Gravity Crash Review

By Oli Welsh Published 2 December, 2009

You get its thrust.

Version tested: PlayStation 3

You wait 23 years for a rehash of the BBC Micro classic Thrust, and two come along at once - both exclusive to PS3 on the PlayStation Network. PixelJunk Shooter, not yet released but the recipient of an 8/10 review last week, is the very model of a modern old-fashioned videogame, splicing the retro concept - pilot tiny spaceship through caves, pick up stranded men - with Metroid-style exploration and puzzling, cutting-edge fluid dynamics, a brace of fresh ideas, a more forgiving structure and a stylised cartoon look.

Gravity Crash, available now for £6.29, has a lot more in common with the original Thrust. It has gravity, for one thing, a constant downward tug on your craft that you'll need to combat with thrusters, minding out for your heavy inertia and the walls, which may not destroy you outright but will damage you. It's a test of perseverance and skill rather than ingenuity. Its phosphor-etched vector graphics are less noughties album art, more eighties arcade cab. If Shooter is a hipster with a sense of history, then Gravity Crash is just a bloody-minded throwback.

Gravity Crash makes a strong appeal to nostalgia, then, but in the end that's just about all it has going for it. Developer Just Add Water leans heavily on its by-the-numbers retro style and appropriately stiff difficulty, but fails to invest the game with enough imagination, variation, attention to detail or reward to make it work in a modern context. There isn't even anything as exciting or game-changing as the original Thrust's pendulous pod that you had to drag out of each level on the end of a tractor beam.

'Gravity Crash' Screenshot 1

Whether you'll enjoy the Cold Storage (WipEout) soundtrack depends how much of a nineties rave casualty you are. Sophisticated it isn't.

Instead you're given a shopping list of enemy units - usually ground structures - to destroy and/or coloured gems to collect from each level, and a simple blast and scavenger-hunt ensues. Some levels are linear, but most require you to wander around hunting your targets or performing circuitous unlocks, to take down a shield or open a door, before you can get to them. Most caves are flooded with water at the bottom - in which your ship floats, but your already rather lethargic bullets are slowed to a short-range crawl - and the more interesting level designs feature changing water levels, although the triggers for these seem rather arbitrary.

There's a radar map - small enough not to be much use, large enough to obscure an irritating portion of the screen - but your initial run through a level will involve a lot of toing and froing around the maze seeking out the randomly-scattered objectives. In stark contrast to Shooter's spectacular and stimulating navigation, this is usually a befuddling chore, the maps being sorely lacking in distinguishing features or structured design. They all look the same, too, so it will probably take a few runs before you've memorised a level well enough to bring it in under the "recommended" time and set a decent score.

They're scattered with secondary objectives - crystals, crewmen to pick up by tenderly landing your ship next to them, "nodes" to "activate" - but these lack much in the way of incentive to hunt them out beyond a certain dogged completism. In general, Gravity Crash is a game that's more comfortable with the stick than with the carrot. It's certainly not unfairly punishing, but it's hardly ever gratifying. The shooting is insipid, slow and lacking in impact, a situation not helped by the weak power-ups; you can either earn a short time shooting in multiple directions or an extremely rare and limited use of a "special weapon" (selected from a range of four at the start of the game, and neither effective nor exciting).

Thrust-style games are all about pure ship control, however, and here Gravity Crash doesn't disappoint, offering two vastly different but pretty rewarding set-ups. A twin-stick scheme in the modern idiom - move with the left, shoot in any direction with the right - is highly playable but still provides plenty of challenge when fighting gravity in tight sections. The classic controls - rotate left and right, thrust, and shoot the way your ship is facing - are a stern test, but not an unfair one, although you suspect that some levels' enemy placement wasn't designed with this in mind, so hard can it be to keep your enemies in the firing line and your ship off the rocks at the same time. The two control schemes effectively make for two difficulty levels, almost two different games.

