The Gunk Reviews
The Gunk is beautiful and ambitious, but unfortunately fails to live up to its potential. It's nice to clean up the gunk, solve basic puzzles, and explore visually interesting scenarios, but many of the mechanics are underutilized and ideas don't evolve beyond their initial state. At least the relaxing atmosphere, stunning backdrops and great voice acting make the experience immersive to some extent. In the end, The Gunk is reasonable, however it fails to stand out.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Gunk provides a fun mystery in what’s a very easy going and guided journey, it’s rather short but at the same time a fine experience.
The Gunk sports an interesting core mechanic and two likable heroines, but lacks the depth and complexity needed to make the game stand out.
The Gunk is an excellent relaxing game without any innovations, but it has a charming, comfortable pace and offers a satisfying cleaning feeling.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Though it doesn't have all the perks and features of bigger games, The Gunk remains gorgeous and engaging. A short but sweet adventure full of puzzles and fantastic scenery.
The Gunk is a short adventure but will please players who want to take a break between two AAAs. Without revolutionizing the genre and despite its lack of depth, the game brings a little breath of fresh air and gives us the opportunity to leave our planet to heal another.
Review in French | Read full review
The remaining feeling is that it offers a beautiful story, which keen you for an afternoon or (even better) in smaller doses. Nothing more, nothing less.
Review in Greek | Read full review
The Gunk is a decent adventure title that combines many elements platformer fans love from the genre. The decent combination of mystery, exploration, and collecting offers enough intrigue that you'll want to see how everything ends.
The Gunk is a game that does a decent job of offering ideas that other titles have explored in better ways. The gameplay is fun at first barely evolves. The story, especially the interactions between Becks and Rani, is decent but has nothing especially memorable to offer. The game has everything it needs for some cool cooperative play moments but does not offer those mechanics.
But as a package, this is a nicely put-together game and a great little addition to the Game Pass’s ever-growing library.
Image & Form's first 3D title doesn't have any obscene messes to clean, but it never excels beyond a conventional distraction.
Image studio and Form have implemented an interesting and new idea by creating the game The Gunk, but the idea has not been able to show itself in the best possible.
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Gunk invites us to a world of science fiction, surrounded by adventure, exploration and platforming. It is a sincere game, without great pretensions, which only wants to show its art, world and sensations when playing it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Ultimately it’s hard to give The Gunk a strong recommendation. It’s a very old-fashioned game, one that feels like it wouldn’t have truly stood out even in the era it feels like it belongs to. Despite likable characters, the story doesn’t really satisfy either. The core mechanics just plain work, though, and its short length doesn’t overstay its welcome. While it feels like the development team squandered the potential for more, those who can check it out without a significant investment will find a few fun hours. Perfect for Game Pass, indeed.
Meditative gameplay and some fine visuals are not enough to bring some significance to The Gunk.
Review in Russian | Read full review
The Gunk has its flaws, but it's still a mostly enjoyable way to spend a few hours. It's a short but sweet adventure with gameplay reminiscent of PS2-era platforming games and so fans of the genre should certainly give it a look through Xbox Game Pass.
Meaning his God complex is very real, and very much in play throughout your journey.
The Gunk is a competent product, but it feels very risk-adverse and derivative. You’ve seen and played elements of this game before. It can be fun for a while, but you soon realize that The Gunk has a limited vocabulary and spends too much of its time amicably repeating itself. Instead of being the foundation for something grander, The Gunk is satisfied to make its exploration and simple mechanics the entire game. As a Game Pass product, however, it’s not hard to cautiously recommend The Gunk as a pleasant enough diversion.
There is nothing special or complicated about The Gunk, but it proves to be a relaxing and light adventure that focuses on the manual removal of a toxic substance and the abrupt return of nature.