Review: Gravity Rush 2 is a glorious looking game on PS4

Sony is kicking off 2017 on a high note as the PS4 exclusive Gravity Rush 2 is a fun and unique experience. It's one of the more original platform games that you will come across.  There aren't that many video games out there that allow you to control a main character that can fly effortlessly in the air. Sure some Superman video games have been released in the past, but most of the Man of Steel's games have been terrible. Thankfully, game designer Keiichiro Toyama released the first Gravity Rush on PS Vita back in 2012 and gave us a flying game that was actually good. You basically play a young girl named Kat who is given special powers thanks to a black cat named "Dusty".  The story in the sequel picks up right after the first game and Kat will be seeing a lot of familiar faces. I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but at the start of the game Kat is stuck in a mining village without her powers. From then on, she regains her powers and has to fight off an evil military empire making people very poor.  The story does have a lot of other twists and turns that I won't spoil, although there are times that it fails to focus on one topic. The first half of the game has a main focus, but then the entire story shifts to an even different topic in the latter half. It can be a bit confusing and you also need to play the first game to fully understand what is going on. Despite the odd way of storytelling, Gravity Rush 2 really shines in terms of its gameplay and visual presentation. As I already mentioned, there aren't many games that allow you to fly around and it's quite an exhilarating experience.  The environments this time around are brighter and larger than in the first game, although you will see a familiar location in the later in the game. Unlike other open-world video games, the locations in Gravity Rush 2 are teeming with life and there's lots of things to see and do.  This game also has locations that aren't too big or small for Kat to fly to. You won't be spending several minutes travelling from place-to-place as all the environments are within close proximity with one another. There are also a variety of cities in this game that range from a military base, villages to even rich people's mansions and more.  As beautiful as this game is to look at, it truly shines when it comes to the gameplay. Aside from flying, Kat has lots of cool combat abilities at her disposal. She is efficient at kicking her enemies and can also hone down on targets using the very useful "Gravity Kick". You can also choose to level up her abilities the more you play the game.  Another skill she has is levitating objects around her. Kat can escort people to different locations or even chuck things such as tables and rocks to several enemies. It was quite funny when I levitated enemy soldiers and threw them around like rag dolls all over the place.  As fun as this game is, it has one huge flaw and that's with the camera system. Flying around at fast speed is hard to replicate in gaming and you will feel disorientated when fighting lots of enemies in the air. It's not a game breaking flaw, although it can get annoying at times.  However, the game gets a little more frustrating when Kat is navigating through claustrophobic type environments. There is one or two sections in the game where the walls are narrow and I often found myself sticking to the wall lots of times. It was even worse knowing that there was a time limit in this section too.  Despite these two flaws, Gravity Rush 2 still feels like a complete game. The story mode is lengthy and there are tons of side quests for you to undertake. There are even online challenges where you can do things like time trials and races to see who is the fastest at flying and/or gliding.  To add even more fun, you can also unlock many different costumes for Kat to wear. Even though I finished the main story of this game, I'm still playing through it as there's still more things that I have to do.  Anyway, Gravity Rush 2 is excellent because it feels like a fresh breath of air. It has good gameplay and excellent cartoon style visuals. Some people may have trouble with the camera, but you will get used to the controls after you practise. This is worth buying if you own a PS4 and want to try something different.  Verdict: 8.5/10