Your favorite Gravity Queen and her feline is back and this time better than ever! Gravity Rush 2 returns this time exclusively on the PS4 and improves upon the first game in nearly every way.
Gravity Rush 2 centers around the story of Kat and with the help of her feline companion Dusty she is able to manipulate gravity for herself and objects around her. This is the main highlight of the game. Traversing the worlds in Gravity Rush 2 is a complete joy. It is very reminiscent of Insomniacs Spider-man for PS4 in the sense that I find myself just flying around without an actual objective just because it is so enjoyable. Although there is a meter for your gravity gauge, simply canceling your gravity powers for a couple seconds will allow it to refill completely. Doing both story quests and side quests are most rewarding when you level up and your gravity meter gets larger.
One reason why traversing is so fun in this game is the aesthetic of the worlds. I had just played the remastered version of the first game a month or two prior, but good lord does this game improve it. Right when I began I was stunned at how gorgeous it looked. It felt like I was right in a comic book. After experiencing the first game and seeing how this game looked, I could not wait to explore. The colors are vibrant, the textures pop out, and the comic book style cut-scenes look like you just tore it straight out of the page.
Speaking of comic book cut-scenes, usually I am one that hates cut-scenes where I am just constantly pushing a button to further the story, I generally want to sit back and watch the movie. However, this game's the exception. The comic book cut-scenes with occasional dialogue spoken in the language created for Gravity Rush make it so entertaining. The comic book scenes look gorgeous; it feels as if you are reading it straight out of the book, the art is amazing and the colors really pop.
When it comes to the actual plot it is kind of a mixed bag and I understand it is not for everyone. I had a reviewer I really respect describe the story at certain parts to be “anime bullshit” and I can see where he is coming from. With that being said I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! This can very well be because I am such a Weeb and love my anime and manga, and the story made me feel like I was watching an anime and I was so intrigued from start to finish. I feel that if you enjoy anime you will enjoy the main story. In addition, any final questions that you may have had from the first Gravity Rush, should be answered in this game.
One of my biggest pet peeves in video games, especially RPG’s is when the side quests don’t make me feel involved. However, Gravity Rush 2 side quests make you feel involved as their is a reasoning to why you are doing everything. They are usually random mini-games, but their is a believable story reason as to why the Gravity Queen is doing favors for the citizens of Hekesville. These side quests range from being a stunt double in a movie to taking pervy pics for an old man. You are genuinely interested in completing them and seeing what happens instead of just doing it for completion sake.
Without spoiling too much of the game, Gravity Rush 2 offers 2 new forms that are designed to change up the dynamic of the game. This would be a very welcome mechanic to help change up the game and offer some more variety. However, I feel like this addition mostly misses. Unless it was a situation where the story made it mandatory to use the forms, I found myself sticking to the traditional form to complete the game. Hopefully they can improve this there is a next game.
One of my favorite parts of Gravity Rush 2 is the DLC. If I had to change one thing about the gaming industry as a whole it would be micro transactions, its something that is here to stay, but if I pay for a game, I want the whole experience. This is where Gravity Rush 2 does it absolutely perfectly. Aside from one pre-order bonus costume all the downloadable content is absolutely free. This includes several costumes from Nier Automata and Phantasy Star. You also get a couple costumes if you have saved data for Gravity Rush remastered. However, the best part of the DLC is The Arc of Time- Ravens Choice. This DLC is around 3 hours featuring the popular Raven and the story is very entertaining with a good amount of challenge. Having a free DLC story like this is something I hope other games would be willing to add.
This is a minor flaw with the game that I don’t really know how to fix. The gravity Kick which is the main source of combat in this game. Essentially the gravity kick is when you are floating in the air, find an enemy and press square to send a kick flying at the enemy. However, I occasionally find myself flying off the screen. This is very frustrating so my initial thought is that I wish that they included a lock-on system in this game. However, if they were to implement a lock-on in this game it would take away from the skill involved and make it far too easy. If they make a sequel, I hope they can find a way to remedy this situation.
The biggest flaw is with the dusty tokens. These are certain tokens you can get by posting pictures online to the Gravity Rush 2 servers and if you get certain amount of likes you earn dusty tokens. However, when I tried to upload my pictures, I found out that THE SERVERS ARE DOWN. This was very disappointing because I missed out on certain costumes. To be fair, I played this game several years after the game had been released, but for me to miss out on costumes because the servers are down is very disappointing.
Although it didn’t bother me it may be bothersome for others. The fact that Gravity Rush 2 is a sequel means the story will be very confusing to have it be the first game to pick up. Thankfully they remastered Gravity Rush for the PS4, but I definitely recommend playing that first before stepping into Gravity Rush 2 to avoid being too lost. It is only around $30 so if you never experienced the first one, it is what I recommend stepping into.
PROS
· Entertaining Story
· Exciting Traversal
· Great Side Quests
· Comic Book style cutscenes
· Free DLC
· New Forms
· Amazing Visuals
CONS
· Lack of Lock-on
· New Abilities aren’t very useful
· Dusty Tokens/ Canceled Online Servers
· Need to play first game
CONSENSUS
40 Hours later completing the main story plus all the side quests and I had an absolute blast. I had barely touched the challenge missions so there is still so much to do. The minor flaws in Gravity Rush 2 do not take away from the experience. This a hidden gem with the PS4 and improves upon the first game in every way. If you enjoyed the first game, I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy this game. A worthy successor and hopefully we can get a third game one day.
RATING
9/10: EXCELLENT
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