyond the Grave (or just Grave, as he's referred to in-game), an undead gunslinger who, alongside his boss Mika and the rest of their outfit, go toe to toe with the Raven Clan, the world’s biggest drug cartel and their army of mercenaries, street-level thugs, robots and mutants to stop the dread of the in-universe drug known as Seed. It’s a simple setup, but it’s one that works well all the same. Grave, despite not saying a word, is incredibly charismatic by virtue of how goddamn cool he acts and looks in cutscenes. Whenever he throws up his guns, it’s his way of saying “Pleased to meet you, have a nice death.” There are also the Raven Clan bosses, who are all wonderfully over-the-top if the introductory scenes are anything to go by, all delightfully chewing the scenery in their own way. It says a lot that I can admire this game for its lack of subtlety.

Now for the main bulk of the experience: the video game that you play. Gungrave G.O.R.E is basically what would happen if you made a Devil May Cry game, but more ground-based and focused entirely on the Gunslinger style. Grave has his red and white pistols and the Death Hauler, a high-tech coffin, weapon thing he has slung across his shoulder like a messenger bag. That’s all you get weapon-wise, but in all honesty, that’s all you really need. Because fighting stuff in this game feels good. It feels really really fucking good. You tap the right trigger to fire four shots, two from each pistol and the rhythm of this feels so goddamn hypnotic that I just go into a flow state shooting up the place. It feels so…uncomplicated if that makes sense? While I like a lot of what video games have been doing lately, there's also a primal part of my brain where I go “I don't want to engage with this story in a meaningful way, I just want to kill stuff!”. This phenomenon is referred to as ADHD. It makes it very hard to pay attention to things at times, which is where Gungrave G.O.R.E shines so far.

The levels and systems also support this. The level design in Gungrave G.O.R.E. can easily be described as “meat grinder corridors” and while that paints a vivid image, it’s not far off. The levels are some of the most linear I’ve played in a game this year and they do everything in their power to funnel enemies in there to be killed in increasingly bullet-filled ways. But again, I really like this because it knows what it’s about and cuts right to the chase. And while there can be some jank associated with this approach (there’s a section on a train that can fuck off into space), it's not enough to get me down on it. The systems of Gungrave G.O.R.E all revolve around the use of combos with what you have for devastating effect. On top of the standard shots, you also get a rapid-fire burst shot that’s achieved by pulling the trigger four times while standing still and it is great for clearing out packs of approaching enemies, a Scorpion-style chain grab to use enemies as shields and to yeet them back at their allies, a stationary parry with the Death Hauler that lets you smack rockets back at whoever was silly enough to shoot them in the first place, some light melee with the Death Hauler to mix things up, and special attacks like roundhouse kicking a goddamn missile at the enemies to get health back, turning the Death Hauler into a minigun and more.

All of these combine to make, for my taste at least, some of the most fun I’ve had with a game this year. Because sometimes, you just want to zone out and fire big guns and not have to worry about a lot of the stuff that games do to keep you playing them forever, you know?

I feel like I’m definitely going to stick with GunGrave G.O.R.E if the first third of it is any indication. While there is some slight jank there with the way enemies and levels work with each other, it’s still a lot of fun. It’s the perfect Game Pass Game, which in and of itself is the evolution of the AA game. Something you can pick up, have a good time with and move on to something else.  And sometimes that’s all a game needs to be.