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Gungrave: Overdose takes place at some point after the 26 episode anime. Brandon is now “Beyond the Grave,” an undead killing machine that speaks even less than he did in the anime. Brandon, aka Grave, is a good person though, and when he’s ‘awakened’ by a friend named Mika, he’s ready for action, carnage, and other good stuff. The storyline in Overdose revolves around a new drug that’s become very popular in the area they live in. This drug isn’t just extremely powerful; it ends up destroying the user. Mika and her friend Spike (the computer guy) were sick of this, so they decided to start tracking down its creators and sending an already dead guy to blow them all to kingdom come.
Make no mistake though, Beyond the Grave isn’t invulnerable just because he’s dead—his body can still be destroyed beyond the point of restoration, so in effect, he’s like any other human, though able to withstand more bullets. The gameplay is fairly standard for a third-person shooter—it’s a third-person button masher. Grave doesn’t rely on a whole lot of weapons, but his small selection fits the job very well. Two extremely oversized guns? Check. Some kind of grave carried on the back to be used in close combat? Check. A host of extremely powerful demolition shots? Also check. I’ll go through all three.
In ranged combat, where the players spends the majority of his or her play time, Grave runs and strafes around blowing up things as well as bad guys. To do this efficiently, the player locks onto targets using the L1 button. By standing still and just hammering the fire button, Grave begins shooting a barrage of bullets in the general direction he’s facing. Grave will lock roughly onto enemies, but you’ll want to take care of enemies that shoot back at you first if you use this approach. Enemies come in a few general forms: those that fire bullets, those that engage in close combat, some that shoot rockets, some that charge you carrying explosives, some that’ll both fire at you and whack you over the head if you get too close, and finally the bosses. Throughout the game, these grow in strength, but the strategies the player will use remain largely the same.
When playing the game, you’ll find enemies reasonably far away from you, but they will get close and personal too, and that’s where the grave you carry on your back comes in handy. This can be swung around, causing a very good chunk of damage to whoever gets too close. This attack can also be used against rockets that are fired at you effectively sending them right back at whoever fired them, though there is a certain element of timing involved.
So what are these mysterious demolition shots? As you may’ve guessed, they’re special attacks that are used to eliminate of a large amount of enemies. These attacks are divided into a matrix of nine cells. There are essentially three types of attack, and each of these has three levels. At level three, the attack costs three demolition points, but will pretty much clear the room regardless of what’s there. Some attacks fire extremely powerful shots at one specific area, while others fire less powerful shots over a much wider area. You’ll eventually need every kind of attack you can get your hands on.
Early in the game, you only have a very limited selection of attacks, but at the end of each level your performance is analyzed. For instance, if you finish the level with a lot of health left or used the grave against many incoming rockets you earn handy bonuses. The better you do the earlier you get new special attacks.
It’s about time I talk about the shield players have. Those that have played Halo or its sequel should feel right at home. Right by the health meter (which is difficult to replenish) is your shield, which will take the brunt of the damage. If your shield is down to about fifth of its full power, you’ll want to hide for about five seconds or so, at which point the shield fills back up. If you take too many hits and the shield can’t protect you anymore, your health meter will decrease. Therefore, when playing it can be smart to size up the enemy and take a few at a time so that you don’t risk losing more of your health than you have to.
Boss fights are found quite often, and are for the most part diverse and interesting. As with most games, the key is to find the one vulnerable point and attack it with all your might. In Gungrave: Overdose, this may be to blow up the boss’s weapons first or run behind to its less protected back. You’ll often get a few tips from your friend Mika though, so you won’t spend too long looking for the solution.
As the storyline progresses, you bump into an odd couple of guys that are just as dead as Grave. Billy, the extremely American guitar player, and Juji, the pissed off Japanese soldier, are apparently also fighting the drug lords, and eventually they join your cause. These two won’t directly help you when you’re knee deep in mafia territory, but through cut scenes and dialogue sequences we hear of their exploits, so they are apparently nice to have along. Plus, when finishing the game you’ll get a chance to play as one of them, should you be so inclined.
I honestly didn’t expect all that much of a storyline in this game, and I feared that they had just taken a couple of interesting characters from an anime and dropped them into a standard third-person shooter, but luckily I was proven wrong. There’s more of a storyline here than you’ll find in most of the budget shooters out there, but I’d probably be left with a lot of question marks if I hadn’t watched the 26 episodes, so keep that in mind.
In terms of graphics, it’s better than what the low price tag suggests. The environments aren’t powerfully realistic and diverse, but there is some originality and variation. Of course, the most important thing in a button masher is to have stuff to blow up, and you’ll find plenty here. Modeling and texturing is decent, and so are the animations for that matter. My biggest complaint would be that it feels a lot like being a really confined area; it doesn’t add to the experience when the player is moving from “generic room with five enemies and one car” to “generic room with six enemies.” It would’ve been nice if the player could’ve done a bit more than just run around and shoot.
Additionally, Grave will have to jump onto boxes a few times throughout the game, and that’s when you see how clumsy he really is. We may’ve been spoiled by games like the Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia series, because those featured a much more diverse selection of abilities, such as being able to climb in the environments. It’s also very easy to lose a target the player used L1 to lock onto. This can be especially frustrating when fighting a boss and things are especially hectic.
Gungrave: Overdose’s audio is up to par for a budget title. The musical selection consists of fairly low-key and slow tempo music. Heavy metal or bland hip-hop would’ve been headache inducing, so it’s nice that the developers chose relaxing music for resting between battles. Also, the voice acting isn’t too bad considering it’s a budget title and comes from Japan, but there are times when you can almost imagine the voice actors standing in the studio, reading lines off a sheet of paper. Some of the bosses repeat one or two phrases until you’ve destroyed them, and that’s appears to be both sloppy and lazy. The sound effects, however, are well executed.
Conclusion:
When a gamer buys a full-price action game, he or she expects quite a lot. In some cases, that money is well spent and the player has a good time, but it’s easy to sometimes question whether that money could’ve been better spent elsewhere. With Gungrave: Overdose you’re paying about half of that, so it’ll probably be a much easier investment for some. It’s really the kind of game you can just buy on a Friday, finish over the weekend, and pick up when you’re bored and want to blow things up. It also helps that players can unlock characters and other neat things. (Though I do recommend that you watch the anime first to get an idea of what Grave’s motives are, but it’s not an absolute necessity.)
Ultimately, although Gungrave: Overdose doesn’t look or sound fantastic, and it doesn’t feature the most spectacular gameplay, fans of Gungrave and/or button mashers will certainly enjoy this title.
