Gravity Rush 2 is one of the most creative, joyful and risky open-world games of this console generation. It’s also one of the least commercially successful ones. Sony’s overlooked exclusive has received a fraction of the attention showered upon its more violent, crass and overly complicated contemporaries. Odds are, you missed it. Well, I have some good news.
Sony is currently selling Gravity Rush 2 for $5.99 on the PlayStation Store. That’s a steep discount from its usual $19.99 price tag. I know it’s a busy time of the year, and games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Destiny 2: Forsaken do their damndest to retain every free moment of your time. Trust me: Grab this game. Tuck it away in your library for a rainy day. It’s not perfect, and it’s all the better for its imperfection.
When I reviewed Gravity Rush 2 early last year, I described it as “2017’s first (and potentially only) big-budget video game about the income gap, the ethical and personal complexities of salvaging modern capitalist societies, and one jumper-loving young woman. With the help of a cat made of stardust, Kat pursues, often by force, a historic economic rebalancing.” What’s special about Gravity Rush 2 is how it contains all of these ambitious ideas, but they never weigh down its buoyant characters and whimsical sense of play.
The game has its problems. The intro is maddeningly slow. Its controls take some practice. And its online features have been disabled. None of these problems get in the way of what the game does best: allowing players to effectively fly through floating cities by shifting the direction of gravity. Gravity Rush 2 gives Sony’s newer, flashier Spider-Man a run for its money when it comes to the sheer pleasure of zipping between skyscrapers at neck-breaking speed.
I could exhaust myself enumerating every other little detail that makes this game special. The earworm-heavy original score. The vibrant art design. The jaw-dropping mid-game reveal that expands the scope of the game from “big” to “operatic.” But I think you’ll enjoy Gravity Rush 2 more if you play it without having too much spoiled. And that’s possible, considering so few people talk about this game — including its own publisher.
People always ask me why don’t publishers make weird, risky, experimental games anymore. They do. It’s right here. Don’t let this one fly on by.