The Gunk Reviews
In the end, The Gunk sits in the middle of the pile. The core of sucking up the Gunk is satisfying for the roughly four hours of playtime, but the lack of a difficulty curve for the puzzles or combat lets it down. Its story makes an honest attempt at character drama that works for the most part, but the short playtime doesn't leave us quite enough time with the characters or world. It's by no means bad and there's not much poorly implemented content here, but it's a plainly inoffensive experience that settles when it could have punched slightly higher.
The Gunk is an action-adventure game about fixing what’s broken. Combat is present in the game, but in a small portion when compared to its adventure. You will explore, clean areas, scan things and solve mini-puzzles to progress in the game. The story, music, and game design set a meditative and relaxing tone to the gameplay experience. With 8 levels, 54 collectibles, and 16 upgrades, some may consider The Gunk to be an EASY GAME TO BEAT. It is definitely A SHORT GAME AND SUPER ACCESSIBLE, you can play it with just U$1.00 by signing up for the Xbox Game Pass.
The Gunk is a step in the right direction for developer Image & Form. Barring a few bugs, its length, and mostly easy difficulty that's intentional, you'll have a blast with Image & Form's new universe that isn't called SteamWorld.
A striking and confident 3D platformer that's a real feast for the senses, but one that plays it very safe compared to Image & Form's more inventive SteamWorld games.
The Gunk is a fun to play story based adventure platformer with puzzle elements. The voice acting is very good with performances that really expressed the emotion of the lead characters. It has an unusual graphical style that works well with the soothing music and chilled out difficulty of the puzzles. An interesting world has been created here by Thunderful Games and it is well worth checking out on day one via Xbox Game Pass. I must admit though, after seven hours I had certainly had enough of hoovering up gunk and was very glad to have cleansed the planet of it.
There's a lot to love about The Gunk even if the core gameplay rarely rises above being pretty OK. It's a good adventure through a unique and pretty alien world, filled with character and life.
Nothing here will surprise seasoned gamers but The Gunk has enough diverting action and puzzle-solving in its brief runtime to keep players' attention
Rewild an alien world in this elegant and thoughtful game.
The Gunk is a simple little platforming adventure full of malicious messes that are plenty fun to clean up.
The Gunk is an entertaining adventure with a message about pollution and industrialisation. with a likeable protagonist. The pacing is a little drawn out toward the end of the six to seven hour journey, but there's a great visual style and an enjoyable game to experience.
The Gunk is a satisfying puzzle-adventure game where two down-on-their-luck space scrappers must help save an alien planet from a destructive black goo. The combat in The Gunk does feel frustratingly underbaked, but solid story pacing and excellent puzzle challenges help overshadow the struggle.
Rani and Becks are an appealing duo to share adventures with, but they deserve something more exciting than The Gunk has to offer.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with The Gunk. It works from a technical standpoint and it isn’t the worst way you can spend about five hours of your time. But I just can’t muster up any sort of authentic excitement about it. If it were funnier or cleverer or more challenging, I could maybe start to see it as a title I could recommend. But as it is, the best I can do is pay it that slightly backhanded compliment of saying it’s perfect for Game Pass.
If someone asks me the question, what is your game of the year for 2021? My answer would be The Gunk.
While it’s not a SteamWorld game, it still has that Image & Form charm we know so well with Thunderful Development. It took me 3.5 hours to see the end of the game, got 14 out of 16 upgrades, and am missing only 5 achievements. It’s very fun to just navigate and explore this world, taking in the sights and sounds It may be short-lived, but it's a highly enjoyable adventure I want more of. The Gunk establishes itself as a unique and memorable journey worth taking.
Overall, The Gunk feels like a weighty, enjoyable adventure that goes to some surprising places with its story. I had a great time clearing up the gunk and living my best adventurer life, and the length of the game seemed just right, ensuring that the gunk didn’t overstay its welcome. To make things even better, The Gunk launches straight into Xbox Game Pass today — so you can’t not give it a go.
Short as it may be, my time with The Gunk has been wonderful. Image & Form’s move into the 3D realm has solidified it as a truly talented developer – and this may just be its best game yet. Beautiful, satisfying and engaging from start to finish, The Gunk is definitely worth getting stuck into.
The Gunk has a fantastic setting and lovely characters, but ultimately the gameplay is lacking.
Little-big surprise published before the end of the year and great present for Christmas.
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