The Gunk Critic Reviews

This is an astonishingly immersive and good-natured fable, and we relished returning to it whenever we were away. It may not be long, it may not do anything groundbreaking, but The Gunk radiated good feelings whenever we picked up the pad.

The Gunk is a satisfying puzzle-adventure game where two down-on-their-luck space scrappers must help save an alien planet from a destructive black goo. The combat in The Gunk does feel frustratingly underbaked, but solid story pacing and excellent puzzle challenges help overshadow the struggle.

Image and Form swaps 2D for 3D, but still delivers an excellently crafted game with a captivating story and heartfelt characters.

The Gunk invites us to a world of science fiction, surrounded by adventure, exploration and platforms. It is a sincere game, without great pretensions, that only wants to show its art, world and sensations when playing it.

Short as it may be, my time with The Gunk has been wonderful. Image & Form’s move into the 3D realm has solidified it as a truly talented developer – and this may just be its best game yet. Beautiful, satisfying and engaging from start to finish, The Gunk is definitely worth getting stuck into.

The Gunk is a fun and engaging indie title with a simple and addicting gameplay. The environmental puzzles are many and always different, well implemented within the experience.

A short, sharp 3D action-adventure that keeps things simple in a gorgeous world and makes a great case for Game Pass as a delivery vehicle for bingeable and low-investment experiences.

The Gunk is an enjoyable adventure with beautiful visuals, whose core gameplay mechanics fall a bit short.

The Gunk is a difficult game to label, but an easy one to enjoy. Whether you’re sucking up a load of the titular gunk to help bring an alien world back to life, or listening to an engaging back and forth between the game’s main characters, there’s plenty to like here, even if it doesn’t quite live up to its early potential.

For all the neat freaks out there, this one’s for you.

The Gunk is a little hidden gem that, despite not feeling innovative or deep, is able to entertain and move the player.

The Gunk is a simple and short proposal, but it knows how to entertain with a gameplay focused on exploration.

Though it doesn't have all the perks and features of bigger games, The Gunk remains gorgeous and engaging. A short but sweet adventure full of puzzles and fantastic scenery.

The Gunk is game full of charm, thanks especially to its wonderful art direction and the colorful alien world it created. Unfortunately, despite its short duration The Gunk does not manage to carry this sense of wonder all the way to the end, due to repetitiveness of environments and a gameplay that ends up being far too simplistic. It’s still a valid title, especially for younger players; it just needed a little more to truly shine.

The Gunk is a perfect example of a developer that can make tired mechanical tropes sing with master craftmanship.

We enjoyed exploration, puzzles and platforming in The Gunk. Image & Form Games delivers an interesting adventure set in a beautiful planet, which feels undeveloped in other aspects such as combat or equipment improvements.

The Gunk is a classic-style platformer adventure focused on exploration and puzzles that leaves a good feeling in its gameplay. However, it presents certain mismatches in its control and its main mechanics, in addition to a conservative technological level.

The Gunk is an entertaining adventure with a message about pollution and industrialisation. with a likeable protagonist. The pacing is a little drawn out toward the end of the six to seven hour journey, but there's a great visual style and an enjoyable game to experience.

The Gunk deserves a fair bit of criticism and only a little unreserved praise. The connection between the characters holds up the story, sucking up goo is strangely satisfying, and the mechanics work as intended. However, I wish the world felt more distinctive and better realized. The environment has the potential to be a vibrant kaleidoscope with brilliant hues and unearthly forms. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite hit that mark. All said, The Gunk is a competent romp through space, but not a stellar one.

The Gunk would have deserved a little more structure and background vision: perhaps a better elaborated and refined gameplay, a dose of extra variety and last but not least a more incisive writing - because beyond the wonderful lyricism of the column sonorous it is complicated to become seriously passionate about the events narrated. Too bad, because with a different attention the outcome of this extraterrestrial outing would have proved much more memorable.