I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when booting up Gunbrella as I hadn’t heard a huge amount of buzz online. All I really knew was it would be a 2D action game published by Devolver, and honestly that’s enough to grab my attention.
After now completing the game in full I can confidently say that I would describe Gunbrella as a 2D action, story platformer. I say this because at any given point in time you will be battling enemies and bosses in a dungeon, following up on NPC’s and side-quest or traversing a snowy mountain Celeste style. Gunbrella is many things but it almost feels like it’s not quite enough of any one thing. I could almost say my problem with Gunbrella is that it feels stretched quiet thin between ideas and gameplay concepts without enough room to develop encounters around them.
Firstly the combat feels great but really struggles to be more than use your main gun while dodging some relatively easy attacks. Your given a variety of different limited ammo types but at no given point does it feel like they are required or better than the infinite ammo starting weapon. Your weapon has a few utilities such as a parry to deflect bullets, a dash to push enemies back and a shield to block gunfire. All of these are quiet fun and feel very fluid when fighting however they are not at all required to succeed. This is unfortunately because the enemy AI is generally quite dumb and focuses on placement rather than challenging combat. Similarly to regular enemies, boss encounters are almost trivial as, often they repeat the same move consecutively for most of the fight. I’m not sure if this is a bug or accidentally cheese but despite their creative or interesting design it makes what should be exciting encounters, quiet lacklustre.
Unlike combat I loved the atmosphere and the story about revenge with a creepy Lovecraftian undertone. It really makes you feel like a lone ranger hunting his prey no matter the cost. The soundtrack and sound design while traversing the world is desperate and worn out, which perfectly captures the vibe I feel Gunbrealla is going for. There are multiple instances where you will be given side quest or options involving side characters. This can lead to multiple outcomes however they don’t seem to have significant impact on the game outside of different dialog or vendor options.
Looking back at Gunbrella I feel a little let down as it has a lot of potential but doesn’t really shine in its gameplay or traversal. I feel that a longer run time or more challenging in depth dungeons could remedy my concerns. However, this doesn’t subtract from the intriguing story or the art and soundtrack which honestly were the highlights for me. Id absolutely recommend giving Gunbrella a go if it’s concept or style interest you, but it might be better to go in with tempered expectations.

Focado em sua narrativa, Gunbrella tem seu enredo como foco principal, e é genial, seu ponto mais forte é como ele conta sua historia, seu mundo é vivo e interessante, o que te faz querer uma sequencia, sua gameplay é simples, você usa a Gunbrella, um guarda chuva-arma (bizarro, não?), ela pode dar tipos de tiro diversos, fazer você planar e dar um dash, tendo uma exploração simples, gunplay divertido, partes complicadas de plataforma, sua musica e estetica noir, faz Gunbrella ser um jogo bom pra jogar num dia qualquer.

It's impressive that by the end of this adventure the actual gunbrella weapon feels as iconic and memorable as it does. With its unique movement mechanics I had a blast making my way through this steampunk x occult setting.

Visually I would honestly call the game a looker. it's a lot of muted colors but the art team was able to provide a real unique style to a game that at a glance looks rather familiar. I was really impressed every time I entered a new area.

The narrative unfortunately while super compelling at times, is a little mixed overall. I really liked the amount of character work and lore that went into the setting, but parts of its supernatural plotline kind of fall flat. Its main villain also kind of drops the ball in the end with a final boss that felt like kind of a let down.

Even with its woes I really do think Devolver Digital showcased another winner here. I hope Studio Doinksoft bring us back to this world in a sequel. I only see room for improvement if there is one.

It pains me to say this game is very average. I really wanted to like this game as a kind of hidden gem. Aesthetically it is very cool. The world building is also well done. There are reoccurring characters that pop up that really make it feel like an adventure. The story is pretty good too. Some people complain that its too talky but if you like RPGs like then this is no big deal.

Where it falters to me is overall gameplay. While the gliding and shooting feels cool when you get the hang of it the level design, enemy design, and boss design is just average.

RATING: Love and Hate

"We have Iconoclasts at home"

I wanted to like this game since I liked Gato Roboto, and using the gunbrella is super fun (especially the aerial movement), but the level design doesn't really take advantage of its full potential and the boss battles except for like one in the mid-game and two near the end are either uninteresting or painfully unfun. If it just got some more love and care, it could have been something great

A really interesting 2D action game with a big emphasis on the story. Alongside a pretty sad revenge story is a very unique, living world full of interesting side characters that I found myself attached to. Gameplay was solid, they do a good job reusing areas but keeping them fresh. The gunbrella is a fun weapon, it is primarily a shotgun but also has other ammo types that help out in certain situations. Then you open the umbrella part to block bullets or gain height for platforming or getting a drop on the enemies. It’s a cool unique weapon that led to a solid game, I was just surprised how serious and dark the tone was based off the concept of an umbrella gun, not that it was a bad thing.

