Gungrave: Overdose

**PepsimanVsJoe** · 17 Sep 2004, 09:46 AM

Hello boys and girls, this is PEPSIMANVSJOE The Man for All Seasons here to talk about Mastiff's latest publishing effort.

Gungrave Overdose continues a few years after the events in Gungrave. A new family has risen to power and Mika is forced to wake up Grave in order to stop them and this new drug known as SEED, which does many crazy things like make freaky-looking end of level bosses.

There is obviously more to the story than just that, as inbetween stages you get a mix of animated cutscenes and basic picture and talkie ones(That are oddly amusing). Before you ask, Yes they have been dubbed in English and yes they are rather sucky, but that's what you get for $15. Speaking of stages you get Nine in all that vary in length. I'd place the length of the game at about 2 and a half hours(Playing through easy using Grave however). There are also a buttload of extras from what I can tell, ones that can change the way you play the game(Hi-speed, adjusting power and speed of weapons, etc) and others that..well I have no idea. You also get to watch a preview of the Anime series if you're so inclined.

Before you even start the first stage you'll see the two new characters, Kuji Yabane*(I don't think that's right) and Rockabilly Redcadillac. Kuji is a blind swordsman and Rockabilly is a ghost that haunts an electric guitar. Interestingly enough you can't play as either when you first start the game but after running the tutorial and I assume beating the first stage you can play as them.

Whatever the case brace yourselves for a bit of disappointment. Gungrave: OD unlike the prequel, runs at 30 FPS. This can create a rather jarring experience at first and after playing stuff like Ninja Gaiden and even Nightshade, it's depressing indeed.

HOWEVER...Aside from that and "OMG teh jaggies" that's about the only beef I have with the game visually. There are more enemies on screen, more special effects, in some cases the lighting's even better, not to mention everyone seems to be made up of more polygons(Unlike in the original Gungrave where every creature was just a basic model with a texture slapped on it like a cheap costume). The bosses aren't quite as cool as the original's but hey, you get many more of them so it's a fair trade.

The music is pretty much the same as the original. You get silence every now and then but the rest of the time you're hearing Jazz, and whatever else you'd hear on the average episode of Cowboy Bebop. Like the original it's a great soundtrack but you won't be hearing too much of it over all the gunfire.

I'll go ahead and throw out the word that this game is FAR superior to the original, and that's just coming through a single playthrough on easy. The original game was pretty much walk into an area and shoot. You'll dodge every now and then but that's it, but hell the game was so short(Under 30 minutes) you'd never really have the chance to sit around and pick apart all of the game's flaws.

Brief summary of part 1: Go through a stage, shoot hundreds of guys, get a high beat count by combining death and destruction, gain special attacks to further destruction and survival, fight bosses, give up on figuring out the storyline, The end.

Now with a sequel that is much longer, these minor issues could turn into really huge game-breaking flaws. Again I break out with the HOWEVER and say that Red has improved the actual gameplay immensely. Grave himself can still dive, shoot, jump, and use special attacks. Now though I'll go ahead and list the changes.

Shield: Now Grave can pull back and hit circle at the same time and bring his coffin down in front of him like a shield. This is good when you find yourself jumped and large numbers of people are shooting directly at you and need some breathing time before you make your counterattack. This is also good for defending yourself while you wait for your shield to recharge

Ground Impact(I made this name up): Another worthy maneuver can be done by jumping straight up and hitting circle. Using the Coffin you'll slam into the ground causing a minor earthquake that immobilizes the enemies for a brief period. This can be really useful for the more aggressive types that rush you down or when jumping down from a high place without getting shot full of holes.

Deflect missiles: Rather than dive around like a goon, whenever you're faced with the prospect of missile action you can swing your coffin like normal and fling it back at the baddie. This move obviously rocks, especially for the bad guys that shoot several rockets at once, you can continue swinging and knock them all back for big damage.

Shot combos: Rather than slamming the square button repeatedly like the original, you can hold it down to charge up more powerful shots. At full power you fire four shots. These easily wipe out minor enemies, put a serious hurting on bigger ones, and even damage bastards with shields and swords that deflect regular gunfire.

Coffin Combo: Now you can do a basic 3 hit combo with the Coffin, good for close-range dealings and actually makes the Coffin more useful in melee. Yes Melee isn't exactly the focus of "Gun"Grave but hey it makes for more interesting gameplay.

Mystery move: This is done by hitting R2. Stupid me should have read the manual since for now all it seems to do is leave me open to get shot at.

