Gunbrella is a weird one. It is a gritty noir-punk action-adventure set in a world dependent on a rapidly diminishing natural resource. In which you take the role of a gruff woodsman on a quest for revenge, armed with the mysterious Gunbrella: a firearm that doubles as an umbrella. Hooked? Let’s dive in.
Gunbrella
Metroidvania games are great, especially if you combine Gato Roboto’s gritty side with the neo-noir punk style often found in post-apocalyptic games like Bioshock, Bladerunner, and Hotline Maimi. In Gunbrella, you enter a dystopian steampunk world. Players play as a gruff woodsman investigating the Gunbrella’s origins. The weapon has a special insignia on it but otherwise has no other identifying symbols. The protagonist sets their course for the nearest major city to inquire more about the weapon but finds himself in a local town besieged by a rebel group. The woodsman cannot continue his journey since the blockades have halted train services out of the town. Unable to leave, the woodsman begins to explore the secrecy of the city and its people as he begins his quest to uncover the mysterious origins of the Gunbrella.
Gameplay
Gunbrella offers nothing directly new in the form of gameplay. Its primary focus is a side-scrolling action combat game focusing on maneuverability and close-quarters gunplay. Your gun is also a movement tool. What makes the Gunbrella different from just a gun is that it also harbors an umbrella. This can be used to glide, swing, dash, and dive. Depending on the ammo you load into it, it offers different weapon modes, ranging from shotguns to machineguns. It’s all about managing your resources since you can find scrap and spare parts to trade for different munitions and upgrades.
Like in most Metroidvania with story elements, you can talk and even interrogate a cast of bizarre characters. What you learn is recorded in your investigative notebook with coffee stains. While you travel through the world of Gunbrella, you explore various locations, from a small town menaced by cult kidnappings to a junkyard-turned-fortress ruled by a trash gang and maybe even the mythical city of Avalon, where it’s rumored that you can still see the sky. While battling with the main quests, you can complete many sidequests and even try to uncover the mysteries of the supernatural as wraiths and monstrosities materialize in places where blood has been shed…
And yes, I said Metroidvania in this article – but it does not have a lot of backtracking. Maybe Metroidvania Light is a better term in the sense of gameplay. The most backtracking I did was to complete the sidequests, which are – sometimes – pretty challenging and pretty emotional to finish. Yes, it matches the gritty outlook and style, but I also uncovered my main problem with Gunbrella.
Negatives
The clean pixel art graphics, moody music, and dark story created a great aesthetic that kept me engaged. The gameplay is tight. However, it hardly evolves throughout the 9-hour run time. The mechanics you start with are essentially the same as what you end with. The final level kicked up the difficulty, making it necessary to get creative to get through its sections, but this was too late. Gunbrella almost feels like a demo of what the traversal and action should be with the titular weapon. I expected an indie game-of-the-year contender, but this probably won’t crack 2023’s top 10. I enjoyed this game but was left wanting more.
Conclusion
So, to conclude – yes – Gunbrella is a great game, but it left me longing for more. I put my Steamdeck down a few times, thinking: ‘Is this the essence of Gunbrella?’. And my conclusion has to be, yes, it is. It’s a gritty, side-scrolling, action-packed game with a great weapon of choice. But it missed the X-factor I found in other Metroidvania (Light) games and felt like a stretched demo on some points. This is sad since I loved the weird characters I met. Gunbrella 2, maybe?
