The Gunk Reviews
The Gunk offers a great combination of puzzles, exploration and platforming, with good level design (with nods to the Souls scheme) and an interesting story. It's not too long, and some aspects, such as team upgrades or combat, don't offer too much depth.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Gunk is game full of charm, thanks especially to its wonderful art direction and the colorful alien world it created. Unfortunately, despite its short duration The Gunk does not manage to carry this sense of wonder all the way to the end, due to repetitiveness of environments and a gameplay that ends up being far too simplistic. It's still a valid title, especially for younger players; it just needed a little more to truly shine.
Review in Italian | 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 very fun title, which will give us a few hours of fun. The title gives us great control of Rani and allows us to enjoy its biomes and its absorbing history. It is not a game that stands out, but its components but make us face a most remarkable title.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
It doesn't hit the highs of the SteamWorld series, but The Gunk is enjoyable. When you break things down, the game doesn't offer up a plethora of things to do, but it remains enjoyable thanks to how satisfying it is to clean up gunk. There's payoff for the curious in the form of extra materials to power up your arm faster, and even though it is familiar, the story remains satisfying. Its short length makes it perfect for the Game Pass service, but it is also a worthy purchase if you like brisk, uncomplicated adventures.
Little-big surprise published before the end of the year and great present for Christmas.
Review in Slovak | 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 little hidden gem that, despite not feeling innovative or deep, is able to entertain and move the player.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Higher profile, bigger budget indies games are here to stay. This is a perfect example of what the format could offer and a showcase of how a short game with a moderate budget can outdo its far larger contemporaries. If you've been playing Halo or Call of Duty and feel burnt out on what games are now, The Gunk is a perfect palette cleanser and an effective gateway to even better games.
The Gunk is a difficult game to label, but an easy one to enjoy. Whether you’re sucking up a load of the titular gunk to help bring an alien world back to life, or listening to an engaging back and forth between the game’s main characters, there’s plenty to like here, even if it doesn’t quite live up to its early potential.
The Gunk is a proposal that goes straight to the point. It is not perfect, far from it, but it knows how to propose something different and with a tempo totally opposite to what we are used to. It is a title that from the first moment enters through the eyes and that catches you with its gameplay that although it is not too complicated, it is effective and, above all, fun.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Gunk is a creative, witty, and charming adventure game, albeit a bit on the short side at only five or six hours in length. Still, the writing, world, and exploration more than make up for the short campaign as players will find themselves immediately immersed in the world and Rani and Becks' friendship. Unfortunately, a few technical problems plague the game, the most blatant of which – getting stuck on various items – becomes frustrating in later platforming sections. Still, The Gunk is an adventure well worth partaking in.
Successful adventure with great "Schmodder mechanics", but also a few problems.
Review in German | Read full review
While not a game swimming in abundant depth; The Gunk was very engaging and kept my attention from start to finish.
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.
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.
A short, sharp 3D action-adventure that keeps things simple in a gorgeous world and makes a great case for Game Pass as a delivery vehicle for bingeable and low-investment experiences.
Enjoyable, but rather slight, The Gunk is an intriguing journey through an alien planet while vacuuming up goop. There isn't much to it, though, which I found a bit disheartening.
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.