Overall: 8/10 Story: As someone who was completely unaware of the Gungrave series before playing this game, I honestly had no idea what was going on for most of the narrative. There's a "History" tab on the main menu that gives you a recap of the two previous PS2 games, but there's no voice over for any of it, and it crams a ton of lore into such a short summary that I honestly lost interest before I could even TRY to understand everything. Even then, I don't think knowing all of the previous lore would have made much of a difference because the story here is still complete nonsense on its own. At its most basic, the plot revolves around stopping a mutagenic drug called SEED and taking down the Raven Clan before they can use it to spread their influence across the world, but that's really just the setup for everything else. The narrative mostly exists to bridge the gaps between gameplay, and constantly sends you to different locations so you can mow down hundreds of enemies before eventually killing the next boss. It rarely develops beyond that, so the story never feels like it's building toward anything interesting. On top of that, there's virtually no character development, the pacing feels disjointed, and it's filled with cliche story beats that never leave much of an impression. I could probably spend the rest of this review going into more detail about everything wrong with the narrative, but it ultimately comes down to the fact that I never found myself invested in it. I don't know if the stories in the original PS2 games were any better, but this one feels like little more than an excuse to connect one over-the-top action sequence to the next. Outside of longtime fans who will probably appreciate the callbacks and fan service, I can't imagine anyone is playing this for its story. Gameplay: The gameplay is easily the highlight of this entire experience and, despite not evolving all that much over its 8-10 hour runtime, I had a great time with it. Still though, I completely understand why some people find it repetitive, and I won't even argue against that criticism because it's true to an extent. Even so, I think this game is an amazing "junk food game" where you can just turn your brain off, relax, and shoot some dudes up for a few hours. The gameplay loop is incredibly simple, but it's also ridiculously satisfying. It revolves around blending continuous dual-pistol gunplay with heavy coffin melee attacks to build massive combos against hundreds of enemies, while also mixing in powerful demolition shots to increase your art score (which is essentially how much flavor/style you put into your kills.) Rather than worrying about reloading or conserving ammunition, you're encouraged to tap the trigger almost nonstop while weaving around incoming attacks as the game repeatedly locks you inside combat arenas until every enemy has been wiped out before opening the next path forward. There really isn't much more to it on a technical level, but I honestly don't think it needs to be. The controls feel smooth, the combat flows naturally from one encounter to the next, and mowing through enormous groups of enemies never really stopped being satisfying for me personally. It's not trying to reinvent the wheel or push the envelope with new, groundbreaking mechanics, but it doesn't have to. It feels like a love letter to the kind of over-the-top PS2 action games that were more concerned with making you feel cool than constantly introducing new mechanics every hour. World: When it comes to the level design, things literally can't get more linear. This game alternates between narrow hallways that restrict your movement and small-to-medium open chambers that mainly exist to serve as enemy deployment zones, but every stage is still just a straight-line shooting gallery at the end of the day. There are no hidden collectibles, branching paths, or non-combat puzzles to break things up, so you are basically always being funneled forward as fast as possible. A few set-piece stages like the moving train or the Scumland Refinery at least try to shake things up with environmental hazards, moving platforms, or timing constraints that force you to keep pushing aggressively, but the core of it all is still just you making your way through one hallway after another. That said, while I'll be the first to admit that there are a lot of generic-looking manufacturing plants and grey concrete labs, there is still a surprising amount of variety in the visual identity between stages that AREN'T in those environments. After spending hours in factories and the like, even something as simple as being dropped in the jungles of Vietnam felt refreshing, and I honestly respect that. So no, the levels are never going to make you stop and smell the roses because of their structure or art design, but they still do the job they need to without feeling outright repetitive. Visuals: In regards to the visuals, I don't think Gungrave G.O.R.E. looks bad during gameplay by any means, but this is definitely one of the weaker aspects of the experience for me. Despite releasing in 2022, the graphics constantly reminded me of something from the late PS3/early PS4 era. That's obviously not an insult in itself because there are plenty of great-looking games from that generation, but even so, I was still a little surprised by how dated the overall presentation felt. Character models and environments are perfectly serviceable while you're mowing down hundreds of enemies, but I never really had a moments where I stopped and thought the graphics looked particularly impressive either. Where the presentation really starts to fall apart, however, is during the cutscenes. Every cutscene in this game is prerendered and locked to 30fps, which only reinforced that PS3-era feeling for all the wrong reasons. Furthermore, the longer, exposition-heavy cutscenes are generally well directed/animated and do a decent enough job of carrying things along with a certain cinematic flair, but most of the shorter, more transitional cutscenes before and after boss fights honestly look pretty rough, almost like they were placeholder cinematics that the developers never got around to polishing before release. Lastly, I firmly believe any game released in the 2020's should properly support ultrawide, so I was pretty disappointed to discover that, although the settings let you select resolutions all the way up to 3440x1440, this game doesn't actually support ultrawide displays and being stuck with the infamous black bars on both sides of the screen throughout the entire game was an unfortunate surprise. Music/Sound Design: I have pretty mixed feelings about the music. I didn't love it, but I didn't really hate it either. Like the level design, it feels like it exists to support the gameplay first and foremost, and in that regard it does its job well enough. The tracks keep the action moving without becoming distracting, but none of them ever stood out to me while or after I finished playing. It's serviceable, but ultimately forgettable. The sound design is a bit more uneven. Gunshots, explosions, and all of the environmental destruction have enough weight and punch to contribute in making combat feel satisfying, but the English voice acting is some of the worst I've heard in a while. I obviously can't speak for the other dubs since I only understand English, but basically every performance sounds flat or phoned in, stripping what little dramatic weight the story had away almost entirely. The game clearly leans into a cheesy "B-movie action" vibe, but the performances never felt intentionally campy or stylized. They just sounded awkward and detached. I ended up switching to the Japanese dub pretty early on since it felt more fitting for the game's lore and setting anyway, and even without understanding the language, the performances sounded noticeably more convincing.