I am a Gungrave sicko. The goofiest series to emerge from the PlayStation 2 era lives rent free in my heart, with my darling undead boyfriend lugging his coffin everywhere I go.
But the 2022 modern incarnation of Gungrave, Gungrave G.O.R.E, was a little too oldschool. In my review I described it as a love letter to a time when your gaming experience was absolutely about bombastic style, personal fantasy and massive high scores – but that the developers needed to shake off some of the dangerous retro stylings of the game.
In what I can only describe as a shocking twist, it seems that developer Iggymob is not happy with the middling reception they received – and have decided to do a drastic rebuild of the game by way of a new incarnation known as Gungrave G.O.R.E: Blood Heat.
Take a look at the trailer:
Now, my immediate reaction was simple: The game does not warrant a visual remake. The issues with the game are mechanical ones. So, I went digging into what the fuck is going on here.
In an interview, Kay Kim (The General Director of Gungrave G.O.R.E: Blood Heat) clarified a few key things – most importantly, that this remake is not a vanity project:
Gungrave Gore Blood Heat is a full remake of 2022’s Gungrave Gore, taking everything fans love about the series, and that game in particular, and pushing it further for the modern era.
The newly added systems preserve the legacy while delivering a modern and more explosive feel. We’ve worked across many areas, including level design, motion, visuals, player interactions, and the combat system – everything about Gungrave Gore Blood Heat is an improvement on what came before.
Immediately, those are some promising things to read. Simply labelling “the combat system” as a point of improvement is pretty bold, but the fact they mention level design as a targeted change means the game isn’t just a new lick of paint.
Now to address that particular paintjob. G.O.R.E originally blasted onto the scene as PS4 title, utilising the Unreal 4 Engine, and in this same interview Kay Kim confirms that the game is being rebuilt with the Unreal Engine 5 and harnessing “the power of modern hardware”, so visuals will get an update. I hope they figure out some of the more concerning issues with UE5, considering that companies far larger than Iggymob are still shipping UE5 games with intense shader stutter.
The unanswered question that is on my lips is a simple one – if this is a rebuild/replacement of Gungrave G.O.R.E, will players who already own it receive the new title as a free upgrade? Or are they pushing to make this rebuild so substantial it is deserving a of a new box cost?
I will absolutely be keeping a close eye on this one, if only for how bizarre and unique the situation is for a game in the modern era. More details as they emerge, fellow Gungrave weirdos.
Are you keen to rediscover Gungrave? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games
