GunGrave : Web Wombat: Games

I thought Rambo was a though guy. I thought T-101 from The Terminator had an itchy trigger finger. And I even thought that Blade amassed a high body count...

Well, I've been introduced to one of the latest entertaining games that Japan has to offer: GunGrave, and its hero is one tough-as-nails padre.

Styled much like that of an "anime" movie -- of which I might add I'm a huge fan, what with their trippy storyline stuff like in Perfect Blue, or a shite load of blood, guts, and sexy sexness, like in Ninja Scroll and Wicked City -- GunGrave certainly looks the part, with the Japanese-style artwork down pat.

At the same time, GunGrave skips past all the complications of an intriguing plot, and gets straight into the blood, guts and...err...more blood and guts I guess.

So if you want the stylish action of Devil May Cry and Blade 2 without the complications of ANY plot whatsoever, then GunGrave is your game!

The graphics would have to be the most pleasing experience in this game: It looks like an anime movie, as the cel shading in the graphics engine is of a remarkably high level.

You walk around game world convinced that it is a movie, only to realise that you're in complete control of the main character.

Special moves are part and parcel of GunGrave

If you shoot the walls, little fragments come flying. You shoot the windows, shattered glass goes everywhere. You shoot people, many a litre of blood spills... Funny how everything evolves around "shooting" in this game. ^_^

In any case, everything in the game world is breakable. Apart from a few walls here and there, if you see a crate, or a box, or a car with a box in it, or a person, or a door - almost anything - put enough lead in it and it'll blow up, fall apart, die, or be simply rendered stuffed!

The game play at times leans towards easy, but it really is a good system once you get used to it. The main character, Grave, is invincible... To an extent.

There are basically two parts to your health bar. As per usual, there is a standard health bar where if you take damage it decreases until you die. But that health bar cannot decrease so long as the second bar's energy remains.

The second bar always starts off empty, but as you kill people, it will increase. So, in effect, the death of the bad guys fuels it.

This bar always decreases, but so long as you keep shooting and killing people, it will stay full, and so long as this bar is full, you can't lose health, which makes you two things: Invincible, and also the meanest, most unforgiving, emotionless mofo in town. Party on!

Not a bad idea, eh? So as you treak through the standard levels, you pretty much stay at 100% health. But... There's always a "but"... Boss fights are rather difficult, and so are any other enemies who can take more than a dozen rounds.

A rocket just misses our anti-hero

In essence, if you go too long without killing anyone, you take damage, and the damage dealt out is extremely unforgiving. You can be dead in three or four hits, for example.

So it's important not to underestimate the difficulty of this game, even though it seems you are invincible for about 75% of the time.

The other main aspect is the controls. If you master these, then you'll be untouchable.

Grave has such quick response to your commands, that you'll find yourself dodging bullets "Matrix" style, diving around the place, doing graceful sideways, backward and forward dives, rolls and jumps, all whilst pumping out 1000 rounds per minute with that itchy trigger finger.

I think the most graceful superstar move I've managed to pull off in standard gameplay (read: not even trying to look cool) would be running up a flight of stairs backwards fending off enemies, only to turn around to find a beefcake with a rocket launcher pointed at me.

So what do I do? What all die hard, fearless heroes would... Dive backwards, dodging the rocket by centimeters as it flies over my horizontal body, which is pumping out bullets at a phenomenal rate, tearing said adversary into itsy-bitsy bloodied chunks - thusly killing him - just as I land gracefully with a backwards army roll at the bottom of the stairs. Now that's action - Neo eat your heart out!!

At the end of a hard days gameplay with GunGrave, you'll certainly be stress free. The amount of bullets fired and people killed is truly amazing. You wouldn't think it could get so crazy, but it measures 10 on my 'crazy-o-metre' - that's pretty crazy folks.

But in any case, it does get a little excessive, and sometimes repetitive - perhaps the title's only drawback. So, if you're looking for some variation in your gameplay diet, perhaps the action of Devil May Cry 2 would satisfy better, but if all out action is what you're looking for, then there's no better game than GunGrave.

Game: GunGrave
System: PS2
Players: 1
Memory Card: Yes
Developer: Red Entertainment
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explantion)

GunGrave is on the shelves now.

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