14 DAY TRIAL // 
I hover a thick braid of weird, dark, annoying matter, trying to juggle a few small enemies that keep popping up from a bigger mass of the same substance to attack me. It’s not difficult or fun but I need to get all the gunk away from the land to open up a new way to explore the surrounding landscape. This in turn will take me to some resources and my next objective. The ooze that has so far escaped my suction is all above me, with the camera doing me no favors as I try to get at it. Still, no gunk can escape my attention if I want to push forward.
The Gunk is both developed and published by Thunderful. The experience is out on the PC using the Xbox App and gamers can also pick it up on home consoles from Microsoft. This is a fairly standard third-person action title with some interesting elements.
The pair that drives the story forward is made up of Becks and Rani. They are space truckers trying to make a buck who stumble upon a planet where the mysterious substance from the title is present. The pair might be focused on getting some precious metals or tech to pay the bills and fly to a better place. But they cannot ignore the gunk and its effects on the world, so they settle into a rhythm of clearing it out, finding new spaces to explore, and more secrets to uncover.
Players control Rani, with Becks providing backup and commentary. The writing is mediocre, with both jokes and emotional moments sprinkled throughout. The narrative does not go to any innovative spaces, but it works pretty well, with themes that resonate with the modern world.
The Gunk’s core gameplay mechanic is a massive tech glove that Rani wears. It is mostly used to suck up the gunk, eliminating it from the environment, which makes the planet green and flowery again. The glove also offers a scanning option, to be liberally applied to various elements of the environment. This allows Rani to get access to upgrades and the resources to buy them. It’s unclear why Becks, who is very worried about her partner’s safety, does not simply offer them outright. Maybe it’s because of the increasingly powerful influence of future space capitalism. Or maybe it’s simply a matter of not connecting narrative to mechanics.
The title does not add any significant innovation to the three-dimensional platforming space. There’s a little combat but it is not challenging or varied. There are puzzles, including some that require specific upgrades to the Pumpkin glove, but they don’t involve any complex planning or execution. The Gunk is very laid back in its approach to progress and never places any pressure on the player to deal with all side activities.
Everything suggests that this game is mostly aimed at a younger audience that wants variety and beauty, without too much depth or frustration. For players who want this kind of experience, it works well and delivers a solid and tight package of fun that does not overstay its welcome.
But for all the mechanics there are other titles, both classic and new, that offer improved versions with more immersion or cooler situations. The development team needed to add innovation to make their experience truly engaging. I would have liked to see the gunk as a more capable and organic force, moving around the landscape, creating problems for the careless player, maybe even reclaiming some space that was cleared and seemed safe.
The Gunk certainly looks good. This is a game that seems designed to show off the kind of big, bright worlds that can live on the Xbox family of consoles. It’s pretty on the PC as well, especially when an area shifts from being dominated by the gunk to overflowing with greenery. The world could have used some weirder locations. The sound design does not deliver the same quality as the graphics department. The voice work is engaging and suits the relationship of the core pair. The score stays mostly in the background, although it does a good job of underlining some gameplay moments.
The Good
- Exploration and movement
- Some character interactions
- Gunk design
The Bad
- Limited mechanics
- Limited narrative ambition
- Gunk design
Conclusion
The development team has had plenty of success with its Steamworld series of titles. The Gunk needs to borrow more weirdness and innovation from that series to become something more than a collection of mechanics and narrative moments that never feel more than the sum of their parts. The game needs more oozing, more slithering, more dripping.
Review code provided by the publisher.
