The Gunk Analysis – Caring for and Respecting the Environment Around Us

The Gunk comes to Xbox with the intention of becoming one of the best games of the year.

The human being has always had from time immemorial that need to explore, to discover new lands and learn more about them. However, there was always something that fascinated us more than anything: space travel and discovery. Well, although few games have been able to satisfy this interest in unknown space and its inhabitants, aliens, The Gunk arrives to fill that space in the Xbox catalog. In addition, I warn you that we can be satisfied with the result, because it fulfills all these wishes and more. We are going to discover a new planet!

dirt is the ambitious next step for Image & Form Games which, until now, was best known for its Steamworld series. Always in 2D, always in the same steampunk universe, their games have been developed with the greatest care, but they have never been titles that have reached the general public. That changes with The Gunk, its most important and ambitious title to date.

The story of The Gunk puts us in control of Rani, a young woman who, with her partner Becks, is part of a space exploration and mining equipment. Rani is a chatty, curious, and lively girl, while Becks is down to earth and generally more down to earth. Yet, you are both in the same boat (or spaceship in this case). The problem is that you barely have any money in between, so the next job has to bring us a lot of money or we will be doomed to a sea of ​​debt and uncertainty. So we land completely unexpectedly on a desolate planet. with an unusual energy signal and we will quickly get down to exploring it for money.

Instead, what you find is to the famous Gunk (dirt in Spanish). To be in all parts of the planet like a kind of dark mucus that affects all the fauna and vegetation on the planet, therefore our job will be to get rid of him and discover the wonders that this mysterious planet hides. Fortunately, we are equipped with something to deal with it: a prosthesis in our arm that can absorb and store it. The device works like the famous vacuum cleaner of the Luigi’s mansion or Mario’s water backpack in the marvelous Super Mario Sun, games that you can access immediately as soon as you get to the controls. Once the Gunk wears off, a wave of energy brings the neighborhood to life.

As we get rid of the Gunk, we can also scan and classify various plants and minerals once eliminated, which helps increase a search bar that unlock upgrades for our character. You can also find resources like metals, “organic” and “foreign” materials, which you can spend to build these upgrades. In addition, the levels often reveal secret passages or the means to pass to another certain area, which will allow us to discover new plants, as well as materials.

This all happens in the third person and with a artistic section bordering on the sublime. The Gunk arrives at the end of the year with the justified pretext of to be the most beautiful game of the year. Rani is a wonderfully animated and detailed character, but the real star is the world in which we move. But what will surprise you the most about The Gunk is how attractive he is. This is not a combat oriented game, as there are only a handful of enemies and only a dozen fights against them. The key to the game is in combat-free exploration and small scenic puzzles, which makes it a perfect game to relax while we have a more “intense” game, like Halo Infinite or Forza Horizon 5.

In addition, The Gunk is a warm song, with a great atmosphere and such a positive message. which is recommended for everyone. Some of our favorite games have given us a world or group of characters that we want to spend as much time as possible. Well, The Gunk joins this list for its own merits. Rani and Becks They have a relationship full of “tug of war”, but they are two characters with a wonderful bond and it shows that both want the best for the planet, although it is not his world. The message The Gunk wants to leave us revolves around take care of the environment, to have enough hope and optimism that bad decisions made can be corrected. A fantastic message that we could all use to hear.

Regarding the gameplay, vacuuming the stages is a real pleasure, since we clean the unsightly snot from an area and then we observe it how a green shock wave revitalizes the environment. In addition, the sound and visual design is in incredible harmony, with an excellent soundtrack, making it one of the most immersive games of recent times (we recommend playing with headphones). This has even more merit if we take into account the developer is a studio that until now had made very small indie games.

The good work of the game extends to the puzzles, which are mostly about finding a way to access certain areas using the environment. The way to do it will be to unite the natural elements of the environment, like seeds and puddles, which will allow us to access new areas. In the last sections, the puzzles reach levels of environmental manipulation that we have never seen in any other game. Too bad it’s only at the end, because at the beginning these puzzles are usually very easy.

As a story, The Gunk never stops curdling, and this is where we can say that its greatest flaw lies. We’ve seen the history of the planet a thousand times over in other products, as well as a clear parallel we want to make with Earth. The dialogues are warm, but uninteresting and the ending leaves us with a bittersweet feeling. During the first two-thirds of the game, The Gunk seems like a wonderful odyssey across an alien planet, but the last third repeats, causing you to cross the same area twice with the same objective. These repeated sections wrap up one of the best sections in the game, but that sense of repeatability is there, which can be frustrating. The Gunk also doesn’t give you enough time to understand and spend time with his enemies, so there is no real satisfaction in defeating them. The fact that the game is all about combat rather than exploration and flora, which is what stands out most about The Gunk, only underscores how flawed the ending is.

But let’s be clear, this is not enough to contaminate the good feelings generated by The Gunk. It’s a very enveloping and beautiful fable, so I loved coming back to it every time we were away. It might not be long (in 5-6 hours we’ll finish it) and it might not do anything groundbreaking, but The Gunk gives off such good feelings every time we take command that it is. more than enough to be clear that we are facing one of the games of the year.

And if that wasn’t enough, The Gunk is available on Xbox Game Pass since its launch, so do not hesitate to take advantage of this small and warm adventure which will make you relax and enjoy a wonderful universe.