- Platform: PS4
- Genre: Action/Adventure
In a lot of ways, Gravity Rush 2 is entirely a sequel by the numbers. It’s taken both the good and bad of its predecessor and given us what is essentially a larger, more colorful package with a new story. To some extent the game felt like a couple of separate games plugged together in the middle, with a nice epilogue to round things out. Ultimately though, this melding of everything worked out and made the game worth playing.
The first thing that fans of the first game will notice is that this game is fantastically colorful. The new city of Jirga Para Lhao is a huge step up from Hekseville in presentation alone. Soaring through the sky just running through the city is still the best part of this game, and it’s absolutely more beautiful than ever. The idea of everything being bigger and brighter sort of becomes the theme of the changes. Rather than the flat upgrade system of the previous game, there are now non-stat ability upgrades AND talismans, acting like customizable add-ons for Kat. Rather than just one set of powers, there are now two new forms that supplement Kat’s ability set, giving much needed to the combat system. Rather than just running around one city, you now get two (as well as a pretty substantial side trek after the first time the credits roll). Basically, a lot of what made the Vita original so enjoyable is all there, but with some added layers on top of it to expand it into a more typical AAA experience.
However, it’s this idea of bigger and better of the original, rather than better for the sake of being better where things started to sour for me. In some ways, this sequel feels like they didn’t really learn anything from the original game.
Although entirely due to the nature of the gravity shifting, the camera is still dead awful. This is combined with boss battles that often lose a noticeable horizon to result in combat that can often be at best disorienting. The camera also tended to deal with blockers extremely poorly, resulting in Kat disappearing and losing complete sense of direction any time I was near a wall or large enemy. It’s also worth mentioning that motion controls haven’t really translated that well from the Vita to PS4, though they are entirely optional. However, using just the right analog to control the camera results in a lot of the lack of precision problems typical of action games on console. The combination of poor camera and somewhat finicky controls resulted in combat situations again being my least favorite part of the game.
The challenge areas and climb through the World Pillar also make their return in this game, and like the original, they often go on way longer than are necessary. These areas basically exist to remove core mechanics from the game in order to present players with different gameplay. However, rather than feeling challenging, they often simply slow the game’s pace down, as there are more than enough other powers to get through the game safely.
Like the first game, the story was what kept me going through the game. However, this one was somewhat disjointed. My best non-spoiler description of the story is that it felt like it was supposed to be comprised of at least 2 games the length of the original, with the epilogue chapter being absolutely important, but not large enough to be a third on its own. The TL;DR here is that the first half of the game is in the new city, the villain is defeated, and you’re off to Hekseville. The second half of the game has a seemingly new villain, and only at the very end of this portion, and specifically in the credits, are the connections to the first half of the sequel, as well as HUGE revelations to the first game and anime revealed. The two halves have their ties, but ultimately felt like it was planned as two Vita-sized games that were squeezed together to fit into a PS4 game.
The strangest thing here though is that after the credits roll, the game was not remotely complete. There’s an entire multi-hour epilogue to the game that wraps up the series’ story, as well as reveals the entirety of Kat’s back story prior to the first game’s start. Fans of the series absolutely must complete this, as it completes the entire saga across both games. However, because it wasn’t tied to any of the core story, it kind of exists on the side and can easily be missed if you turn off the game after the credits roll for the first time.
In the end, this was a strange game. Anything that was a plus or minus in the first is still here, so you kind of know what you’re going into if you’ve played the first game. The gameplay definitely has some fundamental problems with pacing, controls, and camera, but it’s still a fun game at its core. The story itself is also great, but feels like it was three independent ideas that were shoved into one game to complete the series. Given how neatly everything was wrapped up, I suspect this was the last we’ll see of Kat’s adventures, but if it is the end, they did a great job wrapping up the story in a complete fashion.