It’s harrowing being on low health while clearing out gunk just as the gunk is reforming behind you, obscuring your view. You won’t regen health while in the presence of the gunk, though, and you’ll have to either clear the gunk from the area or find a regrown area to replenish it. You do have health in the game, it regenerates naturally or by unlocking an upgrade to accelerate. I would not enjoy having to platform my way through environments to make it back to camp for upgrades. Having this in place feels like a necessity, but it’s a very welcome one to have, no question. That feeling never resurfaces again because the future beacon locations not only make sense, but come at the right times. The first signal beacon feels like it takes too long to get because you’re just sitting on stacks of materials just waiting to invest in upgrades, so when it finally comes, it’s a huge relief. I was expecting to be able to place more of them, but they’re carefully thought out locations. That said, the combat and systems are otherwise well-designed that feels good.Īt certain points in your exploration of this gunky planet, you’ll be able to place signal beacons which allow for fast travel. I was able to get through the whole game without using it, so it’s an odd inclusion that didn’t seem like it was needed. Every upgrade feels necessary and worthwhile except for the lure, which I never used after buying the first stage of it. Active abilities are things like the aforementioned pulse blast, whereas the passives are where when collecting material, your run is boosted. Collect enough of these, and you’ll be able to use the workbench at camp to make these upgrades available in your arsenal. There are four main types: organic, fiber, metal, and alien. In order to purchase upgrades, you’ll have to scour every area for resources to collect. This data adds progress to unlocking upgrades for purchase. Your power glove is equipped with a scanner, so just about everything can be scanned for data. This is a game where you don’t select a difficulty, so it’s something that can be played by just about anyone. The stakes are low with regards to combat, and now that I think of it, I didn’t ever die – not once. As you progress, you do get access to a pulse blast which can stun and do damage to the larger types you come across. Later you’re introduced to the bull-like enemies, and they’re very easy to figure out how to defeat. These enemies come in swarms, so you have to be light on your feet and can use them against one another. You can dispatch them by just picking them up and throwing them, where they explode on contact. It’s not for some time before you encounter the first enemy, a seemingly cute but very dangerous puffy creature. While I would love for the whole game to be a non-combat, vacuum-type genre, that’s not the case there’s more to the gameplay than the chill cleaning up vibes you get early on. As you clear the gunk from the area, you’ll see that areas are restored to its vibrant beauty from before it was tainted by this gunk. Rani has a device on her power glove that can suck up anything and for whatever reason not need to dispose of the contents. Watching it whether it’s still or moving is so curious, because it looks like Jell-O mold. When you first come across it, it’s just awe-inspiring. The gelatinous, titular gunk has some great physics and design to it. It won’t be long before you’re made aware of The Gardener, the big bad and working towards getting powered up enough to put things to an end. As you go through and unravel the thread of this mystery, there’s some predictable strife among the two main characters, but their interactions feel genuine most of the time, making it hard to fault the missteps. They find a planet that is seemingly untouched, but they get more than bargained for when they discover that the planet has more to say than what’s on the surface. These two are a pair of space haulers who travel planet to planet to scrap what they can for money, and it’s real tight these days. Straight away, the game introduces you to Rani, the character you play as, and Becks, the captain of the ship. Cleaning up has never been so fun or as satisfying, and in The Gunk, you might just even save a civilization and the whole planet. While the story beats are formulaic and well-worn territory, it maintains your interest throughout to uncover this wide-reaching mystery. While not a SteamWorld game, it has the intimate characteristics that have made those games such successes: tight gameplay, a rousing story, and unmatched exploration. The Gunk comes from Thunderful Development, formerly known as Image & Form.
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