I wasn’t entirely convinced that Gravity Rush would be for me. It looked a bit too much like an RPG – running round town talking to people to get missions etc – and those games aren’t usually my cup of tea.
But I decided to give it a shot following some positive reviews out of Japan (where the game launched first) and I wasn’t disappointed.
Telling the story of a girl called Kat who wakes up having lost her memory (yes it’s a cliched plot device but stay with me) you discover you have the ability to shift gravity so that you can float, fly and essentially walk on any surface in the world.
Soon enough Kat finds herself helping the citizens of Heksville and trying to unlock her past. Graphically the game looks gorgeous, it’s cell-shaded design showing off some wonderful art work. Kat herself moves fluidly and despite a few issues with the camera when in tight spots I had a great time exploring Heksville and checking out some beautiful skylines.
The mechanic for manipulating gravity is well handled: a tap of R makes Kat float on the spot and you simply aim the right stick where you want to go and press R again to fly there. You can combine this with the attack button to do some real damage to the Nevi.
Nevi monsters are the main bad guys in the game, a series of weird looking alien-type creatures that Kat has to defeat. There are big boss battles but you will spend a lot of your time fighting the Nevi. Only on the odd occasion did I feel that these were used simply to stretch out a gameplay sequence. For the most part when a bunch of them were thrown at me it felt like an appropriate force of resistance.
I enjoyed the story and felt like the game was challenging without being overly punishing. The gravity mechanic lends the game a really different feel to most games out there.
If you have a Vita I strongly recommend checking this one out. There’s no multiplayer component so bear in mind that this is a single player game. It’s not perfect and occasionally camera problems hamper the experience but fantastic visuals and a distinct play style means Gravity Rush is worthy of your time.
Rating 8/10
3 Comments
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GregHorrorShow 
Nice! This game is one of the biggest reasons I want a Vita. Great to read another positive review for it.
I think with this, Sound Shapes and Little Big Planet it’s a great time to own a Vita. Do you think any of those (or Assassins Creed/Call Of Duty) might be enough to make you take the plunge?
Maybe! I’m keeping an eye out for a great bundle deal. There have been some good ones lately, but they have been Madden-oriented. I’m sure there will be more in the next few months.