Gunbrella is a good solid game! Great visual, satisfying gameplay, simple yet captivating story. Nothing stood out as exceptional to me and its OK, not every game need to be revolutionary or ground breaking.

Primarily, it's a twin-stick shooter/2Dplatform where the protragonist progresses through small levels, each filled with unique enemies and boss fights. Adjusting to its controls may require a bit of finger gymnastics and could be slightly uncomfortable at first. However, once the titular weapon is mastered, it can reward the player with satisfying moves and actions.

After hearing some complaints on the game being too easy in at normal, I jumped directly into hard mode and found myself enjoying the challenge quite a bit: every room becomes some sort of a puzzle, forcing the player to find the best approach to tackle enemies and quickly master the Gunbrella to avoid death. This approach heightened the action sequences and allowed me to get more out of each level, despite some frustrating moments due to the lack of autosave and sparse resting benches.

The narrative sequences are surprisingly long for this genre of game. Gunbrella constantly alternates between action and linear story-driven moments, occasionally slowing down the pace of progression. Luckily, well-written dialogues, interesting sound and visuals keep things engaging throughout the 5-6 hours it takes to beat the game.

I believe better-designed levels and more creative uses of the Gunbrella could have elevated the game. However, overall, it was a nice experience that didn't overstay its welcome.

What a weird rollercoaster of interest this was for me. This game was first announced at a Devolver Digital thing and I heard the name alone and I was interested. Then I heard it was the guys that did Gato Roboto and got excited. For a while I was just excited. Then I finally got a chance to play.

Gunbrella is interesting. When I finally got to playing it, I did so for a bit and then just kinda felt like "oh, this is it?" like it didn't really do much for me. Kinda just felt like a generic retro inspired jump and shoot game.

Then I started getting frustrated because it felt unnecessarily hard. EVERYTHING from wizards with energy fireballs to a simple BEE does the same amount of damage so you can die from fucking nothing after surviving against what feels like should be a decent gauntlet. There was at least a few times I cleared a room of enemies with one heart left, went to the next room, and then hit a bee I didn't see and died and had to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. It got to the point where I would clear an area and then run back to the save and heal point so that if I died at least that room would still be clear.

Then something clicked. I got to the first boss and it fucking wiped the floor with me and I felt like I was doing NO damage. I almost gave in and was going to start the whole game over as there's no way to change the difficulty to lower once you've started. I thought back to how you could basically control the whole game from the shoulder buttons on the controller and suddenly it felt like a whole new game. Movement with the titular weapon flowed seamlessly and I was able to dispatch the boss fairly quickly.

Turns out, despite the simple naming of the thing, the Gunbrella is like easy to pick up but hard to master. At least for me it was. The game is truly built around the unique movements you gain using the gunbrella to its fullest. You shoot up into the air with it, glide down slow, use knockback from the shots, block with it, block in midair, use it to zipline and all these things in tandem make for exciting combat and platforming moments. Float in the air and block or even reflect shots and then return fire and keep floating down. It's exhilarating when you get into the groove of it.

Anyway, mechanics aside, the story is actually fairly interesting. I won't get to into it but its a personal tale of revenge with the backdrop of a ruined classist world and a twist of supernatural. Characters you meet along the way are actually decently memorable as well and choices you make regarding some of them lead to different dialogue choices and rewards.

Yeah this game is great. I think maybe a little better than I expected. It's the closest thing I've played to Cave Story in a long time and though it isn't as interesting as Cave Story I would say it's nearly as fun to play in its own way. Solid action game with some backtracking stuff that makes the world feel lived in and gives into the tone really well. Think I could recommend this to just about anyone who shows an interest. Might have to warn them it takes some getting used to though.

Gunbrella deserves more attention than it has received. The game tells a gripping story in a unique and interesting world, all backed up by incredibly fun and nuanced gameplay. The soundtrack is also phenomenal, and notable songs such as the merchant's theme will continue to loop in my head for a long time. The only notable thing this game lacked was iteration on the core gameplay, as the ideas mostly end at the concept of the Gunbrella, leading to slightly repetitious level design and boss fight design.