If you haven’t heard of developer Image and Form’s newest game The Gunk, you wouldn’t be alone. Honestly, we here at Honey’s Anime didn’t hear much about it either. After watching trailers and seeing early screenshots, we began to feel intrigued. This adventure platformer with vacuum cleaning elements had potential in our eyes, but is the final product a home run or a big mess? Let's find out in our look at The Gunk!
Cleaning Can’t Get much More Fun!
The Gunk wastes little time showing you what you’ll be doing as Rani, the main character of this otherworldly adventure. Rani lost her arm in the past—the story explains how early on—and now has a power glove-like device attached. With this strange gizmo, Rani can literally vacuum objects around her in various ways.
When you aren’t cleaning the planet from what’s called "gunk," you’ll be collecting resources to power your arm and grabbing items to solve puzzles. The Gunk is a game clearly meant for all ages, as rarely did we find ourselves screaming in frustration or dealing with hard puzzles. Yet, the simple cleaning element and puzzle-solving make The Gunk a fun little game to play when you need something less involving.
Cleaning Can Also Be a Bit…Boring?
All jokes aside, while cleaning is one of the main elements of The Gunk, we have to admit your mileage playing will vary immensely. The Gunk can be relaxing and great when you need a break from getting headshots and grinding characters to fight a boss, but we did find ourselves sometimes getting a bit sleepy while playing The Gunk. Maybe due to how relaxing this game is, you might find yourself wanting to play The Gunk while drinking coffee or having just woken up from a nap, not when you want to take a nap.
Beauty Under that Mess
For an indie game, The Gunk is surprisingly breathtaking. While the character designs are a bit…questionable…the visuals and setting are truly gorgeous. We found ourselves walking around scanning objects to learn more about this pretty planet and wanting to clean the gunk off any surface we found. Who knew cleaning could be so liberating and lead to some beautiful revelations?
Fun Dialogue, Not Fun Voice Work
The last element we want to talk about in The Gunk is the story/dialogue. Rani and Becks are the main duo of The Gunk, and their friendship is legendary. How they both interact with one another feels genuine and heartwarming, which, in turn, makes every scene with them a fun bit of storytelling. However, the voice acting is a bit hit or miss.
At times, The Gunk’s voice cast seems to not know how to best approach their characters, diving between serious voice work and then sometimes overly mellow tones. If you would have had a triple-A cast of voice talent in The Gunk, we’d think this duo could be the next Jak and Daxter. As it is, The Gunk isn’t hard to listen to, but don’t expect anything other than an okay voice cast.
Final Thoughts
The Gunk is a fun little indie title that we really find enjoyable to play. Rani’s adventure is relatable to all ages and all who love exploring danger just to see what awaits ahead. The Gunk suffers from some overly simplistic gameplay and voice acting but, in the end, we really think you should give it a chance—especially if you love older games like Jak and Daxter or Blinx: The Time Sweeper. Props to those who remember both of those titles!
Are you playing The Gunk? Why not let us know your thoughts via the comments down below? Be sure to keep stuck to our super clean hive here at Honey’s Anime for even more game reviews and articles!
Author: Aaron