Gungrave VR

I’m not going to lie; I knew nothing about Gungrave before tackling Gungrave VR, a brand new PSVR exclusive published by XSEED. It took me a while to find out this is not only a sequel to a series of games released for the PS2 that garnered enough interest to be transformed into an anime, but also a prequel of an upcoming third mainline game in the franchise, slated for the PS4 in the near future. My lack of knowledge towards the fact Gungrave is an actual franchise made me tackle this VR t...

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Gungrave, like when it debuted over a decade ago, is an acquired taste. It’s rigid and not particularly welcoming, two qualities that are exasperated in VR. Despite its problems, I’d welcome another go at Gungrave (or a revival of that Planet Gunsmoke Trigun game), and it looks like we’re getting it. But you can skip this outing.

“Not another virtual reality shooter,” we hear you sigh. Yes, another one, but this time with a relatively recognisable name tacked on: Gungrave. For those that don’t know Gungrave VR isn’t the first title in the series, as it debuted on the PlayStation 2 in 2002 and did well enough to get a follow-up title, Gungrave: Overdose in 2004. This new PlayStation VR title is a prologue for a sequel Gungrave: GORE, but will it resurrect the series from its 13 year slumber or send it back to the grave for good?

Despite being only 45 minutes long, Gungrave VR manages to showcase an overwhelmingly high amount of terrible decisions, boring gameplay, and barebone plot.

Play literally anything else. Absolutely any half assed $5 indie game on the PSVR store will be more entertaining than Gungrave VR.

Gungrave VR  comes across as a game where the devs were hyped for the possibility of VR but didn’t know the best way to utilise it for an engaging experience. It’s very short, there’s no coherent story, the camera feels weird and not well implemented in the third person mode, and it all feels a bit bland. There are much better ways to spend your time and money unless you really have an hour to kill and Gungrave VR gets a very deep discount.