Gravity Rush 2 takes place some time after the prequel. If you haven't watched the OVA Anime "Overture" then basically Kat, Raven and Syd are caught up in a gravity storm one day while fighting some villains. Now Syd and Kat are separated from Raven and are taken in by a wandering village who mines for a living.

The gameplay is fairly much the same, manipulating gravity and dashing off at high speed to attack enemies. It's still very fun but now Kat has new attacks and can equip items too. The new attacks are very satisfying mainly the new "Jupiter Style" that gives Kat extra weight and unleash much more satisfying powerful hits or create black holes. Then there's also the new "Lunar Style" which is as name suggests, like being in space on the moon when you can bounce around as you walk. Best thing with this mode is that you don't have to aim at enemies as much because all your attacks home in on enemies.

There's a new talisman accessory which makes the game feel more of an ARPG now.

Game runs smoothly on the PS4 and there is still some motion based control using the dual shock pad just like in the prequel. Fortunately the game does a fair job of locking onto the nearest target so that it isn't too frustrating to use when you're not using any of the new styles.

Finding quests and goals is easy thanks to a map that gives you a list of NPCs you can speak to just for some side dialogue or quest. For the early part of the game they're mostly just fetch and find quests but now they've introduced a new photo mode much like FFXV but you take the photos yourself instead. You can even share them where holograms of Kat are left for other players to see and rate to earn rewards. There's even a first person view which might be suggesting they'll add VR support some time in the future.

The only missions I don't like are the stealth missions which are more of a trial and error affair because it's hard to tell what the line of sight is for all the enemy NPCs running around. Even with the alertness gauge it's easily to be spotted instantly.

Race type missions aren't terribly great either as the controls are still a pain to use since the motion control and end up shifting you slightly in the wrong direction and this is particularly annoying in story missions where you have to restart a lot! I was hoping they'd do away with the motion controls or at least make it an option.

It doesn't help when some maps can be frustrating to navigate - there's one where you make your way through a narrow passageway and it's hard to see the little objects that can block your way or work out what can be smashed through.

The other point are the boss designs... You do the usual thing dashing around finding the weak red spots but the bosses are so big, that sense of speed you get from dashing around suddenly feels slow and boring because you spend so much time searching for them.

Despite the cute and fun presentation, the story isn't all that exciting and overall it feels like there are less fights than the prequel. There's a story line about your usual overthrowing your dark overloads but when you start looking at the minimalist art style and the Sims-like speech, it doesn't mix that well.

Gravity Rush 2 is a good successor to its prequel bringing over and keeping most of its goodness while expanding it some more. Unfortunately, that extra content kind of ruins the experience thanks to some poor level design and some fairly difficult story missions that will probably have you retrying a number of times unlike in the prequel.

Good

• Still fun dashing around manipulating gravity like prequel.
• Still cute, simple comic art.
• Dynamic title screen.
• Some fun side quests like going around photo shooting.
• Fun online based side quests such as other players praising your photos.
• New Jupiter style is very satisfying to fight with.
• Free to explore or just open up menu to see what's available.
• Lunar Style makes it easier to attack instead of having to aim.

Bad

• Motion controls and "flicking" the touchpad to switch styles.
• Sneak missions feel more trial and error.
• Less action, fewer fights than prequel?
• Forced challenges being used as tutorials.
• Some story missions can be hard, lots of retrying.
• Boss fights feel slow and dragged out.
• Some maps can be frustrating to navigate.
• Sliding controls are still a pain to use.