Gravity Rush Remastered – PS4 Version, Reviewed on PS5 – Adventure, Action, Superhero
Have you ever desired to soar through the skies with ease, gravity as your play thing and zooming around with absolute freedom? Try Gravity Rush Remastered, an adventure game putting you in control of Kat, the young woman with strange new flying abilities.
Story:
Welcome to Heksville, a city sitting high in the skies. This classic cobble stone meets modern metal and mechanical city results in a steampunk-y and unique feel as it floats in the clouds. Heksville sits around the World Pillar which travels down below, connecting society with the world below. It has gorgeous orange skies as the sun sets while morning light bathes the people in golden yellows.
In this city is a lone girl named Kat and her slick cat Dusty who live in Old Town and the Auldnoir district. Gravity storms are normal for the locals, however Kat winds up finding a kid trying not to be swept away which kicks the story into tension mode. Dusty begins acting strangely and winds up enabling Kat to use the gravity around her in many ways, including all out flight.
While attempting to control her new powers, Kat battles the Nevi, black nebulous monsters which appear in town in globulous form and attacking citizens. This puts her on the radar of the locals, which have seen others with these powers before, called ‘Shifters.’ She teams up with a police officer named Syd to find out what is going on, and try to use her new powers to help. Will the city accept her, or will politics get in the way? What about the Nevi, what’s up with their attacks?
Gameplay:
Gameplay is all about mastering the interesting gravity powers and controls. It slowly ramps up your ability to float, pull, push and eventually master the ability to fly and zip around through the skies with ease. This takes time however, or did for me, as mostly I began by bumbling around slowly like a bubble in the air unable to quite aim quite right or drive my body in the correct manor. That evolved and changed over time however as I learned the best ways to push myself or pull something else around, or just change direction mid-zip and fly around another way.
What starts as small flight challenges evolves into outright battles with large-scale Nevi monsters in the air, grabbing what you can and avoiding attacks by adept flying and motions. The game leans into the flying gameplay as it should and delivers most all missions and side-quests as fun and well-designed trips through the air. While there are some checkpoint type “races,” mostly the player is free to enjoy things at their own pace and get used to the controls.
The constant flying and changing of angles may throw some peoples’ motion sickness into play, however I figure plenty of people that play video games get well past that with first person, or plane/flying type games, and this doesn’t present anything too new in that regard.
Controls may seem a bit tough at first, but they do make sense eventually and with practice. If you like the idea of a non-superhero superhero, this game’s story uses some decent setup and creativity to make a fun and memorable world and makes you the star. Gravity Rush Remastered presents a fairly unique time altogether.
Graphics:
The game is presented in a cell shaded and animated approach, giving it a cartoony and dreamlike feel. This fits its story, crafted city look and fun flying powers while matching it to a mostly unique look. While the game Gravity Rush is originally from 2012 and hit the U.S. on PS Vita handheld, this Gravity Rush Remastered version upped the resolution and graphical capabilities a bit and released in 2015 under PS4.
Fun-level:
If you can get into the control schemes you should have a total blast zooming through the skies and making gravity your bitch. Fighting the bad guys with all dimensions of the sky available leads to fun choices and freedom of attack style. Get used to shifting strategies and trying to find new ways to flip around.
If you never get into the controls, the story and setting likely are not enough to win you over. The game itself also is not too long, so it can be a quick venture for seasoned players.
Downloadable Content (DLC) Review:
The original Gravity Rush did release some DLC, all of which is included in the Gravity Rush Remastered version. This includes some small missions primarily tied to new outfits, as well as some challenge mission that mostly involve racing and collecting things. This type of stuff doesn’t do much for me, but those that can’t get enough can do some extra challenges.
Final Score: 7.5
DLC Score: 5.0