A lot of you have never played Gungrave (or watched the brilliant anime) and it shows.

The Gunslinger of Resurrection is back! In my reviews for the VR Gungrave games I mentioned how it felt like Iggymob understood Gungrave but were kinda tied to the VR thing stopping them getting all the way there. This is them getting there. Whether on purpose (of course not) or simply from being a small studio who prior to getting the GG license had only made a terrible WW2 dogfighting game, they've nailed what GG is about. It's about shooting a million dudes. It's about swinging the coffin chained to your arms. It's about transforming said coffin into wild weapons to dish out massive destruction. It's about wondering whether anyone involed in the development has ever heard the word "balance". The PS2 lives on.

But to be serious for a moment, I get why folk hate this. I even get why fans of the original hate it. There's clearly going to be expectations when old games you like in spite of themselves get modern sequels. You hope for the same feeling but in a prettier package. Polished and dolled up. Controls tightened, an all round smoothed out experience. But that isn't to be found here, and folk are right to be disappointed.

Luckily I tempered my expectations heavily and got just the kinda shit I was after. Dodgy voice acting, even dodgier cutscenes. Poor dialogue and grammar. Bunji turning up again because he's so fuckin' cool, new characters that get zero introduction but are supposed to be cared about. It's a mess, and a beautiful one at that. I think I care about Gungrave more than most folk because a single line in this thing put tears in my eyes.

KICK THEIR ASS

Better than most shit that's been released in the last 10 years.

A game can simply be cool and funny and weird.

MEGA MEGA MEGA

David Cronenberg's Punch-Out!!

I'm trying really hard to not be The Defense Force for this game, but I feel like its reception suffered from Dead Space fan expectations thinking we're getting a legally distinct reboot of what Dead Space was.

I love Dead Space (not 3). I've read the comics and even the fucking novels. I saw the wee nods from the trailers. The similarities. But I tempered my expectations when watching the dev diaries, because it was clear we were getting something different with melee at the forefront of combat. Something a bit more linear, and developed by a new studio working through the pandemic.

Again, I'm not trying to make excuses here, I've got plenty wee issues with the game. Just trying to find some perspective on a flawed thing that I had a good time with. I just worry that a chunk of the negative reaction is from a thing I see more and more now where people don't actually play/watch/read the thing, but just absorb the opinion of their favourite youtuber or whatever and turn that into The Truth they tell other people about the piece of media in question. I've definitely been guilty of it myself.

Jesus, look at the cope here.

I'll say that I hope they get a sequel because I'd like to see where the story/setting goes, and think taking a lot of the criticisms on board could really turn this into something great.

Feels half-finished.

Rotten platforming and checkpoints. Floaty messy combat that often feels like you hit the enemy by pure chance. Long parts with just no music, and even when it does kick in it's so detached and basic that you barely notice it.

Big hollow game.

Hahahahaha

I played this back at release as a massive fan of the series, and clearly just wiped 99% of it from my mind at the time. This streamed replay was such a miserable experience.

The pivot to full action shooter was a wild decision. There is no horror to be found here. I think I put my head in my hands when 7 chapters deep they introduce a dodge roll. Isaac Clarke was never supposed to dodge roll, what the fuck were you thinking? And co-op? Deary me.

Carver is yer player 2 who's technically with you throughout almost all of the game, but playing on single player means you enter some cutscenes and he just steps out from behind you like creepy Watson. Even him being an AI partner when playing solo would have worked, but as such, it feels like the guy only exists sometimes. This gets even more jarring when you're seeing cutscenes like these two dudes have come to depend on each other, and built up a rapport, despite having maybe spent eight minutes actual game time together. Resulting in it all seeming so forced.

Another way the co-op aspect harms single player is that I'm convinced they didn't turn down the amount of enemies or item pickups. I was never not holding 19 medkits. My inventory was filled with two people's worth of stuff. Which helps when almost every encounter is you getting stuck in a corner by what feels like just too many enemies. Good thing they gave you plenty of ammo, right?

Wrong. Universal ammo was a crap decision. It exists only to facilitate the FUCKING CRAFTING mechanics, but we'll get to those later. You have a gun that fires single rounds. Sweet. You are being told on the HUD that you have 300 ammo. Hella nice... You do not have 300 shots for that gun. 300 is how many rounds of universal ammo you have, but that single shot gun you're weilding might use "5 ammo" per shot. You know, because that makes sense. The numbers might as well not exist.

We're not going to get to the crafting because I can't be bothered moaning about the game anymore. I'm glad it killed Dead Space. The scariest part of all this was going on the Wiki and reading that the director had plans for fourth and fifth entries.

Another first review on the site for old Guy? And another Gungrave game no less!

This sounds silly, but this wee 40 minute DLC for Gungrave VR actually improves on what they were trying with the main game. You get to move through levels this time like old Gungrave, whereas before you were almost always in a kinda wee arena that you maybe looked around but didn't progress through.

They've added some side scrolling bits this time around that work pretty good considering how jarring and off it feels at first. Plus, there are two (count 'em) TWO anime cutscenes, and one features a glimpse of Bunji! Bunji, from the old games! Yes, because like I said in the previous review, this is a sequel to the originals, and a prologue to G.O.R.E. I don't care how Bunji's back again. He's great.

I mentioned previously that it felt like Iggymob know what they're doing, or what they want to despite the quality of pretty much everything going on here, but all the G.O.R.E. trailers have me really hopeful that they're gonnae do a good job with a traditional Gungrave entry. It certainly looks the part from what's been shown. Don't fuck this up, lads.

Please.

What an honour it is being the first person on here to review Gungrave VR. From what I know about the general feel around the game, I might even be the first to finish it.

Now brace yourselves, dear readers, because I cannae believe how much I didn't hate this. Went in fully ready to feel pure contempt. Had a review of simply "Beyond a Joke" queued up before I had booted the game.

Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean this is some sleeper hit, or worth your time. I don't even think I could recommend it to fans of Gungrave. But there's a small charm to how kinda jank and shallow this is. It feels like they had a budget to make a crackin' Grave model, and just bought everything else from an asset store.

Controls are a bit awkward, you aim with your head, so no move controllers, which seems like a wasted opportunity given Brandon's dual-wielding nature. However, you get used to it pretty quickly, and it works surprisingly well.

It's weird because it does almost nothing with VR. There are some bits where it's first-person, but apart from those it might as well be a normal Gungrave entry. Even weirder is realising this is a sequel to Overdose. I'd assumed this was a wee fun side thing, but it's treated as a prologue to the upcoming Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Fuck knows what's happeng with the series, but Iggymob does seem to kinda understand the appeal, even if the execution doesn't quite get there.