Have you ever fallen in love with a game, so much so that it stays in your system for weeks at a time? That is the perfect analogy for my obsession with Gravity Rush. I’ve had my hands on the game for more than a few weeks now but honestly it wasn’t laziness that delayed this review, readers, it was the obsession to max out my character, finish the story and discover every nook and cranny this excellent game had to offer. Read on, to find out how I overcame my addiction to scaling up walls!
The PS Vita has been in the news recently, with industry analysts citing the handheld as a failure. Gravity Rush is one of the shining moments on the system that prove that it is capable of great things. You wouldn’t know it by watching any of the promotional trailers or commercials for the game. All you would be able to gather from them is that the game is an open world title, set in a Victorian style village featuring a blonde protagonist who can manipulate gravity.
In Gravity Rush you take the role of Kat, a blond teenager whose lost her memory and ends crashing into the grounds of Victorian town. Accompanying her is a small black cat, which is affectionately names “Dusty”, however Dusty is no ordinary cat. Her animal companion gives Kat the extra-ordinary ability to manipulate gravity, granting her the ability to run up walls and cling to surfaces. Once these powers awaken Kat’s ambitions go beyond the need to recover her lost memories when a mysterious Raven haired antagonist appears, displaying similar powers to Kats.
From the Synopsis I’ve given above you’re probably thinking “Rae, this sounds awfully Japanese but it doesn’t sound like it could grab someone indefinitely, especially with all of your rambling”. You’d only be half right, Gravity Rush does have a target audience in mind – Japanese gamers, and those of us in the Western world who enjoy Japanese games but it includes several game play mechanics that kept me coming back for more!
You see, Kat’s gravity powers allow her to manipulate the gravity field around her. Using this power can propel herself through the air with ease. Using the R-Trigger you can swing Kat around the city and stop on a dime. This mechanic is straight forward and navigating yourself around the world takes some getting used to but once you’ve perfected the ability to fly through the roofs at 150KM/H you’re going to wonder how you got along just walking everywhere.
Combat in Gravity Rush is refreshing at first as you use Kat’s gravity manipulation powers to fly towards enemies and kick them into submission. Sadly, for our heroine, there isn’t much variety to be found in Rush once you’ve mastered the flying jump kick, rolling doge and rolling kick. Even on the upgrade screen, these are the only moves you have the ability to upgrade and sadly the lack of new moves and combinations means that combat quickly becomes repetitive and formulaic.
Flying through the four islands is part of the appeal of Gravity Rush, at least to me. I can’t tell you how, but I spent nearly 45 minutes between story missions just flying through the city scouring the roof tops and side streets looking for collectables. Strewn throughout the four islands are purple collectables designed to increase Kat’s basic combat and gravity powers. I found myself entranced by the game’s soundtrack (more on that in a few paragraphs) spending all of my free time looking for upgrades. It became more than an obsession, quickly it became my reason to power up my vita for 10 minutes while on the bus.
Aside from flying around looking for collectables what else is there to do on the four islands, you might be asking yourself. Rush’s main story is divided into 22 different episodes, each tasking you with various activities like locating a lost schoolgirl or reactivating a damaged fountain. While each of these missions feel very slice of life, almost structured like a lighthearted Anime episode, Kat will find herself perfuming tasks the residents of the island couldn’t possibly do. Each story mission is preceded by a comic book style introduction between Kat and the supporting characters. While their dialogue is not voice acted you’ll flick to move the story from one panel to the next, just like reading a comic book. Unfortunately while the story is engaging in the beginning a major threat, the Nevi, don’t feel so menacing and when is all said and done many of your questions about Kat and her powers will go unanswered.
There are also a collection of side activities available to Kat at any time of each of the four islands. Unfortunately there isn’t much variation between them and the only difficulty comes from earning the gold or silver ratings, which net you more gems. On each island, after various story missions, you’ll be able to take part in either races or combat trials to earn upgrade points. The races are striaght forward, use your gravity powers to fly through a pre-determined course in a set amount of time. These can be entertaining but I never really found myself striving for the top score, perhaps if you’re a perfection you will faire a little better than these than me. Combat side missions also got a little tedious, essentially they act similar to horde mode, enemies will spawn and Kat will have a set amount of time to defeat them. Once you clear one section of the island of monsters you’ll be zipping through the hair in order to defeat another set half way across the map. It’s a great mix of combat and navigation skills but once you’ve done the combat challenges once or twice for fun you’ll find very little reason to come back to them, other than for gems in the later stages of the single player, when upgrades are vital.
While the gameplay and freedom to fly through the city streets appealed to my senses, they aren’t the only great part of Gravity Rush. The game both looks and sounds absolutely fabulous. Characters, environments and effects are rendered in a style that is very similar to modern Japanese Animation. Characters sport expressive eyes and make gasps and gestures that convey their emotions clearly, and sometimes over-the-top, to the player. Just as Gravity plays a huge role in the gameplay, color is very important to Gravity Rush’s sense of style. The world, characters and objects are all vibrant and bright, you’ll never find yourself confusing the ground for a wall or one section of the island for another, that is for sure.
Gravity Rush’s soundtrack is absolutely fantastic and you don’t have to take my word for it either, I’ve embedded my favorite track right below this paragraph. From the get go Rush immerses you in its world with a catchy but appropriate tracks, like the theme for Old Town. Whether you’re listening to one of the more laid back melodies as you glide through the air or let the ramped up guitars fill you with excitement as you take on a combat challenge. There is nothing of note really when it comes to voice acting, fortunately SCEA chose not to include an English voice cast. Instead characters will giggle, laugh or make small noises and honestly it fits very well with the light hearted attitude of Gravity Rush.
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I considered Gravity Rush for my first ever 10.0 here on Broken Joysticks but decided against it. I feel that the game is that good and if anything I’ve described in the preceding 1200 words is appealing to you and you own a Vita you owe it to yourself to buy this game, it can be found for as little as $29,99 right now. For the rest of you, yes there are some issues with the combat mechanics and a lack of variety when it comes to moves and sometimes the camera can be a little twitchy but none of that takes away from the serene feeling of flying through the sky with Kat.