Developer : SCE Japan Studio
Price :39,99$ (Free for PS Plus members)
Type : 3D Platform
Time played : Platinum trophy
Gravity Rush puts you in the shoes of Kat, a gravity controlling character. The concept and gameplay mechanics of the game are quite refreshing. Unfortunately, the experience is often tainted by painful game bugs and a weak story. In fact, Gravity Rush might steal the award for not explaining anything from the Lost TV Show.
The game begins by having you unconscious, falling from the sky into Hekesville, a small flying city. You are then greeted by a black cat, Dusty, who gives you your gravitational powers. You spend the game asking Dusty questions and always getting "Mieow" as an answer. Because of Dusty, you receive the name of Kat by the townsfolk. The town is surrounded by gravity storms that have swallowed part of the town. You will soon meet Raven, another Shifter who got her name because her powers come from a raven (Yeah, it is that original).
The story unveils itself by a beautiful comic style cut scene and some other movies. First, pretty much everyone is using you to help them out, raising awareness of your presence. You are soon considered the source of the mysterious Nevi (the enemies) appearances, as well as the gravity storms. The whole story is unveiling so fast and does not make any sense in the end. It does feel like they already knew they were making a sequel before developing the game. Most of the story revolves around Kat meeting people.
There's Syd, a gentle police officer who helps you out. The narration (Kat) tells that Cid does not know he will play an important role in the story... that role is only that he freed you when you get captured at the end...or maybe in the sequel, but meanwhile he was pretty useless. You help him out take out the city's arch villain "Alias" that spawns Nevi to help him rob the city. Once you kill Alias, two missions later, you see him again in a dream later on, he removes his mask, Kat goes "You!" but you never actually see who it was.
You also meet Gade, a "Creator", for whatever it is, that is actually a man made of a Gravity Storm when he opesn his coat. This helps you get to other Time/Space dimensions where you rescue the swallowed city parts after defeating a boss (3 in total). Cyanna is also a kid creator found in a city way under the one from the start. A city where children were lost when their school bus drove out of the flying sky limits. There you learn that the other gravity controlling character was a lost children that made it out. While she grew up and became "Raven". It seems the kids are stuck in a different timescape. No real word on how she got her powers.
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| This is kind of awkward |
There are also a few comments heard that if there is a city under Hekesville, there might be one above. And then you remember falling from the sky at the very beginning. No real other words on the city above.
We can only hope to have some more information in the sequel.
While the PS Vita sensors are pretty accurate, some features, like aiming, can be turned on or off, while others rely only on the motion sensing. This brings one major problem in public transportation, some aspects of the game are almost unplayable. While you can complete the story, completing all the side challenges might be impossible in a moving vehicle.
When you upgrade your Shifting Speed power, meaning you will fly faster, you start to experience loading times as well as travelingl faster than what the game can handle.
The gravity shift power will let you change gravity to any side. Unfortunately, the gravity will not stay in the direction you shifted. As soon as you hit a surface, Gravity shifts again in a way that the surface (ex: wall, tree, fence,...) you just touched becomes the floor. If you are shifting to a particular direction, let's say up, and you just touch the corner of the wall before the roof of a building, the gravity will shift sideways and you will find yourself "falling" towards the horizon. Adding to the fact that gravity shift is almost exclusively used as a mechanic for flying. Even in the cut scenes, Kat is flying, not climbing walls with shifted gravity.
Conclusion
Gravity Rush is not worth a 40$ price tag from my point of view, even if it's one of the best rated games on the Vita so far. While it does not offer any high class experience for a long time gamer that expects more from games with such high reviews, it does good thing for the mobile console future. The art style and the city scape are well detailed and they give this game a huge plus for it's beauty. The story feels thrown out at you and incomplete though, characters have no depth and you won't develop any attachment to them. We can hope for a better and more polished story for the sequel and a tweak to the gameplay mechanics as well.
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