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This of course changes the gameplay quite a bit, since while you're still doing the regular stuff, the additional moves give you more variety and better options than just continually diving. The game uses the same rating system as the original so it's also good to use the new moves since they add Artistic points(And thus add to your score, unlocking special attacks, etc)

The special attacks are about the same, only instead of the four from the original you get three. However these three can be upgraded two levels each, making for a total of nine. They seem pretty similar for each character, the first set of three deals with frontal assaults. These are good for piles of enemies in the distance or for bosses. The second set deals with bad guys surrounding you. The third set is unique in that the first skill you learn in that set actually slows everyone else down/speeds you up for a limited time. So with this you can do your own bullet time/Matrix/Breakdown wackiness. Whatever the case I'll have to check out the rest of the goods on the next playthrough.

A few asides. As a nice bonus everytime you use a special attack your shield is filled(There's no longer a skill that just refills health). You only get four stocks for specials unlike the original(Which had 9 I believe). Using the higher level skills take more stocks.

The other two characters play more or less the same but there are still quite a few differences that I won't go over in this Pre-review(They are not exactly the same, just don't expect the Blind Swordsman to play like Ninja Gaiden or the Ghost Rocker to play like..um..Guitar Freaks). I will note that their storyline/cutscenes are different than Grave's.

The game, as I mentioned before, takes place over 9 stages that vary in length. You can expect to face at least two bosses in each. The standard system from the original applies here. You walk into an area filled with goons, you put multiple holes in them and then move on to the next area. With the new moves however you have more options to work with and the enemies have different plans other than "Shoot until shot". In the later levels they'll dive, hide, shoot from around corners, and do more stuff in general. The game is also more claustrophobic in that there are no instances where you are just wandering around waiting for the next assault(This was most evident in the original's awful last stage). The game is thus more aggressive, more action-packed, and more-fun in general. Expect to find yourself in situations where you are surrounded by guys of all types: punks with swords rushing you down, rocket launcher goons sniping you from behind, multiple tools with machineguns eating away your life, and of course the big guys that just slap you all over the place.

All of this stuff can lead to some very cool scenes, like diving backwards down a flight of stairs while wasting some guys, swinging your coffin to deflect a missile and at the same time knock out two swordguys, Spin around and waste a crapload of guys jumping in off the roof-tops or wherever, and belting out a wicked special attack when you're seriously in a bind. You'll be doing this in pretty much every stage but it never gets old unlike the original since you have the other options to work with. You can jump off a balcony, do the ground impact, waste some guys, charge up the shot combo and take out even more thugs.

Anyway this Pre-review should do it for now at least. I won't bother with anything story-related(It's a decent enough story for what it is, and it's certainly told better than in the original game) but eh. I'll hand out a final rating after I beat this game with the other two characters and punch through the harder difficulties(Easy difficulty is what it is..EASY..so I'm not doing the game enough justice by merely beating it on that difficulty and call it a day).

Now then, for $15 you can't really go wrong. You also get the three month subscription to PLAY magazine and hell..you could probably sell off the issues if you find anyone interested in them. If you're lucky enough you could very well end up with a game you only paid $10..or $5..or $0? Yeesh

Could be issues with getting a hold of a copy, course lucky me got it yesterday when I went to pick up my Guilty Gear #R and the game had just arrived.(Got it right out of the shipping box..Couldn't that be considered better than brand new?)

For the number whores:
Graphics = 7
Sound = 8
Gameplay = 9

Pre-review score = 8.5

Maybe this should have gone under Game Reviews? Nope..It's a Pre-Review goddammit.

**Frogacuda** · 17 Sep 2004, 10:40 AM

If it's a pre-review, why are you giving it scores?

**Roufuss** · 17 Sep 2004, 11:14 AM

I also like to think that the game is only 15, because I think the majority of people who bought and enjoyed Gungrave got it for 15 or less at all the clearence sales that happened.

I know I had no interest in the sequel (even though I loved the first game) until I found out it was awesomely priced.

Originally Posted by PepsimanVsJoe

Could be issues with getting a hold of a copy...

Amazingly, my EB got in two copies of Gradius V but six copies of this...

**Korly** · 17 Sep 2004, 11:25 AM

Holy shat, 15 bucks?!

I woulda picked it up last night if I'd have known that.

**Videodrone** · 17 Sep 2004, 12:37 PM

So, it is out. Hmm...Eb never called me about me pre-order yesterday...unless...my wife erased the message!

**TobalRox** · 17 Sep 2004, 12:42 PM

I thought this was next week for some reason, otherwise I would have picked this up when I got Guilty Gear... I'm loving all these budget titles... bring 'em on! Getting this game this afternoon for sure.