The Gunk

The Gunk is an entertaining adventure with a message about pollution and industrialisation. with a likeable protagonist. The pacing is a little drawn out toward the end of the six to seven hour journey, but there's a great visual style and an enjoyable game to experience.

The Gunk has a fantastic setting and lovely characters, but ultimately the gameplay is lacking.

The characters' relationship bolsters the story and sucking up goo is satisfying, but The Gunk doesn't offer much that players won't have seen before.

As the journey shifts and becomes a bit darker, there's a real flash of steel at the core of it all. If you've played the SteamWorld games, you'd probably expect this, but it's still a delight to see a game like this built with such craft and obvious humanity. I started The Gunk worrying about how one of the great 2D design teams would cope with three dimensions. The truth is they cope so effortlessly that I just spent the next four or five hours gloriously lost in what they had built.

There’s a lot to love about The Gunk even if the core gameplay rarely rises above being pretty OK. It’s a good adventure through a unique and pretty alien world, filled with character and life. Rani and Beck are a good team and their dialogue is great fun, even as the pressures mount on their relationship.