You can also opt for manual or automatic shields, the former having the advantage of recharging over time, but needing quick reactions to avoid constant death. The latter need to be recharged by shooting large crystals and collecting the shards left behind, which also refill the fuel gauge. Balancing exploration against straying too far from where you know crystals, or developing a fuel-efficient flying style, are the sort of old-school mechanics, rarely seen these days, which it's fun to reminded of.

'Gravity Crash' Screenshot 2

One of the few unexpected and interesting touches is underwater currents, effectively a change in the direction of gravity.

That's not so true of the campaign mode's structure, which is soft enough to grant infinite continues with the only penalty being to reset your score to zero, but harsh enough to offer no halfway house - opt out of a continue, and all your progress is wiped clean. The difference between rejecting a continue (back to square one) and simply quitting the game (current progress is saved) isn't intuitive or explained anywhere, leading to inevitable tears before bedtime. Worse, the game's risk-reward balance is thrown out of whack, as there's no real incentive to put in a good performance on your first run - the score will inevitably be wiped clean - whereas trying to run the entire thing in a handful of lives is an extreme endurance test. Better to retreat into Planet mode, where each level unlocked in Campaign can be played and perfected independently.

Gravity Crash is fleshed out with a level editor, which is simple enough to use, and we wouldn't be surprised if the community managed to come up with some more imaginative uses of its limited rules and bits of furniture than Just Add Water has. There are also three awful split-screen multiplayer modes, deathmatch, race and scavenge - all of them hampered by the tight display size, clumsy interactions and afterthought map design.

Although they're more different games that at first appears, Gravity Crash suffers terribly from the comparison with the slick PixelJunk Shooter. They may be trying to do different things, but the charm, ambition, imagination and fine execution of Q-Games' effort - or of something like Geometry Wars - shows how to make retro gaming relevant in a way Gravity Crash can't muster. It's just about worthwhile as a chance to test yourself against some long-forgotten mechanics, but you can't shake the feeling that Just Add Water is just joining the dots.

5 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (72) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Flying_Pig #1 2 years ago

    Quite enjoyed the demo on PSN, but it would only ever be PixelJunk getting my money...

  • spadge #2 2 years ago

    That's a tad harsh in my book, had a lot of fun with this over last weekend, it's pretty polished and there's a lot of TLC in there. What do people expect for £6?

  • onyxbox #3 2 years ago

    I've been playing this on and off and I'd say 5/10 is way off the mark and too harsh.

    It lacks a bit of polish in the menu departement but the game is good. I'm looking forward to PJ Shooter too.

  • imamazed #4 2 years ago

    Cravity Gash

  • elhozzo #5 2 years ago

    oh, this is making my blood boil .!!! I'm literally (well, not actually..) fuming ...

    Harshest review I have ever seen ..

    Now, I've not had a chance to play PJ Shooter yet ...maybe this has affected the reviewers judgement ...

    but this is a great game. I agree that there are minor niggles on the Continue (I lost my progress a couple of times) but the game itself .. well, for anyone with fond memories of Thrust (and thats key, I cannot imagine a younger generation loving this as much) this is a great game, I can't wait to have time to make my own levels, the user-created levels means it will never 'finish' as a game ...

    ARRRGGH too angry for more ...

  • el_pollo_diablo #6 2 years ago

    It's not all about graphics you know.

  • HermitArcader #7 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Beano #8 2 years ago

    5?!?!

    I like the game and would give it a 7 or maybe even a 8.

  • GreyBeard #9 2 years ago

    Needlessly harsh review, and massively out of tune with the Metacrtitic average (79% atm).

  • Dizzy #10 2 years ago

    Tried it a bit... really wanted to love it but the controls just didn't do it for me. Sadly not worth the money.

  • Krelle #11 2 years ago

    Ive played the first 3 worlds of Pixeljunk Shooter, and Ive gotta say that the score is totally fair if you put it in comparison to that.
    But still, Gravity Crash has its charms and maybe 5 is somewhat harsh after all.

