Gunbrella Review (Taz)
I really wanted to like it, but ultimately the game kinda fell flat for me. I got past the middle point of the game before giving up, partially due to bad directions from the game (I was asked to find an NPC, Francine, without any guidance to where she might be, and despite looking everywhere that came to mind, I couldn't find her).
The game isn't a *bad* game. It does a lot of things right. Graphically, it's quite nice looking, reminding me of old flash games from Nitrome, and the music is really good. Another thing I'd give praise to is the movement-- your controls are pretty tight and dashing, floating and swimming with the gunbrella feels really nice. Unfortunately, at least from what I played, none of that movement ever really feels... necessary? The game is very easy. Even on the hardest difficulty. Given the movement the gunbrella gives you, you can effortlessly outmaneuver any and all enemies, as well as pretty much all environmental dangers in the entire game. It feels... full of potential that just never get tapped.
The combat was alright. But again, you never quite feel the need to make much use of the various tools you get. Generally speaking, mashing your shotgun up against enemies over and over gets you through all fights without difficulty, and while different ammo types exist to add variety to the gameplay (sawblades, rifle ammo, grenades, etc) swapping between bullet types feels a bit unintuitive and crucially, the cost of ammunition is so expensive you never really feel like you can 'afford' to experiment with different ammo types when you have infinite shotgun ammo that does the job just as well if not better than the other options. (Particularly when the ammo cost competes with upgrade parts which you'd much rather spend money on)
The story is alright. I appreciate the character dialogue, and how different people talk... though I have difficulty explaining just what i like about it, I suppose you could just say it's charming. The worldbuilding is alright. There's a couple innovative concepts. I was surprised that there were a few points in the story where I could make a significant choice that had consequences. I suppose that's a plus-- there might be more in the parts of the game I didn't get to.
But ultimately, the lack of challenge in enemies and bosses and generally uninspired platforming segments meant I wasn't too thrilled to see what was around the corner, and the lack of walkthroughs and guides meant I couldn't move past the hurdle of poor signposting with finding the NPC I needed to progress the main story. Maybe get it on a sale?