With the successful release of Gravity Rush for the PlayStation Vita several years ago, Sony has decided to do a sequel but this time for the PlayStation 4. While the game never made it outside the PS Vita, BluePoint Games, the team behind porting several games for Sony, has decided to remaster the hit Gravity Rush for the PlayStation 4 to give gamers an opportunity to play the original before the much anticipated release of Gravity Rush 2 later this year. Compared to the PS Vita version that was released several years ago, the remastered edition on the PS4 plays a lot better and makes it seem like Gravity Rush was meant for a console release and not on the handheld.
Gravity Rush is a game that has a slow pace when it comes to the story. The games starts off with Kat, an amnesiac girl, who lands in Hekseville where the first thing she finds is a black cat. Without knowing who she is, or where she came from, she learns the hard way that she has the power to control gravity. At first, Kat starts off as the hero who is just a little girl learning her powers and doing redundant quests for the townspeople. However as the game progresses a big plot is revealed.
Those who don’t have patience to wait for the core story to uncover, they will find Gravity Rush’s story to be lacking and slow. However, if you give the game time and reach the 12th or 13th mission, then you’ll start realizing that the story is decent and it’s worth finishing just to find out the end of it. Expect to see some of the most interesting characters that you can find in the game with an original plot.
The moment you play Gravity Rush, the visuals are what will immediately draw your attention as it has a very colorful cel-shaded design. When the game was released back on the PS Vita, many were mesmerized but with the game now being on the PS4, the game looks a lot better. The increase in resolution makes the game look a lot prettier than its predecessor thanks to deeper color hues and sharper images. Expect the somewhat open-world of the game to give you a steampunk vibe to it and buildings that will make you feel you’re in London due to its structure and design of the place where Big Ben tower will be present.
Cutscenes are animated in the cel-shaded art style with comic-book panels. Voice overs in the game are very scarce and when it’s there, you will see subtitles instead of the English dub as Kat and the people of Hekseville speak a different language. In my second playthrough with Gravity Rush, playing it with the DUALSHOCK 4 controller feels better and it made me think that this game is really meant to be released on console.
As what the title of the game implies, Gravity Rush will involve Kat and her ability to control gravity at her disposal. In the city of Hekseville, troubles are looming at every side of the town and it will be up to her to save the town from the creatures called Nevi. Of course, without the power of gravity, she will not be strong enough to take them down. With Kat’s gravity powers, she can walk through walls, turn 360 degrees, climb the skyscrapers and pretty much float around town until her gravity meter is depleted.
Thanks to the gyro controls of the DUALSHOCK 4 controller, controlling gravity plays similarly to the PS Vita. Though those who prefer to use the analog stick are free to use them as gyro controls can be a nuisance at times. In my playthrough, I mostly used the controller in navigating Kat and yes, it does play nicely. Those who are worried about transitioning controls from handheld to console, the game has an easy learning curve and people will get used to it right away.
In the plethora of missions that Kat has to take, you will be mastering every gravity power she has and as you progress, you will unlock special combos that you will be able to do when using gravity. When you’re on the land without gravity powers, Kat can do some melee combat where she will kick the Nevis core (their weakness) to take them down. Doing melee attacks can be done by simply pressing the square button. Luckily, there are no complicated controls that gamers need to learn to unleash combos. Unlike other action-adventure games, Gravity Rush has a not-so-hard learning curve; simply press the R1 button to activate her gravity powers, move the reticle on where you want Kat to land or attack through the use of the controller’s gyro controls or analog stick, and press R to go or Square button to attack. Yes, it’s as simple as that.
If you happen to not enjoy the missions within Gravity Rush, there are numerous side challenges that you can do. Throughout the city of Hekseville, you might have noticed that there are gems floating around. Collecting those gems will give you the ability to unlock not only more powers for Kat, but to also unlock side challenges where you can play some sort of a mini game to beat the high score and collect even more gems. Collecting these gems plays a vital role in the game and doing the side challenge is somewhat necessary as the more gems you get, the more powerful Kat becomes.
As for the kind of challenges, they all vary. Some of the challenges will involve you defeating Nevis on a certain number amount of time, a time-trial sort of mini-game, and many more. Expect the game to give you a lot of great things to do.
Aside from being an action-adventure game, it has some sort of RPG element where you will have to develop Kat’s abilities to make her stronger. Using the gems that you get from taking out the Nevis, doing challenges, or simply strolling through Hekseville, you can use those gems to make Kat stronger. Stats like her health and kicks are among the things that you can upgrade. During the first half of the game, you will see that each of the things that are upgradable with Kat are up to level 5 only. To make it to the max level, you will have to get through the game, do the things that makes the townspeople happy, and you can max out her stats at the end of the game. The character progression of Kat is linear but it will take some patience doing those challenges to fully max out her stats since it all relies on getting a huge amount of gems.
The Verdict
With the sequel releasing pretty soon on the PlayStation 4, a better way to prepare yourself is to play through Gravity Rush Remastered edition. Compared to the PS Vita version, the remastered edition plays a lot better due to the improvements implemented such as better controls, much vivid visuals, and an untouched core game that makes it one of the best games for the PS Vita. Though with the remastered edition, I was hoping there would be some sort of voice-overs now but it’s not a big deal. For anyone who never played Gravity Rush and are looking for a solid action game, by all means, get this one and you will not be disappointed.
[Editor’s Note: Gravity Rush Remastered was reviewed on the PlayStation 4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]