Heart Core·Released Mar 29, 2023·Single player
Gripper is a story-driven action game with boss fights on wheels. Tear your enemies apart with a grappling hook. Rip out their metal hearts to gain abilities. Rescue your family and uncover the secrets of the collapsing world.
With a slick aesthetic, some great synthwave tunes, and intense cybercycling through dilapidated space tubes, Gripper gets a lot right and we enjoyed those parts of it. We can forgive repetitive voice acting, but the other half of the game - the arena boss battles - is egregiously frustrating. The main gripping mechanic fails to work far too often with so much happening on screen, leading to a difficulty level that requires grudging patience rather than player skill. Thus, by the end of the game, our patience for this sci-fi mashup of genres had run out.
