Reaching Greater Heights | Gravity Rush Remastered Review

After its initial release on PlayStation Vita, Gravity Rush had a small, but loyal following. Gravity Rush was finally a unique exclusive on the console – and it was really, really good. It was so good that, in fact, it almost felt like the Vita was holding it back somewhat. A small 5-inch screen contained a beautiful open world, and the Vita’s dainty thumb sticks made navigating with precision a chore. Luckily, one of the Vita’s best games just got remastered for PlayStation 4, and Gravity Rush has never been better.

Gravity Rush puts you into the role of Kat, an amnesiac who has the power to manipulate gravity to her will. Kat only has this power when she’s around an astral cat that she names Dusty, and it’s up to Kat and her new powers to defeat evil monsters called Nevi that have invaded the city of Hekseville.

Falling – with style

With Kat’s gravity powers, your primary power is, well, falling. But it’s absolutely exhilarating. By pressing R1, you can change Kat’s center of gravity to decide what will be her “ground,” and changing the perspective on the whole world.  What makes falling so much fun is that it actually requires some finesse to navigate around the city and in combat. It wasn’t as simple as learning how to fly, and with time I felt like I was really learning how to control Kat’s powers, and it made aimlessly flying through the city something I actively pursued.

In order to upgrade Kat’s powers, you’ll need to locate purple gems that are scattered across all of Hekseville. While some gems are easily obtained, others will require you to explore anywhere from the tops of the tallest buildings to the depths of the city’s underbelly. But with how much fun flying, er, falling around the world is, collecting these gems is just icing on the cake.

With the move from Vita’s five-inch screen to a TV, there’s definitely a better understanding of the scale that Gravity Rush offers. Gravity Rush breathes so much better on PlayStation 4, as it’s much easier juts to see what’s going on in the game. The incredible art style was pretty on Vita, but it’s absolutely gorgeous on PlayStation 4.

Not only does it look better on PlayStation 4 – it plays better, too. Will a dualshock 4 in hand, it’s much easier to control Kat’s powers and it significantly improved my accuracy with attacks compared to when I played Gravity Rush on Vita. The range of motion offered with the dualshock 4’s joysticks made each move more precise, and I was much less frustrated with the combat than when playing on my Vita.

Controls? Much better on PS4. Lock-on system? Still pretty bad.

Now, that being said, one of the most antagonizing elements from Gravity Rush on Vita is still, unfortunately, my main complaint with the game as a whole: the terrible lock-on system. The combat primarily focuses on air battles. You can use Kat’s gravity kick (something you’ll spam a lot) and it will home in on an enemy. But that’s the inherit problem. It’s unreliable, and it can turn epic dogfights into an unfair gauntlet all too quickly. There’s moments when you’ll miss a Nevi’s core completely and somehow the game will curve Kat’s kick directly at the weak point. Too often though, the exact opposite of that happens, and what seems like a direct hit will glance off an appendage of a Nevi or miss completely. It’s not that if feels like you’re missing an enemy, it just feels like the game is making you miss.

Don’t get me wrong, the combat is still a load of fun. Defeating Nevi can be a blast, and when you level Kat up, you’ll rip apart once strong enemies like it’s nothing. Outside of the aforementioned gravity kick, you can attack enemies on the ground with basic attacks, and there’s a rechargeable ultimate attack for when the amount of enemies becomes overwhelming. Oh, and there’s the ability to pick up objects and hurl them at your enemies. But, trust me, you’ll probably just default to the gravity kick.

Other than the story mode and gem collecting, there’s also a lot of challenge missions for you to tackle to test your gravity wielding skills. These can reward a lot of gems, so placing a silver medal or better is a fast way to level up your skills. What I really enjoyed about these challenges was that they really force you to use all of Kat’s powers to get gold medals. The gravity slide, which feels like snowboarding on whatever surface you choose, is a really awesome power, I just wished all of Kat’s powers were incorporated as well in the main story.

All three DLC packs from the original release are included in the remaster. They include Kat becoming a maid, a spy and even becoming part of the special forces. Besides the three new costumes, all that’s offered with the DLC is some short story missions and a few new challenges.

Gravity Rush Remastered is the definitive version of Gravity Rush, and it’s a fantastic title for revisiting Vita players and for those who missed out on its original release back in 2012. With the incoming release of Gravity Rush 2 sometime in 2016 (barring a delay), this is a nice appetizer for what’s to come.

This review is based on a review copy of the PlayStation 4 game Gravity Rush Remastered, provided by Sony Computer Entertainment.