Developed By: Japan Studio (Team Gravity)
Available on: PlayStation Vita (Original); PlayStation 4 (Remastered)
A month or so ago, while scrolling through the news app on my phone, I stumbled across an article claiming that Gravity Rush was the only worthwhile game ever released on the PS Vita. I had never heard of Gravity Rush, nor had I ever touched a PS Vita before, but I was still intrigued. Some quick research revealed that a PS4 version of the game had since been released and that, as a PSPlus member, I was able to play it for free.
It turned out to be quite the treat.
You start by waking up as a girl who seems to know as little about herself as you do. While walking around to get her bearings, a panicked bystander calls for her help. Some sort of black hole had appeared and his son is clinging on for dear life to avoid being sucked in. The bystander claims you have a superpower that makes you capable of rescuing him. Some controls appear on the screen. Suddenly, you’re flying towards a big piece of debris in the air and when you reach it, the camera quickly rotates so you appear to be standing upright. You just changed the direction of gravity for yourself and, from your perspective, the debris you just landed on is now the floor.
That’s the premise of the gameplay in Gravity Rush. You can alter the direction of gravity’s effect on you. At your leisure, you can fall upwards, sideways, diagonally, or in whatever direction you want. You float in the air, walk on walls and ceilings, pick up and throw objects, and slide across the floor (or wall or ceiling).
With these powers, our hero, who’s eventually given the name “Kat”, tasks herself with defending the city of Hekseville against monsters known as the Nevi. The Nevi are dark red creatures with bright weak spots on them. For smaller enemies, their weak spot is so big it’s basically their entire body. You can simply run at them and kick them to death (Kat likes to fight by kicking). For bigger enemies, you’ll have to maneuver yourself with your gravity powers to get access to their weak points.
Outside of combat, most of the gameplay revolves around traversing the city and fulfilling whatever task is needed of you, often within some sort of time constraint. There are the main missions, a handful of side missions, and a series of optional challenge missions.
The controls are simple and feel good. Flying around and pummeling enemies is fun. There’s a little finickiness here and there, but it’s easily forgiven by the game’s age and ambition (except for the controls for picking up and throwing objects; those feel awful).
Scattered throughout the world are crystals that can be collected and exchanged for upgrades to things like your health, damage output, and movement speed. Challenge missions also reward you with these crystals. These crystals are the only collectible in the game, and the fact that the reward for getting them is so great makes collecting them very satisfying. There’s plenty to go around too, so there’s no need to grind for them. During my playthrough, I didn’t go far out of my way for them yet by the end of the game, I still became quite overpowered.
We never learn Kat’s backstory, but we quickly get a sense of her personality. She’s a cheerful, optimistic, good-natured gal who loves to help others. When charged with doing community service, we see her happy to help restore the city’s crumbling machinery and infrastructure. When she’s forced to take shelter in a sewer having nowhere else to go, we see her cheerfully searching for furniture and decorating her new makeshift home. We don’t end up needing a backstory or a motivation; we’re so absorbed by her personality and her positive attitude that we like her anyway.
There’s also something about Gravity Rush that’s rather sex-positive. Although there are no explicit mentions of sex, there’s plenty of mention of Kat’s body and her attractiveness, but (almost) never in a way that’s disrespectful of Kat’s boundaries. She seems to enjoy it. Through glimpses of her thoughts, we see her craving love and sex just as much as anyone else. She’s aware that men want her and she’s genuinely happy anytime she gets a compliment on her body. It’s as if she’s inviting you to look, saying “There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Despite being released in 2012, Gravity Rush feels like a game that could’ve been released today. Time spent in loading screens is next to none. The open world has distinct sub-areas that are far apart from one another, but you can make the trek between them seamlessly, either by train or by flying to them with your gravity powers. Cutscenes are in the form of comic strips, and the game pops in and out of them seamlessly, wasting no time doing so.
Gravity Rush is a textbook case of a well-executed action game. The core gameplay mechanics are interesting and unique. The controls are simple and feel good. The art and the writing are endearing and engaging. The game is mindful of the player’s time and it doesn’t waste it. Gravity Rush is simply 15 hours of fun.