The Gunk review: A gunked up game
Title: The Gunk
Developer: Image & Form
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Platforms: PC (reviewed on), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Release Date: December 16, 2021
The Gunk is an aptly named game as it is strictly a short and uninspired adventure. Although it offers some gorgeous environments to explore, it has some of the most forgettable characters, story, and gameplay mechanics I’ve dealt with all year.
We’ll start with the most important aspect which is the gameplay. Platforming is the majority of what you do and it feels good but not original in any sense of the word.
Most of the game is jumping around in what feels like 3D platformers of the age of Jak and Daxter or Mario Sunshine minus the collectibles, and then vacuuming up “the gunk” to start a puzzle-solving sequence, which usually entails pulling at one seed type or another to break open a door or grow some leaves to jump on.
I found that some of these leaves required you to jump at a perfect angle, I’m hoping this is patched out on day 1 but since it wasn’t at the time of this writing I’m including it. Most of the combat is the evolution of Luigi’s Mansion we expect from 4, vacuuming up enemies and throwing them to cause them to die in exchange for the crafting materials. This allows you to craft new gadgets after scanning enough materials to unlock them but I wouldn’t get too happy as most are useless and feel shoehorned in. These enemies are a minimal threat to you even the bosses are really easy to defeat and are majorly uninspired.
The story of the game revolves around the main character, Rani, and their partner Becks. These two crash land and have the most generic partner interactions from any kid’s movie ever, with Becks being the older sister type role and Rani wanting nothing more than to push forward on the adventure. The worst part is in the short campaign these two rarely stop talking their way through the most generic save the planet story ever which would be fine if there was any character development at all.
I will maintain that the environments of this game are absolutely gorgeous and that the game ran smoothly on both my Xbox one X and PC. It is a short story and I wouldn’t say it has a ton of replay value either.
The Gunk (PC) Score: 5/10
The environments are gorgeous and the game runs smoothly across all platforms, but uninspiring gameplay and a lackluster story leave much to be desired in this entirely mediocre action-adventure platformer.
A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.