  • myiagros #12 2 years ago

    I very much disagree with the reviewer.

    I am really enjoying Gravity Crash at the moment, and it keeping Assassins Creed II and God Of War Collection out of my sytem.

    Yes the game can be a bit frustrating, but most importantly it is always fair, never did i wonder why i had died, or curse the controls, i just needed to be better.

    The fact that chosing not to continue resets your campaign progress is a major oversite, but once you have done it once you never will again, that has been a complete non-issue since the first 5 minutes.

    I am really looking forwad to PixelJunk Shooter, and if it is as much better than Gravity Crash as the reviewer suggests then it deffinately has a chance of being my game of the year.

  • menage #13 2 years ago

    I hated it, just not fun and the ship controlled like a dog.

    I did really liked the style.

  • Bigglesworth #14 2 years ago

    I'm sure PJ Shooter is a great game, but like most others have said, I'm sure the reviewer got out of the wrong side of bed this morning! Complaining, among other things, that the soundtrack to a £6 retro-remake game isn't sophisticated enough?? Get some perspective.

  • McLovin85 #15 2 years ago

    I also have to say that the demo didn't really do anything for me. Looking forward to PJ:Shooter though, hope it's good.
    In the meantime i'm considering buying Comet Crash, demo was great and with mutliplayer etc. it looks like it will be a decent purchase for £6.

  • hilts #16 2 years ago

    shame - i loved thrust back in the day, and it was only £1.99 if i remember correctly!

  • betahoven #17 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • 12inch #18 2 years ago

    Crazy review, more like 8/10. Great game, with editor all for £6!!!!

  • Balboa #19 2 years ago

    I couldn't disagree with the tone and score of this review more. At worst it has some interface shortcomings, but for £6 Gravity Crash is an awesome game.

  • fongy #20 2 years ago

    I have to say, 99.9% of the time I agree with Eurogamer... however, I felt obliged to comment that this is WAY too harsh... If anything it eclipses Shooter due to longevity alone - the user-created levels - some are fantastic and there's already 100s to choose from... sounds and graphics are really good for a game of this type and the physics are spot on. Personally, I'm sticking with this and not bothering with Shooter, especially due to criticism of how short it is... and it costs more!

  • cheze #21 2 years ago

    Harsh review - comes across like a very grumpy chappy :(

    I`d give it around an 8, its not trying to reinvent the wheel, its a thrust game! - with an editor.
    Not for everyone's tastes sure, but thats ok (and its also what free demos are for, so you don't have to miss out on a game just because some reviewer is in a sulk).

    EDIT: also I just noticed that the screenshots they have used are all old, look at the hud (and the image on the main site page doesn't even look like the same game) - sloppy sloppy work fellas ;)

  • Beano #22 2 years ago

    Oli also bashed MGS4... so not that surprised about the 5.

  • mcwildcard #23 2 years ago

    I had a feeling 5/10 wouldn't go down well, but on the strength of the demo I have to agree.
    I was all shaped up to buy the game, but thought I'd try the demo first, which changed my mind completely.
    Considering I really wanted to like it, I was surprisingly disappointed, especially seeing as it's got a level editor.
    I'm a sucker for a level editor.

    Anyway, looks like PJ Shooter will be my saviour instead!

  • Stoatboy #24 2 years ago

    Yep, review seems very harsh to me too. Lovely little game.

  • TOOTR #25 2 years ago

    Thrust on the BBC Model B was awesome. It was also awesomely hard. The slightest wrong move and the physical momentum would be nay impossible to recover from.

    Some games like Trials/Ninja Gaiden have the difficulty just right - the classic pick up and play but to truly master the harder levels you need to suffer the frustrating challenge for maximum sense of acheivement eventually.

    Gamer 'flow' is harder to obtain but worth it.

    Well maybe not Ninja Gaiden so much....that was bastard hard from the start :)

  • Goffee #26 2 years ago

    So this'll make the PSP version either a 2/10 or a 10/10 depending on how the flip and twist to get it on the small screen works.

