Gravity Rush 2 (PS4)
By: Sony
WITH Christmas having drained the disposable from many a threadbare pocket, January is traditionally a dry month for blockbuster releases when publishers, like many a liver, rest up after the festive abuse. Thanks to our Asian cousins, however, 2017 is leaving the blocks in fine style.
Sega's Yakuza 0 and Capcom's Resident Evil 7 are out of the starting gates alongside Sony's long-awaited sequel to Vita curio, Gravity Rush – ensuring the trembling hands of abstinent winos are kept busy in the January gloom.
As close to a playable anime as you’ll find, the original Ghibli-esque showstopper from the creator of Silent Hill couldn't have been further from his drab psycho-horror. Fizzing with personality, the gravity-worrying adventure was one of the best reasons for owning the ill-fated Vita. But Sony has stuck by their cult favourite with this second helping of gloriously oddball nonsense from the Land of the Rising Sun.
A puffed-up version of the original, with Hekseville joined by new region Jirga Para Lhao and each thronged with new characters, it’s groaning with character and charm, driven by comic book cut-scenes and accompanied by a lush score that runs the gamut from lush pastoral sweeps to jazz funk.
An open-world done right, the breezy, oh-so-Japanesey plot whisks players from bustling market towns to otherworldly dimensions as high-flying heroine Kat assists a menagerie of colourful denizens with their day-to-day blues in side missions while the plot proper weaves a rich tapestry of cataclysmic drama and sees the return of old favourites such as Raven and Syd.
Gameplay boils down to exploration, flip-flopping gravity to shoot through the world and giving enemies the business with two new variations on Kat's powers – the floaty, springy Lunar and heavy-hitting Jupiter styles. Notwithstanding the dizzying camerawork and clunky combat (that's crying out for a lock-on feature), Gravity Rush's strength remains its euphoric setting and bubblegum plot, and the PS4's grunt ensures there's extra helpings of both.
There's at least 30 hours of uncontained joy, with 20 or so story missions and a glut of cutesy side missions – from chasing a seagull that’s stolen your kebab and playing Frisbee with a dog to delivering newspapers. And when the credits have rolled, a third act comes stuffed to the gills with impenetrable manga-style machinations and boss battles galore. A lush, kaleidoscopic epic with a soaring score and aerial acrobatics, GR2 is gaming Prozac from the East that'll devour your idle hours.
