Gravity Oddity is a weird one. As a game, it’s simple in almost every aspect. Its graphics are nothing to write home about. The gameplay is nothing you haven’t seen before. And the sound design gets dull after a while. And yet, I can’t bring myself to put it down. Its simplicity is what makes it so charming, kind of like an adult fidget toy. In my Gravity Oddity review, I’ll talk about what makes this one so fun.
The Story (Or Lack Thereof)
The story of Gravity Oddity is, well, it’s pretty non-existent, to be honest. So you shouldn’t expect a AAA story like Ghost of Tsushima, that’s for sure. You play as a no-name character, whose goal is to save his roommate, Gary. Not because he likes him, mind you. It’s just that Gary hasn’t paid his part of the rent yet.
Why does Gary need saving you may ask? Because he went ahead and stepped on the toes of his universe’s “Definitely Not Evil Mega-Corp”. Which definitely didn’t kidnap him. “But wait a minute. Wasn’t Gravity Oddity a roguelike? How does that play into the story?”
I’m glad you asked. Because that allows me to talk about Gravity Oddity’s customization system. Whenever your character dies, the screen fades to black and you awaken from your bed in control of a new character. Great! A new guy. Probably doesn’t even know Gary. Time to go home.
Not so fast. Even if you don’t know who Gary is, you still have to pay rent, and guess what? Gary has the other half. Brilliant, simply brilliant. Ahh well, I guess it’s time to go off into the empty void of space again. Who knows, you might even find Starfield’s protagonist out there.
In all fairness though, at least the game gets the roguelike aspect right. While the story itself is practically nonexistent, the Sisyphean pursuit of Gary can be quite comedic at times, especially during boss fights.
Gravity Oddity’s Odd Universe
Unlike other roguelikes, Gravity Oddity doesn’t actually allow you to choose where you want to go next. So in that sense, it’s much closer to a roguelite, than a traditional roguelike. The loss of that particular liberty isn’t that big of a deal, however, as the ever-expanding universe will certainly keep you on your feet at all times.
The maps themselves are usually 4 – 5 areas separated by a chain of asteroids that you have to traverse to get to the next area. Thankfully, there are fast travel points dotted all across the map. That factor alone drastically cuts down your travel time, which is crucial if you plan to speedrun the game.
What awaits you in these areas? Ahh, the usual assortment of goons, thugs, and other types of scoundrels. You have the typical bad guys that shoot at you. You have bad guys who are slow but shoot a lot more bullets at you. Sometimes you’ll also encounter turrets that don’t move but, you guessed it, shoot at you.
All in all, Gravity Oddity constantly kept me on my feet. Even though I’m not that big of a speedrunner, I found myself trying to outdo my previous performance on each subsequent run. The areas, enemy types, and hazards, largely remained the same, which meant that I could change and optimize my approach based on their patterns.
This is the main reason why I find Gravity Oddity a simple but charming game. Each run feels similar, yet different from the previous. Every time I improve and become emboldened, the game throws an unexpected challenge at me that sends me packing.
Combat: The Bread and Butter of Gravity Oddity
The boss fights are an especially intriguing experience. They’re not as hard as Elden Ring bosses, but they’re definitely challenging, that’s for sure. The main challenge actually comes from the movement system itself. Fighting in a 0G environment takes some getting used to.
Traditional platformers simply tell you: “Go from Point A to Point B and shoot everything on the way there.” Gravity Oddity, on the other hand, tells you: “Go from Point A to Point B and shoot everything on the way there. Oh, and by the way, your movement is unrestricted.”
You can go in all 4 directions, you can go diagonally, you can go faster, you can go slower, you can even teleport. Frankly, it’s as if the developers took a physics book, opened the chapter about motion, and included every phenomenon they read into the game.
It’s really hard to explain Gravity Oddity’s movement without being vague. Look at it this way. In games, we usually expect our characters to act and move a certain way. When those expectations aren’t met, it feels uncanny. Uncanny is probably the best word to explain Gravity Oddity’s movement system then.
Uncanny doesn’t necessarily mean bad, per se, it just means something unusual. Once you become accustomed to the movement, you’ll find that the combat is quite smooth, which is always appreciated.
The Presentation of Gravity Oddity
Gravity Oddity has a very simple yet vibrant world. When playing through the game, it felt very reminiscent of Terraria. I love Terraria’s art style, so, by extension, I also love Gravity Oddity’s art style.
There are many little details present in Gravity Oddity’s sprites, and it’s a real treat finding them all. One particular detail I spent a good minute or two on is the petting. By pressing a button, you can pet your companions and give them all the love they deserve. Any game that allows you to pet your companions gets a thumbs-up from me.
One thing I found particularly hilarious was the graphical settings screen. I’ll be honest with you. You really don’t need a 4K graphics card to play Gravity Oddity. Hell, I’m pretty sure you can run it on the same computer you used to play Doom on back in the 90s.
Another aspect that disappointed me was the music design. It’s not bad, I just expected more getting into the game. The game only has a few tracks that are constantly on repeat, with minimal distinction between combat and exploration music.
That is probably the biggest shortcoming of the game, and it’s especially impactful during boss fights. Remember Sephirot’s iconic theme at the end of FF VII? I’m sure you do, it’s one of the best themes of all time. Now, just imagine the fight without the theme. Exactly. You can’t. Because it’s so integral to the experience.
Final Verdict
All in all, I had a lot of fun with Gravity Oddity. The campaign was relatively short, as I was able to complete it in just a few hours. If you’re a big fan of roguelikes or platformers, you’ll definitely get a lot of enjoyment out of this game. One thing that I’m concerned about is the replayability aspect though.
The story is uninspiring, and there’s not a lot of gameplay variety. You’ll probably be able to get a few runs out of the game, but that’s about it. However, if you’re a speedrunner, then Gravity Oddity is possibly one of the best games for you. I can easily see a thriving speedrunning community surrounding the game in a few years.
This review is based on the PC Version of Gravity Oddity. The key was graciously provided by the team over at Invincible Cat.
