2017 has been a hell of a year for gaming. Impressive new entries in long-running franchises, new consoles, brand new IPs, and all of it starting right in January and not letting up until the very end. No one knew just how great this year would be until it happened and now I think it’s time for me to review the first game I was excited for this year- Gravity Rush 2.

After playing the remastered original back in January, I was really excited for this title. A unique premise to be sure, with a fun adventurous story and likeable characters. The game starts with Kat, our protagonist from the first game, working for a mining company in yet another settlement in the clouds. After a freak gravity storm, she and her friend Syd were swept away, waking up in this new location with Raven and Dusty nowhere to be seen. As such, a powerless Kat sets out to make a living in this new world.

Over the course of the game, Kat will regain her powers, search for the missing Raven, confront a corrupt government, learn more about her forgotten past, and prove herself once again to be a hero of the people. There are a lot of crazy twists and turns in the plot and I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that the game starts at a slow pace and gradually ramps up to the point where it moves at a breakneck speed. It’s another fun adventure that won’t really make you think or question anything philosophically, but will have you entertained for the majority of the playthrough, although it can get a bit too crazy and unbelievable towards the end, especially with the few gaping plot holes that go unfilled.

The characters in this game are also well written and surprisingly multi-dimensional. The side characters make for welcome cast additions and Lisa in particular has an impressive character arc herself. Kat is still a great character, with her upbeat and bubbly personality making her an excellent choice for the protagonist. And with Raven taking on the role of hero in this game as well, I was worried she’d just end up being an unoriginal, “too cool for school” kind of character, but she has a surprising amount of depth and is fun to have around.

The visuals in this game are also impressive. The style hasn’t changed much from the previous game, but the performance has improved a lot. While I’ll miss the pencilling-in effect of loading a new location from the original, the improved draw distance and even more massive scope of the game’s environments are incredible. There are a few moments of pop in, but they’re rare enough to be forgiven. The people are still dumb as bricks though, falling over, acting like cardboard cutouts one minute and mindless robots the next. I don’t expect each one to be a full fledged character, but simple things like getting out of the way when Kat comes barreling through would be nice.

The music is also a complete delight. While many tracks make a return, the new tracks are just as great as the old. Fun, catchy, atmospheric, and most importantly appropriately played for the events on screen, this is a great soundtrack to back the game, which is important given how much time is spent flying from island to island with nothing around but the music and atmosphere.

Unfortunately not everything excels in the presentation department. Much like the last game, enemy variety is sorely lacking. The first third of the game in particular sticks to approximately 4 to 6 different enemy types, many of which appeared in the first title as well. It’s a real shame, especially considering the fact the the Nevi are all just black blobs with glowing weak points, so making multiple varieties shouldn’t be that difficult. The bosses are still incredible and the new enemy types are a welcome addition, but overall it’s just a bit lacking. 

Also, while tilt controls can be turned off during gameplay, they still take effect while viewing the comic-style cutscenes, which can be a bit irritating and add nothing to the experience. Not to mention the use of these comic strips was acceptable in the first game due to the Vita’s limitations, but in a PS4 exclusive I’d expect more fully rendered cutscenes instead.

The gameplay of Gravity Rush 2 is nearly identical to the first in terms of design. Kat still has her signature ability to manipulate gravity and fall towards her destination. This allows for kicks, slides, and throwing objects from a stasis field. Missions consist of using Kat’s powers to complete various objectives which can include stealthily tracking people, delivering packages, or chasing after someone. Really though, they all just boil down to a fight against a bunch of goons or a boss. This is where the game shows its biggest strengths and weaknesses.

In terms of improvements, Kat now has much more variety to her moveset. In addition to her standard gravity kicks and special moves, she can now switch to two different combat forms with each offering unique abilities. As expected, the heavy form allows for more powerful blows and faster air travel speeds, but lacks control and ground speed. The lighter form makes speedy combat a breeze, but can leave much to be desired when it comes to power and airspeed. Both are welcome additions to the arsenal as is the improved usefulness of the stasis field, with more enemies catered to be weak to that ability and able to dodge kicks more easily.

