Gunbrella Review

Murray Poppins

Gunbrella is a 16 bit action platformer with sprinkles of Hotline Miami, Katana Zero, Ape Out and Carrion, which are all, coincidentally, Devolver Digital published. Your wife has been killed, your daughter has been taken and the only clue you have is the titular weapon that can not only blast people apart, but can also send bullets back at them and float you to extreme heights. Gunbrella is much more than just another stylish action platformer, as it offers unique gameplay and plot undertone that is surprisingly relevant.

Highlights

The highlight of Gunbrella is not the modified umbrella, but the relevancy of the story to many current events that are told through a bloody neo-noir lens. Doinksoft, who are most known for the chromatic Metroidvania, Gato Roboto, spent most of the time developing Gunbrella during the pandemic and it’s easy to see how their frustrations with climate, corporate greed, misinformation, police brutality, and obviously isolation get channelled into this game.

Although the topics are heavy, there is plenty of wit that keeps the game light and obviously plenty of violence to make such extreme topics palatable, but these heavy themes are only there if you want to find them and what you take from the story will likely depend on what you took from the pandemic.

There are points in Gunbrella where the level design and platforming come together in harmony like the factory later on in the game. This area requires you to string together jumps, floats, and rides on pulleys at the same time as dealing with enemies. Unfortunately, areas like this are the exception, and not the rule.

Lowlights

Then there are few minor quality of life issues like a sell all button at the vendors and a control remap feature as switching between your ammo never felt natural and usually required a full stop, which was an issue with the fast pace of the game and with left trigger and left bumper completely unused, there was room for change. There were also a few minor technical issues like occasional frame drops but it was hard to tell if it was a style choice or an optimization issue.

The biggest problem the game has is the inconsistency of the bosses. It’s arguable that the first boss was the most difficult and became easier from there. They werent lacking originality, they were lacking an element of precision and skill, as the most common strategy used was brute force. The rest of the enemies in the game provided more strategy with the requirement of proper timing and deflection.

The final boss was taken down in seconds, which ties back to an earlier issue because of how tricky it was to switch ammo on the go, there was a surplus of 36 sticky bombs, which allowed me to overwhelm the boss. What Gunbrella was building up to for the past 6-8 hours ended in something slightly unsatisfying and anti climactic.

Another Devolver Game Worth Playing

With a thin veil of blood, monsters and revenge over a story that is germane to many of the current world issues and a gameplay mechanic, that although is not fully utilized to it’s maximum potential, is still a unique experience. Gunbrella finds room in the already crowded action platformer genre and is another Devolver Digital game worthy of your time

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