Gravity Rush
SCE Japan Studio | Sony Computer Entertainment
Now available for purchase on the Playstation Vita
Once thriving and confident, the city of Hekseville is now shrouded in fear. A huge, dark presence towers over the city and what’s more, entire neighbourhoods are being snatched away – homes, possessions, families and all. Against this backdrop of chaos, you play as Kat, a young girl struggling to make sense of her own past. As storms rage in the skies above Hekseville, amnesia clouds Kat’s memories. As the stricken city fragments and its citizens demand answers, Kat must quickly come to terms with the incredible power awoken within her.
Gravity is now a force she can bend at will. Or rather, something her mysterious companion, Dusty the cat, can shift. As the townsfolk come to recognise this other-worldly power, they begin to place their fate in Kat’s hands – and with every call for help, she moves a little closer to answering the extraordinary questions thrown up by her strange predicament. What has happened to her? Why has this enigmatic feline chosen Kat as a gravity shifter? And who commands the sinister forces wreaking havoc across the city? In Gravity Rush on PlayStation Vita, brave the coming storm to discover the exhilarating truth.
Introduction / Storyline
When the Playstation Vita first launched in February there were some good launch titles released which I reviewed quite favorably… but many of these didn’t have much anything in the way of storyline and instead focused on some particular gameplay element. When Gravity Rush was first previewed I had high expectations for it – with a gravity-based mechanism which looked like it suited the Vita’s control schema and some hints towards a storyline that would suit my tastes. How did it fare after months of waiting? Maybe not up to my greatest expectations but still a damn enjoyable game!
The storyline follows a girl by the name of Kat, who has lost all her memories. Befriending a mysterious cat she finds herself able to manipulate gravity to her will which she uses to save a young child from the threat of a Gravity Storm and mysterious creatures by the name of Nevi. From there she begins to use her powers to protect the town of Hekseville from disaster and attempt to solve the mysteries behind her missing memories – eventually rising from being a girl feared by the residents to one renown to the populace.
While the storyline does not live up to its full potential and could have used expanding upon in many places (and could use a more fulfilling conclusion), it is actually enjoyable to play through. While things start off slow with Kat as a main character, her personality and backstory remain interesting and generally doesn’t use too many plot cliches for a title like this. The game also benefits from the interesting intergration of manga-style cutscenes throughout the tale which are well used to simply put emphasis and focus on the storyline.
Design
SCE Japan Studio provided this game with some beautiful cel-shaded character and environment designs, and really shows the quality of game that the Playstation Vita is capable of displaying. The designs are purposefully detailed to be visually stimulating, with a slightly steampunk aesthetic to the open world design of Hekseville with an interesting colour pallete which helps define this title from others. The game as mentioned above also incorporates cartoon-style cutscenes, which initially feels like a means of avoiding cutscene animation but grows on you as the game progresses. A flaw of the visuals however is its very average draw-distance, possibly a limitation of the system itself but limits the enjoyment of the open-world design.
Music
With the exception of a few vocals which are not in English, the game does not take advantage of either English or Japanese voice acting – which is a shame as I think they would have contributed to the enjoyment of the storyline. The games soundtrack however is sizable, and features a nice compilation of tracks which are softer in tone but suits the games setting and overall tone.
Gameplay
The games biggest draw is its gravity manipulation system, where Kat is able to bend gravity to her will allowing her to hover, free-fall, fly towards and stand on almost any surface you can direct her at. It is a system that takes some getting used to, however a few hours in I felt like it was second nature and really enjoyed taking full advantage of the system. Of course, this system is not without its problems, especially when you incorporate it into the games battle system. The basic battle controls are easy, square button to kick and X button to jump… but when you incorporate gravity into the mix, there is a considerable room for missing the target, sending you veering off course which can be frustrating.
The game is very mission oriented, so after the first half an hour you are flung into a world where you are given primarily given missions to complete instead of one completely linear storyline. The quality and enjoyability of these missions vary, some ranging from the cliche ones you would expect in any similar game and others which provide a bit more challenge. Add in a rudementary upgrade system and a few other goodies and you have perhaps one of the best Playstation Vita optimized games on the market to date.
Final Score
Storyline/Character Development: C
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: B+
Gameplay: A-
Replayability: B
Personal Opinion: B+
Overall Score: A-
