PlayStation 2

Gungrave

You probably remember my import review of Red Entertainment's Gungrave. That was a bit of a high-concept piece -- see, the secret to expressing strong opinions in a generally reticent business is to just make sure you deliver them two at a time, so there's something for everyone to agree with. And Gungrave does tend to inspire strong opinions, in either direction, on a number of different points.

This is one of two import games I picked up while on my last visit to Japan. I was hoping to pick up Custom Robo GX for the Gameboy Advance, however, that game wasn't getting released until 4 days after I left, so I had to be content with only picking up GunGrave.

So you decide you want to play a game where you jump around and shoot lots of things, but Devil May Cry is too technical and Max Payne is too hard. Look no further; Gungrave is the game for you! Developed by Red Company and published by none other than Sega, Gungrave takes you for a ride through a living comic book on your Playstation 2. It begins with a small girl dragging along an enormous case almost the size of herself. She ends up making it to her destination – a scientist by the name of Dr. T. This doctor sort of takes care of our hero, and as he lays her on his couch a very large man busts through the door. It’s none other than Grave, the games main character.

GunGrave is all about violence. Geen verhaal, geen diepgang; gewoon schieten totdat na drie uur je duim er af valt. Gelukkig ziet het er allemaal super goed uit en komt het uit Japan.

Heroes that come back from the dead are a dime-a-dozen. Everyone from Superman to the Spectre to Marvel Girl has done it, so it comes as no surprise that video games make use of this recurring theme. In fact, the so-called hero in Sega's action title is called Grave, and like many stories about souls that return to haunt the living, this game is all about revenge. The in-game storytelling is dramatic and engaging if somewhat mystifying. Most of the story is revealed in subtitled dialogue (the Japanese voices were used in this release as well) and the plot is practically unimportant as long as everything looks cool.

GunGrave is a solid arcade experience, but not a fulfilling console game. It's pretty, and it sounds amazing, but it's a limited experience that is great for a rental, or when the game goes into the budget bin. I have found myself play through it a few times, especially to show friends, but there just isn't enough here to keep people interested for more than a weekend.

In Gungrave, you play as Grave, a one-man slaughterhouse who lumbers around with a coffin strapped to his back (think The Man With No Name meets The Crow and Blade) and uses his dual pistols to annihilate wave after wave of bland street slime and other thugs. It's a cool concept with an intriguing character (kind of like Chakan: The Forever Man for the Genesis), but Gungrave comes off like low-rent Max Payne. There?s no shortage of cel-shaded flash, but an abundance of slowdown and repetitive, one-track gameplay?shoot, move, shoot, move, and then shoot some more?quickly shoots Gungrave in the foot. It?s loaded with unexciting action.

Au final Gungrave est donc assez décevant. Le jeu se pare d'un design somptueux, d'une bande-son magnifique (cela dénote, je l'avoue, d'une profonde subjectivité de ma part) et d'un gameplay privilégiant la simplicité, pour faire en sorte que le joueur puisse jouir en toute impunité du soft. Quid de cette déception, me demanderez-vous dès lors ? C'est simple. Le jeu est décevant d'un point de vue graphique (tout admirable qu'est le design, je le précise une fois de plus), et le titre se boucle très rapidement (comptez moins de 2 heures pour finir le soft en mode Pro), dommage, véritablement dommage.

Gungrave is an extremely short and easy third-person shooter. But it's got a lot of style. Featuring character designs by popular anime artist Yasuhiro Nightow, best known for his Trigun series, Gungrave definitely looks cool. It's also a textbook case for why great graphics don't do you much good if the underlying game is shallow.

Ever since Sega went the 3rd party route in 2001, the company has been like Jeckyl & Hyde at times – alongside their brilliant sports games and the great Xbox offerings, along with Virtua Fighter 4 for PlayStation 2, the company has released a small share of games that go against their grain of quality. How many 18-wheeler games do we need, anyway? The latest unusual decision was to grab the rights to publish Red Company’s GunGrave. With character designs created by the same individual behind the Trigun anime (not that I know that much about anime), and Devil May Cry gameplay, expectations were pretty high for the game, especially since it was coming stateside through Sega.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a true hero? Nerves of steel? Super strength, perhaps? How about great hair and a snazzy outfit? Awesome theme song, perhaps?