Gori: Cuddly Carnage review

Sweden-based Angry Demon Studio must have some amazing brainstorming sessions. The indie developer’s latest game feels like it was built from a lengthy list of the team’s favorite game concepts. Everything from slow-motion depictions of bloody butchery, button-mashing combat from titles like God of War or Devil May Cry, to wall-riding and rail grinding are all part of Gori: Cuddly Carnage’s chaotic jaunt. And yes, there’s even a photo suite, because someone on the team probably liked in-game photography.

And while it can feel like the title is a” jack-of-all-games, master of none” Angry Demon manages to keep the pacing taut, which helps to conceal the game’s minor blemishes. With eight stages and a handful of challenge trials, Gori offers the kind of succinct, budget-priced experience that’s a reprieve from the weekly blitzkrieg of triple-A blockbusters. So, if you appreciate those ambitious but not quite refined B-grade titles from the PlayStation 2-era, Gori might be worth adopting.

Gori: The Obvious Story Behind the Name

Set in a dystopian world where cuteness has deteriorated into decay after AI pets eliminated human civilization, Gori is a sentient Cat-bot who’s skilled at boarding. Play offers a succession of varied set pieces that attempt to keep the momentum high. Most common are the arena battles. Here, Cuddly Carnage seals the exits, and makes good on its subtitle, as you use your arsenal to kill waves of mutant, maniac toys.

Within and outside of these showdowns, Gori offers plenty of opportunities for hoverboarding riding. Some of these sequences offer simple tests of reflexes, as you navigate a series of double jumps, wall rails, and grinds, allowing for some Jet Set Radio-style stunting. Intermittently, you’ll encounter Crash Bandicoot-style sprints as you attempt to stay ahead of danger that’s chasing after you. Best of all, Cuddly Carnage delivers an ample supply of money shots, typically exhibiting our protagonist in action, with an explosion or giant severed head serving as a backdrop.

The Helpful and Homicidal Hoverboard

Undoubtedly, Gori’s variety of mechanics is competent, yet not faultless. Combat should be praised for giving players plenty of possibilities, with your hoverboard channeling the versatility of a Swiss Army Knife. If you prefer aggressive play, go ahead and ambush those projectile-blasting enemies, putting an end to their gunfire with your spinning hover-blades.

Alternatively, you can trade some power from your boost gauge to cause your board to flare out and function like a shield. You can also boost your medium and heavy strikes, intensifying the range and power of your hoverboard’s attacks. And mercifully, Cuddly Carnage doesn’t always require a specific type of attack for each of its enemies. There are the occasional bubble-housed unicorns that require a good flailing and bosses with a particular susceptibility. But largely, you can cleave through Cuddly Carnage as you’d like.

But that’s not to say every combat choice is uniformly polished. The game allows you to trigger Glory Kill-like executions, rewarding your butchery with extra health and boost. But unless you’re mashing your controller bumper, you’re likely to miss the button prompts, which are often shown off-screen. And while wall-riding and rail-grinding are mostly responsive, you’ll encounter the odd tumble that didn’t feel like it was completely your fault. On the upside, Gori’s tempo doesn’t give you much time to dwell over it. Back to the chaos, kitty.

A Shoddy Script for Cuddly Carnage

Narratively, Cuddly Carnage employs several familiar archetypes for your secondaries. There’s everything from motor-mouthed reworking of Claptrap, a character that embodies existential anxiety, and enough beeped swears for a half-season of South Park. And while the premise of potty-mouthed toys has potential, the ruse only works is the script is sharp. Ideally, the exposition would have all been told through the game’s well-drawn comic panels, rather than cinematics that feel like they’re part of a botched 2008 Adult Swim pitch.

But given Gori’s healthy exposition-to-action ratio, the anemic storytelling isn’t a deal breaker. Instead, credit needs to be given on the title’s scalability. On Valve’s Steam Deck, Cuddly Carnage can be tuned (medium preset) to output at a rather steady sixty frames-per-second. Alternatively, those with burlier rigs can render Cuddly Carnage’s pastel and neon wastelands with more visual luxury, although even on an RTX 3070Ti, Gori exposed the occasional sputter.

Conclusion

Although Gori: Cuddly Carnage is built from an inventory of familiar concepts, it doesn’t feel like most contemporary games. Instead, Angry Demon Studio’s title feels like one of those underdog PlayStation 2 games that publishers would take the irregular chance on. Sure, the title has its flaws, but grindy combat to dull dialog. But if you’re in the mood for some claws-out bloodletting, where enemies pop like piñatas, give Gori a go.

Gori: Cuddly Carnage was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.