That’s partly because the glove upgrades you unlock by doing all that scanning are equally a bit lacklustre. It does, at least, mark up what is and isn’t scannable with little notepad icons that change colour once you’ve logged it, but overall I can’t help but feel it’s all a little undercooked. As it turns out, despite everything looking like a valid (s)candidate, there are in fact just over 50 scannable objects to find in The Gunk, which meant a lot of the time my scanner was falling on dead air. I wanted to absorb every bit of information I could about this strange, reverse ocean bed, especially since the visual language of the surrounding landscape seemed to be deftly sidestepping that classic video game problem of only the very prettiest and most obvious bits of stage furniture laying claim to a revealing bit of flavour text. Let loose in this gorgeous world, I started firing off my scanner left right and centre. The more stuff you scan, the more upgrades you eventually unlock. At first, the game almost seems to be following the same space tracks left by games like No Man’s Sky, tasking you with scanning the local plants for data and scavenging for resources in order to upgrade your power glove. You play as Rani, who ventures out to clean up the titular gunk and investigate that strange energy signal while Becks keeps watch back at base. There’s a witty playfulness to their dialogue that makes them a fun pair to hang out with over the course of this five-hour planet hop, and I hope we get to see them and their slightly borked yellow delivery bot Curt (whose only line is an increasingly mangled but endearing take of “You’ve got served!”) get another outing in the years to come. Language aside, Rani and Becks make for an affable duo, and their snappy and rambunctious radio chatter reminded me a lot of Aliya and Six from Inkle’s Heaven’s Vault. Apart from a few cheeky Easter egg nods in Rani and Becks’ ship, this is a standalone adventure that would be great to play with the kids over Christmas if it weren’t for the occasional swears. ![]() The Gunk isn’t related to the SteamWorld universe. There’s a lot to like about this 3D action platformer, but it’s missing that spark to really make it sing. That said, while Image & Form have clearly navigated their 2D to 3D transition from an art perspective, their typical flair for adding their own spin to different genres has been less successful. ![]() If this is what they’ve been holding back on all these years, then their upcoming action adventure SteamWorld Headhunter should be a real treat for the old eyeballs. Despite its gloopy namesake, The Gunk is frequently stunning, its soft pastels and coral-esque flora showing such an eye for jaw-dropping visuals that it’s hard to believe this is SteamWorld developer Image & Form’s first ever 3D video game. A burst of light, a shruum of sound, and the world is instantly transformed back to its former glory. Your reward for scooping up all the gunk in any given area is the kind of graphical wizardry video games do best.
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