  • ShiftyGeezer #27 2 years ago

    As a single player game, I can respect those feeling it deserves a higher score. I think the shop controls tight and it has a classic appeal, although the levels for me start to drag when they get bigger.

    However, if like me you bought it for the advertised multiplayer component, it's trash. It's plain wrong to advertise powerups, bonuses, level editor etc. as features without making the clear distinction that none of these are present in the multiplayer components. If the level editor worked, some great classic-style multiplayer gameplay could be had like funky cocktails of fun, but instead it's like drinking tepid dish-water.

    So if you like single player retro gaming, try the demo regardless of Eurogamer's review. But don't bother with this game for multiplayer.

  • Doi-Oing #28 2 years ago

    Sheesh. How miserable is the reviewer! Clearly must have been in a bad mood when playing...

  • tobsen #29 2 years ago

    If PixelJunk does not have gravity, what kind of bullshit comparison is that to make?

  • sneetch #30 2 years ago

    I think Oli needs a hug. :)

  • Krelle #31 2 years ago

    Oh and the music in PJ Shooter is fukken awesome. I dont know the band but some guy here above me mentioned them I think.

    PJ Shooter is by no means a masterpiece, but ist lovely crafted and quite a special experience as many of Q-games other games.

    When is it out btw? Anyone in the know?

  • parablax #32 2 years ago

    5/10...WHAT!
    Bought this last week and it the most fun I've had in ages on the PS3. I would give it a solid 8.
    Reliving the days of Thrust on a PS3 is pure joy! This reviewer has no soul.

    Only gripe is with the user shared level community. You can't search for levels, or leave any kind of comments

    ^^music is by ColdFusion, and can be downloaded as 2 track EP from their website.
    Edited by 1 at 02/12/09 @ 17:31

  • GreyBeard #33 2 years ago

    @Krelle

    PJ Shooter is out on the 10th, on both US and EU stores.

  • Krelle #34 2 years ago

    Wow, really? Next thursday? Looking forward to playing the whole thing :)

  • wayn3h #35 2 years ago

    This reminds me of Gravitation. One of the greatest things to come out of net yaroze.

  • Beano #36 2 years ago

    "PJ Shooter is out on the 10th, on both US and EU stores. "

    Best news for a long time ... right after Climategate :D

  • oerhoert #37 2 years ago

    <em>Needlessly harsh review, and massively out of tune with the Metacrtitic average (79% atm).</em>

    Oh no! The Metacritic Average (God's Peace and Blessing Be Upon It) disagrees!

  • kentmonkey #38 2 years ago

    "Although they're more different games that at first appears"...feel free to delete this post when corrected.

  • AOFanboi #39 2 years ago

    I don't get you people: a 5/10 is not BAAAD it just means average and unimpressive. Games can be playable without impressing or be unique. Don't be hating, just write a reader review.

  • serpantdarius #40 2 years ago

    imo all this game lacked was slightly better ship controls

  • Scimarad #41 2 years ago

    I hope I didn't just hear you slag off Cold Storage, EG!!!

  • IronGiant #42 2 years ago

    As countless others have said, one of the worst EG reviews i've ever read. For £6 this is a bargain and its good fun to play, which surely is the whole point. 7/10 easily from me and recommended.

  • IronGiant #43 2 years ago

    Oh and how can this game suffer terribly from Pixeljunk Shooter? You're supposed to review games on their own merits regardless of what other similar games may or may not be on the market.

  • rexluger #44 2 years ago

    the review was a tiny bit harsh , the game imo was really fun to play and other people I talked enjoyed it also
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  • spatss #45 2 years ago

    This game is by no stretch a 5/10. A really solid and well produced game for an affordable price.

  • Miths #46 2 years ago

    I liked the demo the other day, so I think I'll go and get the full game now.

