During my first few minutes of Gunbrella created by the developers at Doinksoft, I immediately knew I would love it. It is dripping with personality and was obviously made with great love and care. During my 6 hours with the game I embarked on a story of vengeance that was filled with heart, humor, and good old gory fun.  Thank you to Devolver Digital for the early access code. Here is my review for Gunbrella.

VENDETTA WITH AN UMBRELLA

Gunbrella starts with a murder. Upon arriving home, you discover that someone has killed your wife, set your house on fire, and kidnapped your infant child. The killer leaves behind the titular Gunbrella a literal umbrella and gun hybrid. As our main character searches for his wife’s murderer you will face an occult dead-set on resurrecting a dead god, help townspeople, and fight against monsters beyond imagination. This noir-esque story introduces you quickly to its story and its world. I found myself rooting for our Gunbrella toting mass murderer right out of the gate.

The mission structure of Gunbrella isn’t something that I expected. I thought the story would be fairly linear but as you progress you will meet funnily written characters that you can do side missions for. You can complete these side missions in any order you like. Completing these quests grant you bonuses or materials that you can use to upgrade yourself.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story but felt as though it could have been a tad shorter. Near the end of the campaign it seemed as though things were dragging along. The journey was surprising in some truly hilarious and sometimes frightening ways and compliments the gameplay well.

UMBRELLA MAYHEM

While you progress through the story you will be shooting, dodging, and gliding your way through Gunbrella’s various combat arenas. This is the core of the game and boy is it a blast. 

Your Gunbrella is essentially a tricked-out shotgun that allows the ability to switch between other ammo types like grenades and rifle rounds. This keeps things simple while also providing much needed weapon variety. You can also upgrade it later in the game to transform it into an even more powerful killing machine. The gunplay feels great to play with and the sound design makes the gun feel like a powerhouse.

Movement is smooth and responsive, never making the combat feel unfair as a result. Enemy designs are varied enough to where you never feel like you are fighting the same enemy for too long. Some levels end in pretty freaky boss fights that were a surprise and a delight to behold. The boss fights aren’t too difficult and hit that balance between challenging and fun.

While useful in combat the Gunbrella is also useful in traversal. You can use it to glide and also boost yourself in any direction. This comes in handy when you are trying to reach a high wall to wall jump or close a distance. You can also use the Gunbrella on ziplines, allowing you to zip around combat arenas with ease.

In Gunbrella you start with 4 hearts of health that don’t regenerate. You can either regenerate them with food items or by using various rest points spread throughout the game. This promotes a great deal of strategic play as you have to keep an eye out for how much health you have left. You will ask yourself whether it’s worth it to go in for the kill or back and away and heal so you can live to fight on. These rest points also save the game  and are generously spread throughout the levels so if you die you won’t be doing too much backtracking.

All of the core elements of Gunbrella come together in a really well designed mission that takes place in a factory. As you make your way through the factory you have to activate parts of it bit by bit which in turn prompts you to use another one of the gameplay systems. I won’t spoil too much about it beyond that but It’s where I had the most fun in the game and where the gameplay truly shined. Overall, Gunbrella delivers a good, blood-soaked time with its combat.

THE GORY DETAILS

Gunbrella’s art style is simply superb. Not only does it compliment the story but it also succeeds in setting a completely unique vibe for the game. It has a noir type look with some horror elements that I found sufficiently unsettling. Every asset sports a decayed and worn look that reflects on the state of our character but also the world that is built here. Level variety is great, as you jump from one biome to the next you are treated with enough difference in scenery to keep things feeling fresh. Art design is something that didn’t disappoint here.

JUSTICE SERVED COLD

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough of Gunbrella. The meaty and responsive combat is supported by an engaging and well written story that I feel could have had a little fat trimmed off of it. I would recommend this to anyone who is even slightly a fan of 2D platformer shooters.

Gunbrella is available on PC and Switch today September 13th. It also runs well and plays great on Steam Deck which is where I played for most of my playthrough. Don’t miss Caitlyn’s review of Light Bringer by Pierce Brown and Steffans review of Dead Poets Society. For everything else geeky stay right here on Geekwave.

GAME SCORE: 9/10