Pros: Improved combat; fairly lengthy; challenging; lots of unlockables
Cons: Combat eventually still becomes repetitive; using other characters requires you to restart the game; level design can be a bit bland
The first Gungrave didn't wow me. Even when I first bought it and played through the first couple of levels, I knew it was a mediocre game, which is probably why I didn't finish it until recently. As I stated in the review, the combat was mediocre and uninteresting, which is all that really matters in a third person action game. So I'm not quite sure why I was so quick to pick up Gungrave Overdose. Part of it was undoubtedly the price, as it was released for $15 originally. I picked it up along with Katamari Damacy for about $30 total, but my interest in Katamari far outweighed my excitement to play Overdose. I knew that the sequel had gotten much better reviews than the original, but I still can't say that I was excited to play it. As a result, I bought the game and quickly shelved it, waiting for a rainy day that I would finally get around to playing it. Turns out that day was never going to actually happen until Mission: Backlog, but I didn't care. The game was only $15 bucks, so the amount of buyer's remorse I would have for buying a game and never playing it would be minimal at worst. While I can't say that I was incredibly pleased with Gungrave Overdose, it does fix most of the problems of the original and is a decent action game in its own right.
Gungrave Overdose begins several years after the end of the first game, as Beyond the Grave is revived once more by Miko to do battle against an evil company. This time, it's in the form of an organized crime family that is spreading a drug called Seed that more or less possesses its users. After the first few levels, you meet Rocketbilly Redcadillac and Juji Kabane, two heroes that are also walking dead. You can switch to one of these characters if you want, but doing so requires you to start the game over and repeat the first few levels. It seems a better option would have been the ability to switch characters at the beginning of any level. This would have given the game a bit more variety, but instead you need to finish the game with one character. Beyond the Grave has balanced long and short range attacks, Rocketbilly excels in long range combat, and Juji is the melee expert. The option to play through the game with a completely different approach adds a bit to the replay, but once again the option to change characters mid story would have been welcome.
This time around there are nine stages of varying lengths, and overall Overdose is much longer than the original. The level design still feels a little bland, although there are many more objects to destroy in Overdose. It's also a much more challenging game, requiring you to master certain tactics like the lateral jump shot in order to pass more difficult sections of the game. This works in the game's favor, as even though it can be frustrating to repeatedly die on certain sections, the game offers a couple different tactics that will see you through any battle if you can employ them properly. Certain characters will have an easier time with specific enemies, but every character has the ability to trounce the enemy if used correctly.
The combat itself has been drastically improved as it's been complicated just enough to be interesting but still accessible. Perhaps the most welcome change is the pace that Grave naturally walks at. In the original, you needed to hold down a separate button to have him run a little bit faster, but Grave always runs now and at a quicker clip. The main tactic in combat is to build up your beat meter by continually hitting enemies without being hit yourself. Doing so adds points to your Demolition gauge, and filling this up will give you access to a Demolition Shot. Demolition Shots are specials that will drastically hurt just about every enemy on screen, and you'll gain access to new shots depending on your combat performance. When the level ends, you'll gain skulls depending on certain parameters such as time, health left, and highest beat count, and after you get a certain number of skulls a new Demolition Shot will be unlocked. You also now have a shield meter that needs to be depleted before your health starts to drain. You can regain your shield by waiting while no enemies are around or by using your Demolition Shots. This adds a bit of strategy to fights as you'll try to use Demolition Shots in order to gain back shield as well as damage enemies. Combat can become a little repetitive near the end of the game, as certain tactics seem to work better than others, but overall the combat will keep you interested for the duration of the title. The boss fights are much more interesting than the ones found in the original and will require different tactics than the ones used on normal enemies. Additionally, several of the bosses are dead versions of characters that you killed in the original, so there's a bit of fan service for those who actually played the original.
The game offers a slew of unlockables depending on how well you perform in the game, which will definitely entice some to play again with the different characters. The normal mode was fairly challenging in and of itself, but there are two more difficulty levels above that if players feel so inclined. Overall, it's obvious that a lot more work went into the sequel, as much of it seems like a labor of love.
Gungrave Overdose is a drastic improvement over the original game. It still feels a bit familiar, but the creators clearly recognized that Gungrave was flawed in some key aspects and set about to fix them. The combat in the game can get a little bland by the very end, but overall Gungrave Overdose is a challenging third person shooter that's fun to play, although there are better action games out there.
Overall score: 7.7
Recommended Price: $5.99
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