    Are you guys playing with the classic controls or the modern dual stick "cheat"? :)
    While I never actually did spend much time playing Thrust (and that must have been on my C64 back in the last 80s), playing the demo of Gravity Crash with dual stick layout just sort of felt like I wasn't playing the game the way it was intended to be played.

  • Stoatboy #47 2 years ago

    @Miths: Thrust controls all the way, for me. It's my fave shoot-em-up control method, so the alternative only got looked at long enough for me to tut disapprovingly at it, before reverting to the way nature intended.

  • zedzee #48 2 years ago

    Crikey, even EG have picked up on my comments from earlier this week, about this being a BBC Micro Thrust rip-off; "rehash" is too nice a word to describe this and other from PixelJunk.


  • Gregolution #49 2 years ago

    Worst review i've ever read. This game is brilliant, disappointed in you EG...

  • Miths #50 2 years ago

    I'm half way through the second planet now and I'm loving the game so far (playing with classic controls, which went easily enough on the first planet, but it's slowly starting to become a bit more challenging on the second one with more narrow passages and turrets shooting at me. But then I was never exactly a natural at these types of games :)).
    I'm sure it will start feeling repetitive after a while, but that applies to most games out there, not just cheap, retro arcade shooters.

    It might be a little too early for me to try to rate the game, but if I had to do so I would probably be leaning towards an 8, and definitely no lower than a 7.
    But then I guess it's not entirely impossible that I might feel different if I was also just coming from playing PixelJunk Shooter like the reviewer. I won't know that until next Thursday though, and by then I'll most definitely have gotten my money's worth of solid entertainment from Gravity Crash.

  • cooper #51 2 years ago

    EG reviews are getting worse and worse, but I never saw anything as ridiculous as what this Oli guy writes.
    I'm done with EG. Not that anyone would care, of course.

  • oupe #52 2 years ago

    The graphics remind me of Warning Forever, the free shmup that every pc owner must try:
    [link url=http://e n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warning_Forever
    ]http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Warning_For...[/link]

    /rant

  • erp #53 2 years ago

    Oh. I'm really enjoying this!

    I was all set to just hold out for PJ Shooter, but then I enjoyed the demo of this so much I went ahead and bought the full thing. I'm a couple of levels into the 2nd Planet and don't regret it for a second.

    My only disappointment is with the multiplayer. I was hoping for some co-op, but no such luck. Oh well, Shooter will almost certainly provide that fix.

  • cheze #54 2 years ago

    Just checked metacrit - and you can see eurogamer italy gave the game a 7 before it was even finished (http://ww w.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.p... , tad wonky to do that, but funny they gave a higher score on a less polished product.

    Maybe more sites should have multiple reviewers on each review to ensure balance (or an editor to check reviews before they go out).

  • Mr_Bogus #55 2 years ago

    Sod this review. This game is friggin amazing.

    Reminds me a lot of Solar Jetman on the NES.

  • da_cat #56 2 years ago

    I am so annoyed by this ridiculous review I even registered just to vent my fury. My first post and I am sorry that it has to be this way...

    This game is a little gem. Its beautiful to behold , retro fun to play and I have played little else all week. £6 is a bargain - and I cannot believe EG went with a 5/10. It seems I am not alone, I have never seen such a backlash against a score before. Clearly its not Olis cup-o-tea, but the game itself is a 7 or 8 easily.

    Over the years I have learned to accept EGs incredible 360 bias and mark-it-down-if-PS3 approach, and even been able to draw amusement from the sheer predictability of it (along with many others, as we are all aware ! ) but this review is beyond even that.

    Poor EG. Very poor. You are doing yourselves a dis-service, and ultimately your reputation is suffering.
    Edited by 1 at 03/12/09 @ 12:42

  • onyxbox #57 2 years ago

    @Miths

    I felt the same way, I've switch back to the classic controls now because it felt a bit like cheating and I had more fun with the classic controls (made me think a bit more about things)

    BTW: I still have auto shield switched on.