The downsides however, are numerous and frustrating. Yes, the additions are nice and add variety, but the game still typically boils down to one of two possibilities- either Kat is using the stasis field to throw shit at the bad guys until they fall over or she’s gravity kicking them over and over until they’re done. Not only is this repetitive and unoriginal, but given its similarity to the previous game, the monotony is now much more apparent and less forgivable. 

Add to that the fact that upgrades just allow for more kicks instead of more powerful attacks and the combat ends up becoming somewhat stale somewhat fast. Even worse is that those sessions of kicks are typically broken up by losing the gravity gauge, falling to the ground until it returns, and the flying back up to continue the fight. It’s monotonous and unfortunate that enemies couldn’t pose a more tactical challenge.

Even worse, the portions of missions leading up to the fight tend to drag on as well. The first game had some fetch quests and story sequences, but in the sequel they’re much more invasive and lengthy. While it may be more noticeable due to the longer campaign, tasks requiring the player to fly from one entire city to another, taking minutes at a time just to finish a fetch quest and get to the action are straight up boring.

When Kat isn’t performing main missions, the side missions, challenges, and gem collecting are the names of the game. Side missions act like main missions, but tend to be smaller in scale and more story-driven. However, despite the main missions being flawed in this regard, side missions are often much more fun, due to the shorter length, unique uses of Kat’s moveset, and the fact that their stories are often character-driven instead of convolutedly plot-driven. Some are cute, some garnish a laugh, but they’re all generally fun to try out and offer a variety not seen in the story.

Challenge missions are similar to the first game. Timed events in which Kat must race to the finish or defeat a certain number of enemies to gain gems. These are fun and a nice distraction, even if they’re really nothing new. Performing well in the challenges rewards the player with gems, which can be used to purchase power ups from the menu. Speaking of which…

The last piece of the gameplay was my favorite part of the first game- gem collecting. Soaring around the map and checking every nook and cranny to find little purple rocks was exhilarating and unlike exploring in any other game before or since. Unfortunately, this feature has been made worse in this game instead of better. 

In the first game, gems could be found everywhere and finding them all required players to explore the entire map. Combined with the excellent controls, this offered a rewarding experience and it was really fun to fly around collecting everything. 

In this game, the gems are further apart, in hard to reach locations, and much more numerous than in the first. This, combined with the lackluster upgrades, the lessened novelty of falling around the sky, and upon returning to the original game’s world having to collect the same exact gems already found when playing the first game ensure that while this part of the game is still fun, it does fall into being a slog at some points. Gems can also be collected when mining, along with special ability-granting talismans, but the time spent doing so isn’t really worth the effort. All in all, what was once a fun mechanic used to explore the map hasn’t completely lost its luster, but definitely feels a lot more like padding this time around.

Lastly, there’s one problem that is extremely surprising in this game- the camera. In my review of the first game, I praised the developers for being able to create a stunning camera despite the insane action and perspective changes occurring on screen. Gravity Rush 2 keeps the same camera, but its design hinders what would otherwise work wonders. 

Many set pieces of this game take place in smaller, cramped spaces, meaning that if Kat hits some debris or floats into a wall, the camera switches with her. In these smaller areas, this happens quite frequently, causing the camera to jump around along with Kat’s gravitational direction. 

This game’s enemies also dodge and weave away from Kat’s attacks easily. While this does present a greater challenge, without a lock on feature allowing Kat to keep track of an enemy’s location, she’ll often fly right by them all only to have to slowly turn the camera around to fly back. It’s irritating and a huge disappointment from what is an otherwise great game.

Gravity Rush 2 is a sequel that tries to be bigger and more ambitious than it predecessor and it succeeds and fails in various ways. The combat improvements do enhance the gameplay a bit, but after only two entries franchise fatigue is setting in. Not due to oversaturation, but because the developers made things bigger without making them any better. Which is why Gravity Rush 2 for the PS4 gets a 7.5 out of 10. It’s still a good game, but I think we’ll have to wait until the next entry to see Kat truly shine. That being said I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did, be sure to like and subscribe to see more mighty reviews, dissections, and other gaming content. And as always, have a mighty nifty day today!