An alien world in the furthest reaches of space becomes the backdrop of The Gunk, an action-adventure that packs an incredibly brief linear campaign, a barebones story and a lot of dark, gloopy muck to clean. Playing as Rani the player embarks on a mission to eradicate the Gunk from the planet, scavenge resources to craft several useful upgrades and discover why it has covered the planet in the first place.
Boasting stunning environmental art design, overly simplistic gameplay and a rather safe and straight-forward narrative, The Gunk is a tale of exploration and adventure that is oozing in as much charm as its titular muck that needs eradicated from every corner of the mysterious planet.
Rani’s partner Becks remains at their ship, the Dust Bunny, and communicates with the player regularly via radio. Equipped with a robotic vacuum arm, Rani can suck the Gunk off the terrain. Once an area has been completely eradicated of the dark substance, it is transformed from into a lush and vibrant environment that reveals jump pads to reach new platforms, a variety of resources to collect for crafting and environmental puzzles to solve. The Gunk serves two purposes as both a plot device and a smokescreen for progression.
Due to the linear nature of the story, the way forward is only ever made clear when the Gunk has been cleaned from the area. It can’t be avoided or ran past as absorbing the Gunk with Rani’s vacuum hand is required for progression. Due to its overwhelming presence in every new area of the planet, the task becomes extremely tedious very quickly. Aside from sprinting, jumping, climbing ledges, and unlocking upgrades that can shoot plasma balls from Rani’s mechanical arm, the gameplay throughout is essentially absorbing the Gunk to reveal jump pads and environmental puzzles to solve such as throwing certain plants into pools of water to create giant flora platforms or opening gates, before moving to a new area to repeat the process.
There are only three enemy types to encounter throughout the adventure and only one of them poses much of a threat to the player. Luckily, for the player, these are few and far between. The lack of enemy variety strips away any fun and enjoyment to be had from the limited combat. The world has stunning visuals and it is disappointing to see such uninspired enemy variants and limited combat.
The platforming and environmental puzzle solving is simple and varied enough to be a welcome break from the task of cleaning Gunk. With only a small handful of situations that aren’t immediately obvious, these puzzles aren’t likely to frustrate and are a welcome distraction to the otherwise tedious affair.
Each area Rani explores is distinct and range from dark caverns to ancient ruins and lush forests. The Gunk is visually exciting but. There are 58 different objects to scan that are required to unlock additional upgrade blueprints to craft. Flora, alien life forms, natural resources and other things can be scanned with Rani’s scanner and none are particularly hidden.
Collecting a variety of resources offers little incentive to venture off the beaten track as only a few of the upgrades are necessary to progress the story. Thereis little reason to do so for those players just looking to experience the story. Each of the seven explorable regions have a beacon which serves as a fast travel point once activated. These beacons can be used to return to Rani and Beck’s ship where the crafting table is accessed. Dependent on the amount of resources collected, new upgrades can be made to allow Rani to use her vacuum arm in different ways, including absorbing Gunk at higher rates or increases to running speed.
The score is beautiful at times, feeling relaxing and calming while offering dramatic beats and ominous melodies when called upon narratively. The audio-visual presentation is certainly the strongest asset in The Gunk and adds layers of charm to an experience that certainly needs it when considering its lacklustre story and gameplay.
Dayne