In this action adventure, you inhale tons of slime. The test reveals why it goes down like oil instead of getting stuck in your throat.
The two astronauts Becks and Rani are short of money. The next instalment for the spaceship is due and the fuel for their interplanetary journeys is eating a huge hole in the budget. On the brink of bankruptcy, the two finally come across an unexplored planet that emits an impressively large amount of mysterious energy rays. If they could find and collect the source of this energy, their financial worries would be over for all time!
After landing, it quickly becomes clear that the mission to recover this valuable resource will not be easy. A nasty gooey slime mass, affectionately known as “The Gunk”, has infested the planet’s flora like a virus. With the adventurous Rani, we jump right into the action and start collecting the disgusting black snot with a kind of alien hoover to save the planet. “
The Gunk is an interesting adventure game from a renowned studio. In the test, you’ll find out whether the latest adventure from the Steamworld makers is also worth your time and how much of it you’ll have to spare in the first place.
A hoover becomes a play tool
Sucking up the indefinable blobbs is wonderfully intuitive with the two analogue sticks of a gamepad as well as with the mouse and keyboard: hold it down and press a button! Elegantly and buoyantly, we suck from the first minute on like alien Vorwerk representatives after 20 years of service and clean the alien planet spotless.
It is a feeling both satisfying and irritating how much fun this virtual housework is, while in the corner of your eye you can successfully ignore the thick layer of dust on your PC case for weeks.
Over the course of the campaign’s total of 4-5 hours of gameplay, the suction power glove remains the only tool with which all tasks of this action adventure must be mastered. For example, small enemies that hide in the gunk like mites can be sucked up and used as projectiles.
Stationary poisonous plants are also sucked up vigorously and then uprooted with a powerful jerk. Also in boss fights, you guessed it… we cleverly dodge attacks to then apply the suction jet to the sensitive spot in the opponent’s back for a detoxifying connective tissue massage.
What else to do
In between the clean-up and combat interludes, we help Rani unravel ancient mysterious switchgear to penetrate further inside the alien world to the hoped-for power source. With the all-purpose suction weapon, Rani also picks up explosive fruits to blow up barricades or spits flower seeds into glowing puddles. The alien plants then sprout in turbo speed in these puddles, so that their foliage serves as a bridge or ladder immediately to previously unreachable platforms.
In addition, Rani is also equipped with a scanner that allows her to examine the animal, enemy and plant world of the alien planet more closely. Diligent logging for the encyclopaedia of the on-board computer unlocks upgrades for the power glove.
We can then pay for and produce these in the base on the computer with collected resources such as plant fibres or iron. A laser module that can be upgraded fairly early on is primarily used to activate remote switches that then move platforms or open gates. In combat, the laser serves rather reluctantly as a short stun beam.
Further upgrades improve Rani’s natural defences, lets her run faster or generate some life energy by collecting gunk. Major updates to her tools that would give Rani new abilities like in a Metroid game should not be expected in The Gunk. A little bit, the collecting of resources, which we have in abundance halfway through the game, feels like an unfinished game element, to which the matching counterpart with crafting and more updates was thought of, but simply not finished.
Charming after-work game for order lovers
The Gunk is over so quickly that the simple suck gameplay doesn’t start to get overly annoying despite all the repetition. Still, we would have liked a little more variety, especially in the enemy variety and the puzzles.
The search for the mystery behind the gunk infestation lacks big moments of suspense or surprises, but is again motivating enough for one or two evenings due to its entertaining narrative form. Above all, the relationship between the two mismatched space heroines is captured great via charming radio dialogue and natural-looking conversations.
The Gunk is not the next big thing from the SteamWorld studio, but action-adventure fans with a cleaning fim… er, Gamepass can safely put The Gunk under their Christmas tree as a little alien snack at the end of the year. You certainly won’t regret the entertaining sweeping week on the alien planet!
Editor’s verdict
For me, it was clear that I was going to play The Gunk as soon as it was released, because it’s from the people who made the fantastic SteamWorld games that I hold in high regard. Image & Form’s titles have always tried something new and The Gunk seamlessly follows suit. The action-adventure is positively reminiscent of the unused Luigi’s Mansion and Ghostbusters mechanics, and the gameplay delivers a shocking amount of satisfaction for me on a mechanical level. Who knew vacuuming could be so much fun?
The Gunk looks dated graphically, but is still pretty to look at. The alien world is believably alien and intriguing, the slime bubble physics work and the combat is ok because the controls are catchy and work well. I really like the two protagonists and their relationship. This is told in a charming and believable way and saves a little from the rather lame plot about the investigation of the mystery behind the black alien goo, which lacks moments of suspense and real surprises.
The fact that this problem is not more noticeable is due to the short duration of The Gunk, which I personally credit to the game. What The Gunk offers carries itself perfectly over the entire duration of the game and in my opinion more games should dare to be only as short as necessary. The game was not unnecessarily stretched or bloated by boring side tasks. An ideal game for a cosy winter evening.
