When it comes to impressive and enjoyable 3D platformers, Naughty Dog comes to mind for PlayStation fans. From spinning bandicoots too an hardened warrior with a loudmouth side-kick, they defined childhoods. The upcoming GearGrit from Weston Mitchell and Pandan Games is trying to recapture that magic.
After playing through the demo, containing one main level and the city hub to explore, I walked away excited for what’s to come.
What is GearGrit?
The game’s premise is described with the following, taken from the game’s official Steam Page
On a distant planet home to the bustling city of Mechanica, Tansy Geargrit finds herself wrongfully accused by the Onyx Directorate. During her escape from prison she overhears a haunting government secret, making her an enemy of the state! Explore, platform, and blast your way through GearGrit, an Action Platformer inspired by your favorite PS2 games!
The demo didn’t offer much story content to sink my teeth into, but the voice acting of Tansy was quite charming. She is the rebel warrior that loves getting in the action and additional details like the UI around her health bar having an expressive face is a nice touch as well.
I look forward to seeing how GearGrit’s story develops Tansy and the rest of the game’s cast.
Gameplay
The game wears it’s inspirations firmly on it’s sleeve, with the cornerstone games for GearGrit being Jak II, Ratchet & Clank, and GTA 3.
Platforming Mechanics
Tansy has a varied moveset for platforming. She can double jump, perform a roll-jump for long-distances, and a couch-jump for harder to reach platforms. In addition, she can use her combat moves like her spin-kick attack and a jump-punch for platforming as well.
If this sounds like how Jak from the Jak & Daxter games felt, you would be correct. Jumping around as Tansy felt like a dream, with my muscle memory of my childhood playing PS2 classics bleeding into my time with GearGrit’s demo.
Additional moves that Tansy has that change things up, is a special kick attack. When near glowing green platforms or right near a ledge, you press L1/LB and Tansy does a kick attack. This kick lets you jump up the wall, continuing your platforming adventures.
I loved this move once I got a feel for it, and when I got a nice groove for Tansy’s top-speed (which activates after a roll jump), I was having a blast. The level design for the demo’s level was linear but open enough, having various yellow gears and purple bolts to collect. They were all placed well and never too out of reach.
So the platforming is fantastic across the board, but another aspect of GearGrit is it’s combat system.
Combat
Tansy has quite the arsenal of moves, having a mix of spin-attacks and a three-hit punch combo. But you can also slide punch, perform a upper-cut, and a flying kick attack. These all effortlessly chain together, building up a special attack meter which lets Tansy perform a charging punch hitting multiple foes at once.
One key aspect about her enemies, is that they have the same moveset she does. This is stark contrast to the Jak & Daxter games, which either went down quickly or in later games, used firearms to attack from a distance. I was surprised when one enemy launched me in the air with a upper-cut attack, forcing me to use my roll move to get out of the crowd.
However, Tansy has access to two different guns. The first you find is the shotgun, which auto-aims when near targets. Tansy can also freely aim her weapons by holding down the LT/L2 button, making skillful shots easier to land. She also can collect an assault rifle, which fires in bursts. Both weapons are fun to use and work well alongside her extensive melee options.
The demo concludes with a boss fight, which has you fighting two enemies. One charges into it’s target, while the other keeps their distance using gunfire. The fight overall was enjoyable and I look forward to seeing future boss encounters.
Presentation
The world of GearGrit is visually quite interesting, melding the overall look of Jak II with some cool character designs. The main hub Tansy runs around in, being a run-down city location, is full of varied NPC’s and cool looking cars to drive. Casually running around evoked memories of exploring Haven City back on my PS2.
The main level that the demo offered, had great color choice, with the burning lava and harsh steel popping off my monitor. One aspect of the presentation I loved was how bouncy the animations are. Tansy’s running, roll-jumping and jumping all look fantastic and offer strong squash-and-stretch.
One of the defining aspects of the Jak & Daxter series was expressive animation and seeing that carry on with GearGrit is amazing.
Performance
The demo ran quite well, maintaining a consistent 60FPS at 1080p. Options for higher resolutions and a retro-styled filter are available as well.
My Lenovo Legion gaming laptop has 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a AMD Ryzen 9 CPU, and a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU.
Audio/Music
Replicating the ‘sound’ of Jak & Daxter is a tricky thing to accomplish, with that series melding a moody vibes with some epic moments. But from my time with the demo, GearGrit does a great job taking that sound and making that it’s own.
The main level was catchy and made platforming through it quite enjoyable. In addition, the overall sound design was on point. Every jump, attack, and sound effect had the impact and punch you would expect it too.
Closing Thoughts on GearGrit
When seeing footage of this title on Twitter/X, I had to reach out to the developer and ask to get hands on with the project. I grew up with the Jak series, loving the third on particular. So seeing a new game channeling the spirit of that series while also building on it’s combat and platforming systems, is exciting.
I can’t wait to see more of this promising platforming adventure and stay tuned for future updates on GearGrit from Lords of Gaming! The demo I played will be playable during the Steam Next Fest on February 13th and you can wishlist the title today on Steam.
