Gravity Chase Reviews

Whether it's meant to be or not this is actually a successor to the Gamecube game Tube Slider, a mostly forgotten anti-gravity racing game that only a few people have actually played, including me. What's really interesting is the inherit flaws with Tube Slider also apply to Gravity Chase; the tunnel track design prevents variation in track design, most tracks suffer from monotony because there's no jumps, alternative paths, shortcuts, or in-world obstacles besides some red panels that can be obscured by the track's RGB Epic Gamer Lighting. Think of a combat or kart racing game's items acting like a tool set for the player: each one can be used for unique situations and strategies. In Gravity Chase there is only one weapon and only one shield. When it comes to offensive and defensive play it is exactly like this: fire your oddly-sounding yellow pellets at the enemy and hope they don't have their shield on. Pick up a shield to prevent getting hit. Rinse and repeat. If you get ahead, nobody can stop you: No rockets, shocks like from Blur or even blue shells like from Mario Kart can balance the race whatsover. There no other weapons like trap items or really anything else you can work with, it's very limited and feels incomplete. This game's physics are a bit too simplistic, Tube Racer was more slippery but it did at least allow for some gameplay situations where you have to balance handling with using your boosts. It's not spectacular but it works a bit. I think with some tinkering it would work; it's not terrible here for sure, it's just not "I'm showing the boys this one tonight" levels of polished and fun. Gravity Chase visually and aesthetically doesn't feel focused, it doesn't have a unique visual style nor can the graphics carry the game. I don't need realism, I want something interesting. There's no style beyond "hello fellow fans of futurism, I have made Modern Video Game in 3D.". I can't even really describe the graphics or the ship designs, they're just kinda there. The ships flew, the world existed, and Gravity was being Chased. The music fits and doesn't fit at the same time. It doesn't particularly ignite the imagination, nor does it try something different. Hell, they could've thrown in upbeat jazz, that would've been a totally left field choice, but that would give it a bit of character. Weird choices can totally work, it's just how you implement and compliment it. So what about the music in Gravity Chase? I dunno, I forgot, but I did skip songs a lot. The menus are a bit odd, the camera-spin around each ship is almost double the speed it should be (at least for me, I was hitting like 200FPS, maybe it's tied to framerate I'm not sure), but you can't manually rotate. There's no sort of graphic or display settings, not even just a simple slider that let's you adjust the graphic settings at the minimum. The main menu's Quit button looks like it wasn't applied the same styling at the Race button and just awkwardly sits there alone with offset. Also, there's a button to remap controls but it only shows what key to hit on Keyboard even if you're currently using a controller. I like the idea of being able to easily have friends hop in for split screen but I don't think it needs to be on a timer but rather just controlled by having each player that's in the lobby press start to confirm they want to play. Blur is a good example of this, it got lots of good examples, actually. if we were to ever get one, I think that Gravity Chase's successor may have to be a bit more like a traditional racing game with only a few tunnel sections here and there rather than entire tracks in the style as the game's main gimmick, with focus on a few features that make it unique or interesting. Don't worry about reinventing the entire genre, but don't shy away from mixing it up a bit. And with that, Chase your own, uh, Gravity, life lesson yes.