The Gunk review: An interesting premise that lacks innovation

The Gunk is a game developed by “Image & Form” and published by Thunderful Publishing.

It is a 3D platform and puzzle-based adventure game that revolves around two girls, Rani and Beck, and their effort to free a planet from corruption called “The Gunk”. While the premise of the game is interesting, it ultimately fails to deliver anything special about the genre.

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The game seems to lack innovation and, therefore, often feels tedious. The game suffers from an identity crisis where it fails to justify the target audience.

The Gunk’s initial story feels good, but it soon starts suffering from lack of innovative writing

The Gunk begins with two inter-planetary scavengers, Rani and Beck, who are traveling to a new planet in search of something worthwhile. These two scavengers make their living by selling whatever they collect.

Therefore, they land on this new planet to find the best possible resource to sell in their homeworld. Rani is the primary adventurer in this story whom the players will play with, and she has a machine attached to her hand, which she calls “Pumpkin”.

The Gunk is a story about cleaning and scavenging (Image via The Gunk)

This machine is basically the only device players will use, and it works by sucking in all forms of substances. Thus, as soon as Rani starts exploring the planet, she eventually comes across a form of black gooey corruption, which they term “The Gunk”.

Rani clears up the Gunk using her device and finds out that it was suppressing plant life in that area. Eventually, they realize that the entire planet has been corrupted with this organic substance, and they make it their goal to free it of the same.

While the story initially feels interesting, it soon starts becoming boring. The problem with the story is that it is something that is not new to gaming or, in fact, any form of media. Other platforming games like Ori and the Blind Forest or Hollow Knight feel so different because of the unique stories that they have.

While the initial story is good, eventually the game becomes boring (Image via The Gunk)

The Gunk’s story, on the other hand, feels monotonous and uninspired. As players move forward in the story, they will discover that a civilization used to live there, and then they will try to find out more about it. It is pretty much an old wine in a new bottle.

However, while the story is lazy, sometimes it can be made up through interesting gameplay. The issue is that the game fails even more miserably in that department.

Gameplay

As mentioned earlier, The Gunk is a platform and puzzle-oriented game. Therefore, there is very little focus on combat and more towards solving puzzles and finding the route to progress further.

While it sounds quite good, the problem is that the puzzles are way too easy. Almost every puzzle revolves around clearing Gunk, opening up the area, and moving forward.

The puzzles in The Gunk are way too easy (Image via The Gunk)

There are a few aspects, such as using natural explosives to remove blockades or throwing ball-like plants into puddles to develop natural elevators, but nothing out of the ordinary. Most puzzles take barely a few seconds to solve, and eventually, it gets very annoying.

It almost feels as if it would have been better if the game just let players walk free as the puzzles do not serve any purpose. In fact, it looks as if the game was made to appease players who think platforming games are tough.

However, the problem is that even they will find it boring as the game does not provide anything to grip the players in place. While the puzzles are very easy, the adventure part is not that good either.

Throwing ball-like flowers into puddles creates elevators like this one (Image via The Gunk)

There is zero exploration as the game is way too linear. It is almost impossible to ever lose the way as the game makes it very obvious on what route to follow. In fact, if a detour even exists, then it is very small and is only to collect materials for upgrades.

Regarding upgrades, the game does have certain customization options. Rani’s machine can be upgraded to provide an advantage in new areas. However, players will never need to worry as the game pretty much spoon feeds on which upgrades are needed and at what time.

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Apart from that, the materials for upgrades are so abundant that players will never have to spend any time collecting them separately. As long as they collect those while progressing through the story, they will have everything at their disposal.

Performance

When it comes to performance, the game does feel quite well optimized. It runs with constant FPS in almost all settings.

Throughout the entire playthrough, there were no crashes or freezes, which is always a good sign. The Gunk, however, does not provide a lot of customization options, which is a disappointment.

Performance wise the game is quite good, though it lacks customizations (Image via The Gunk)

Players can only change the brightness, screen mode, resolution and graphics quality. The graphics quality option is limited to Low, Medium, High and Ultra. Players cannot go for custom options like volumetric lighting or ambient occlusion.

Positives

Amongst all of these negatives, there are a few positives in the game. The first one is definitely world-building. The game is extremely colorful and vibrant. So it looks quite good once the players clear off the Gunk.

In fact, that is one area where the game nails down quite well—removing corruption and bringing out beauty. This aspect is showcased quite literally within the game.

The world of this game is quite beautiful and colorful (Image via The Gunk)

Secondly, during the first playthrough, players might find the idea of discovering an ancient civilization interesting. It will be fun for players who like moving inside dungeons and opening locked doors to find out something new.

Overall thoughts

Overall, The Gunk is a very average game at its core. The story is boring, the gameplay is too easy, and in general, it is one of the worst platforming games out there for sure.

While the industry is gifted with games like Ori and Hollow Knight, The Gunk is a game that will find it hard to have a place in the top 20 of the same genre. This game feels like a chore, and eventually, players will just want to get over it as soon as possible.

The Gunk is a game that held a lot of promise but failed to meet its potential (Image via The Gunk)

As mentioned earlier, the one positive thing about the game is that it is quite colorful and vibrant. Once an area is cleared of The Gunk, plant life springs up immediately. Once that happens, players will see a very polished and beautiful world.

Unfortunately, the game does not have anything else to back up that beautifully crafted world.