Sleeper of the Week: Gunvalkyrie (XBox)
Many of you may have played Gunvalkyrie when it came out for the Xbox. Most of you probably hated it. What I’m here to tell you today is that regardless of your opinions from renting it, it’s a damned good game. Ok, you may have at least 3 broken Xbox controllers on display due to sheer frustration from Gunvalkyrie. It happens. But you’ve simply got to give this one another chance!
Gunvalkyrie is a rather different Sega action game done by Smilebit, makers of such other classically frustrating games as Jet Set Radio and Panzer Dragoon Orta. It’s a virtual certainty that the programmers at Smilebit are required to come into work in full bondage gear. In fact, every Smilebit game is unbelievably hard. But hey, what’s a game without challenge? In Gunvalkyrie, you are tasked with obliterating hordes of rampaging insects to save the British Empire. Weird, huh? It has kind of a Starship Troopers feel to it, but much more graceful of course. The graphics, even for early Xbox, are very nice, and the music is excellent. A domestic soundtrack was even released, though I wouldn’t put it in my top 10 game soundtracks. What we really want to discuss about Gunvalkyrie though is the control.
Gunvalkyrie has one of the most non-standard, non-intuitive control schemes ever seen in a modern video game. It’s almost like Smilebit was intentionally trying to make a game that no one could control without hours and hours of studious practice. When I say hours of practice, I’m not exaggerating either. When I first played the game, it took me somewhere in the neighborhood of four hours to get a basic feel for the controls, and I still have trouble with some of the more advanced moves. L and R triggers for jumping and attacking, face buttons only to change weapons, use of both analog sticks at once to simultaneously control aiming and movement, the list goes on and on. It’s difficult to explain just how different Gunvalkyrie feels without letting someone play it for a while. In addition, you must also master a large number of very delicate special moves that combine quick thumbstick movements with timed button presses. In short, the game is damned hard to control.
Now that I’ve made it fairly clear what Gunvalkyrie is like from a control standpoint, I’d like to tell you to try it anyway! I found that once I got a feel for the controls, that the entire game was an incredibly rewarding experience. Once you really can control the game, you slowly realize that the controls make perfect sense. They’re actually quite elegant if you can use them as they’re designed to be used, and they make game play a very memorable experience. Flipping around in midair while hovering and drawing a bead on an enemy and then dashing down to the ground, all at high speed…it’s amazing the level of control that Gunvalkyrie gives you. You can do simply amazing maneuvers, but it’s much more realistic than the average game because instead of “Press A to do special uber-complex move” you instead actually have to execute that move flawlessly with a complex combination of inputs. It’s a daunting task, but it’s damned fun! Add to that the beautiful visuals, decent storyline and music, multiple playable characters (ok, two) and stress levels added by timed missions, and you have all the makings of a game that you’ll get a ton of gameplay out of.
I found it to be a very rewarding game, and one that isn’t just…over. So many games today are far too easy to blaze through, not really making the gameplay itself an experience, but more of a medium to slog through to get the gore or action or story out of the game. To make the controls themselves such an integral part of the game…well, it should be respected. Sadly, almost no one bought the game, and those that did mostly hated it. Almost all reviews talk about how horrible and clunky the controls are, and many people didn’t give Gunvalkyrie a fair shake when they did try it. If you want some actual challenge to your games, do yourself a favor and check out Gunvalkyrie. You might getfrustrated a bit, but you won’t regret it!
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Originally Posted by GobopopRevisited
