A Force of Attraction- Gravity Crash Review

Gravity Crash comes stocked with a level-editor, which will feel very familiar to fans of Little Big Planet.  The level editor is both robust and intuitive enough to allow gamers to build a fully playable and cohesive level, complete with enemies, collectables and secret passages, in just a few minutes.  For those of you who scoff at level building, you certainly can’t deny that a steady stream of user-created levels will keep this game off the proverbial shelf for a long time.

Despite its straightforward presentation, there is a lot to do in Gravity Crash.  There are artifacts to collect, power ups to grab and even a Lunar Lander mechanic that you can use to pick up stranded crewmen.  Unfortunately, the game does very little to encourage the player to do any of it.  Every mission starts by saying “get/shoot X-number of Y” and over the course of the level, you will pass dozens of things that are not  Y, some of which are not worth points, that you will inevitably ignore in your quest to collect or wreck all the Ys you can find.  It gets particularly frustrating when you very carefully set your ship down on a plateau measuring 2-inches wide, only to collect a pack of thankless crewmen who don’t even have the decency to give you some points for your trouble.

If you consider yourself a shooter fan or if you get teary-eyed at the sight of something that references the Decade of Neon, then give Gravity Crash a try.  Those with the self discipline to endlessly collect without reward will find a great deal of content to keep them happy for years to come.

DesertEagle’s Take: Among E3’s endless array of 3D titles, each encroaching upon photorealism, was Gravity Crash. With its luminescent, faux-vector graphics, the title easily distinguished itself from its peers. Once, I got my hands on Gravity Crash, I found the game’s mechanics to proficiently evoke an amalgam of beloved arcade diversions. The title’s craggy environments hinted at Gravitar and Sub-Terrania, while the altruistic rescue of stranded civilians recalled Defender and Choplifter.

Gravity Crash’s storyline tasks players with being a cosmic custodian, performing a compulsory clean-up after an inequitable civil war. Each of the game’s thirty missions offers a single screen of instruction- from collecting a specified number of crystals, to destroying an enemy silo, which is all the impetus most veteran players will require. Each object is conveniently color coded- greens represent friendly units, while red are hostiles. As Sean mentioned, the scoring for each of these actions is perplexing. Small spotlights which invite fastidious demolition offer no point reward, as does scuttling any broken crafts that dot the playfield. At least, defeating unarmed enemy combatants earns a small bonus.

As players navigate around each environment, they will be confronted by the game’s moniker. Each planet has a gravitational field that pushes the player toward the bottom of the screen, and makes drawing a constant bead on a target unlikely. Opposing the downward force requires players to engage their craft’s afterburners, which is tied to a limited fuel supply. Although yellow crystals can be mined to replenish your energy, their appearance is often controlled. Occasionally, my ship’s fuel warning indicator would frantically wail, as I raced around the level, trying to recall where I had last spied a precious resource.

Those intimidated by the complexity of Little Big Planet’s level creator will be happy to note that the title’s editor is extremely intuitive; I was able to create a moderately interesting level in less than ten minutes. Thankfully, Gravity Crash doesn’t gimp the gadgetry- all of the game’s stages were built using the in-game toolset. Players may download creations made by friends or scour through the most popular levels, although the browsing interface is a bit sparse. I would have liked to see a thumbnail before blindly downloading a stage. Currently, some of the user-generated content rivals the quality of the in-game levels, which seems like a hopeful harbinger of the title’s future.