  • 3william56 #58 2 years ago

    I have fond memories b*ggering my TV turning it upside down in a futile attempt to finish the last few levels of Beeb Thrust. Reverse gravity and invisible walls? Jesus - would send a modern gamer kiddie screaming for their Mum with that sort of rock hard challenge.

    You kids! All soft, I tells ya! No where's my pipe and slippers.

  • haowan #59 2 years ago

    pixeljunk pixeljunk pixeljunk. great review oli; i once reviewed rez and gave it a 5/10 because it wasn't wipeout, let's be buddies

  • Chaz_uk #60 2 years ago

    I'm loving the game so far despite the EG review. The more I find myself playing it, the riskier maneuvers I seem to be able to pull off in my little craft!

    Great game which is well worth the asking price and I'm also fond of CoLD SToRAGE's soundtrack too!
    Edited by 1 at 03/12/09 @ 20:23

  • SeesThroughAll #61 2 years ago

    "I have never seen such a backlash against a score before."

    Clearly you haven't been around EG for long.


    If there's a demo, I'll certainly try this little game, it looks fun.
    Edited by 2 at 04/12/09 @ 00:51

  • MinerWilly #62 2 years ago

    I love this game and would give it an 8 . Seems like the majority of people would have rated higher than a pathetic 5 !

  • keenest #63 2 years ago

    I'm also liking Gravity Crash. This game does not deserve a 5/10 score.

  • Bigglesworth #64 2 years ago

    "I have never seen such a backlash against a score before."

    Clearly you haven't been around EG for long.

    But certainly never such a reasoned and 'non-system-wars' backlash. I wonder if Oli might consider stopping by and elaborating on his reasoning? Wouldn't be unprecedented.

  • Ryze #65 2 years ago

    Wow - all of that work and it's an EG 5/10.

    Gutted for them as it looks like a few tweaks could have bumped that up to a good 7 or high 6.

  • NyTeMair #66 2 years ago

    Oh Oli...

    You having a bad day? I disagree with your overly harsh comments regarding Gravity Crash and while the game has its flaws it is indeed a very good game and well worth the price if you like the Gravitron style action games. A bit more community enhancement would be great but overall I'd give it a 8 out of 10. Even you're Thrust is a gravitron rip off if you have to see things like that. There are genres and styles which to the untrained eye and such may be seen as a rip off if you are negatively viewing the subject. By people like zedzee any FPS is a rip off of any one of the early first person games, so by that logic they are invalid? Silly.

  • freakzilla #67 2 years ago

    Thank you everyone. I had cancelled my purchase based on this review (didn't read the whole thing though) but then thanks to you all I know that Gravity crash is indeed a very nice game, not just a very nice demo for a shit game.

  • freakzilla #68 2 years ago

    I read somewhere that EG sometimes redo their review. They might want to consider that for Gravity Crash.

  • dubdivision #69 2 years ago

    Worst - most bias review ever!

  • Pablo2k5 #70 2 years ago

    Just like to add my comments to this... I can't believe how badly written and needlessly harsh this review is...

    Shame on you EG.

  • TitusCrow #71 2 years ago

    I got both games ( shooter and gravity crash ) I enjoyed them both for different reasons. Shooter has some original features but for me I really wish it had gravity. I found it slightly easy so I cracked and got gravity crash too - I'm playing with the original method of control ( there should be a different score board for this! ) and I'm loving the challenge of the game.

    I think because of the sterner test I will play this more than shooter. Of course One of my fav games of the last year is Demons souls so I find myself going for games that are very hard to beat - just like the old school days. Hmm.. maybe I should cut to the chase and DL I wanna be the guy *ponders*

  • GruttyFuttock #72 2 years ago

    I'm kinda with Oli on this one... Crash starts ok, but a couple of galaxies in and it gets REALLY repetitive and is stupidly hard in places. The boss fights are shite and the 'story' was written by a four year old. Shooter is different yes, but also a load more fun.