Gravity Rush Remastered is a remarkable game that uses the power of gravity to add a refreshingly new flavour to the action-adventure genre. The game has an incredibly unique set of gameplay mechanics which are complimented by it’s quirky comic book style of storytelling; which makes a cosmically crisp combo. Most games of a genre take the same basic recycled ideas without trying to add anything particularly interesting or new, but that’s definitely not the case for Gravity Rush Remastered – it takes risks. Risks aren’t always a good thing as this gravity-centered title showcases by bringing forth a plethora of interesting concepts and ideas that somewhere, in all of the potential got muddled and executed poorly.

Rush Hour

The game starts you off in the sewers as the main protagonist, Kat, waking up under a tree (a silly nod to Newton’s law of gravity) without any knowledge of her past. Soon after, a black cat named Dusty crosses by your path and grants you the power to manipulate gravity. Once you exit underground you learn that Hekseville, the city you’re in has lost 4 different sections due to a new phenomenon called ‘Gravity Storms’. Along with the storms come the main antagonists called the Nevi, which are black and red creatures that wreak terror among the civilians. Your goal is to defeat all the Nevi, reunite the lost city, save all the civilians, all while you try to figure out your own identity problems.

Originally a game for PS Vita, Gravity Rush Remastered looks beautiful. The cut scenes are shown through comic book panels with a lot of good dialogue. Getting to the peak of one of the sections of city and gazing in awe at the murky skyline is a great activity to do because each quadrant has it’s own different attributes. Every chunk of the city is also accompanied by it’s own musical soundtrack depending on where you’re located. Be it the calm symphonic tunes of the main branch of town or the uptown jazzy soundtrack of downtown you’ll always be satisfied with the background music.

I’m not gonna lie, the second I learned how to use my gravity powers I ignored the first mission and just flew around exploring the beautifully cell-shaded city. That initial feeling of lifting off of the ground ignited a childlike joy in me. I mean who wouldn’t want to fly around a spectacular, intricate city? It was an amazing experience, the physics and atmosphere are just so mesmerizing and could invoke anyone’s inner desire for flight, regardless of age.

Having fun and testing out the limits of your spacial powers is cool and it’s also a good because exploration is very much rewarded. While you survey the city you get to collect a gratuitous amount of gems which you can use to upgrade your powers, you can find different portals that you can use to warp to different parts of the city, and you can take up side quests to unlock different costumes.

Time Spacial Sickness

Straying away from missions isn’t a bad thing, in fact, it’s one of the best parts of the game. After the first couple of story missions they start to become predictable and boring; defeat this area of Nevi, walk over to the next one and defeat these Nevi, then fight this big Nevi and you get the city back. This was an annoying rudimentary process. A couple of times the unique controls backfired because I encountered enemies that were just too difficult to face with components that restricted my ability to fight.

Being bombarded by constant waves of Nevi was a disheartening experience, but that’s not what bothered me the most about the game. The hidden enemy of motion sickness that emerged halfway through the game really took a toll on me for the rest of my time playing it. It was surprising to me because I’ve never felt sick because of a game before in my life, so to check out this issue more I asked a couple of other people to try out flying with the gravity manipulation and the uncomfortable feeling hit them way faster than I expected. It got even worse than that because further on in the game that feeling becomes more and more prevalent.

Winding Up

Gravity Rush Remastered is a perfect example of a marvelous idea gone awry. While I enjoyed the story and many aspects of the games aesthetic, it was buried under motion sickness and repetitive gameplay. It tries to stick out of the genre by introducing interesting concepts, but the gimmicks don’t hold up. The gravity system was neat to play around with, but it needs to be more polished for a remastered Playstation 4 game. I would definitely recommend you try out Gravity Rush Remastered, but be aware that the gravity shenanigans you have may make you sick.

Overall Score: 7/10 (Good)