Gori: Cuddly Carnage

The 2000s were a wild time for TV, films and gaming (both good and bad). We had shows like Malcolm in the Middle, The Sopranos, The Shield, and even wilder games like Gears, Shadows of the Damned, and WET. This was certainly a time where insane creativity flowed through multiple industries, producing some of the best (and absolute worst to be honest) entertainment. Now, not to sound like an old fool (and I don’t want to rally up the old fool crowd), but there is a lack of buzz, fiery innovation, and balls-to-the-wall craziness. Plus, there is a total lack of unhinged angst!

When I gazed upon Gori: Cuddly Carnage, however… I felt a ray of hope that we can still have balls to the wall, 2000 crazy angst games once again!

For good … and some bad 2000’s shlock.


What is Gori: Cuddle Carnage


Cats rule the internet, no matter what anyone says, and with their rise, came a downfall of edgy, ultraviolent, ultra-silly video games where you had a chainsaw for a head, or you could arm yourself with a ferret that shoots out lasers, or see a wall covered in boobs (maybe not so much that. Thanks Duke Nukem Forever…).

But the demise of these games was sorely felt, and even more so today. But the return of Lollipop Chainsaw, and Shadows of the Damned do bring hope once again. What is also excellent is the indie markets are cashing in on the angst action, and Angry Demon Studio (nice angst name) have decided to bring together, gore, blood, carnage, cuddly things, and cats!

Hence, Gori: Cuddly Carnage.

We play as a lovable humanoid cat named Gori, who is found hanging out in a spaceship overlooking Earth, accompanied by a talking hoverboard named Frank, and a super-intelligent AI named Ch1p, who is utterly pessimistic (he must have worked for Tesla). They’re hiding out from “The Cuddly Army”, a super-intelligent, and super bloodthirsty gathering of self-aware Toys that have taken over the world. Thus, humanity has been pretty much wiped out, leaving Gori, Chip, and Frank to fend for themselves as they search for any remains of hope on the now neon gore fest that is Earth.

However, fate has something planned for them as a transmission from Professor Y (Gori’s former owner) tasks them with gathering parts for a super weapon that will end the Cuddly Army and restore balance to Earth, giving the remaining life that does not bloodthirsty and corrupt a chance to thrive once again.

Everything is here as you might expect any solid 2000s PS2/Xbox 360 game might have, including a rad-cool collective of characters, an insane premise, lots of gore, and a massive fetch quest that takes you to a variety of fun, awesome locations and boss fights. It’s all here!


The cats out of the bag, and slicing up the toys!


Gori indeed follows that simple, yet tried and tested game narrative of “Collect the bits” and put them together, with some ups, downs, drama and a big old fight, with a big bad to end the adventure on. And what is so great with this formula is just seeing how many neat locations, bizarre environmental aesthetics, larger-than-life characters/bosses, and balls-to-the-wall set pieces and gameplay you can cram in.

Plenty of games use this formula of “Big old fetch quest” and it can work incredibly well if you use it in the right way. As I mentioned above, having lots of different places to go to, bosses t fight, and just general weirdness included will overshadow a rather basic plot, and Gori does this in spades.

There are a ton of memorable side characters, Gori is a very likable protagonist, and we do indeed get to go to a ton of different places where certain gameplay mechanics are introduced and spiced up based on the theme. And while at times the theme of a level is not fully utilised, such as a level set within a place filled with arcade machines, to which Gori ventures into several of them. Some do take advantage of the theme/setting and go full-on with it.

The idea of a murderous Toy Army (mainly filled with ruthless and ravenous unicorns) is quite goofy, but utterly brilliant once you see all the different types of enemies, and big bads that try to kill Gori, including a massive, insanely evil Teddy Bear/Jack in the Box. It’s all wildly rad, insane 00s stuff that doesn’t come about much anymore. I loved seeing what new creature there was to kill me, what new toxic environment I would explore, or what big bad I would have to face.

And there is a genuine bit of heart to the game amongst all the kitty carnage and unicorn blood. Gori’s sidekicks offer a lot of comedy relief but also give heartfelt monologues, and support as they all look for Professor Y. It’s nothing compared to Copycat (a new indie cat game which left me bawling my eyes out), yet plenty of nice emotional gravitas is here to break up all the smut jokes, decapitation of evil unicorns and giant “Etch a Sketch” robots who profoundly threaten with vile language (and they have children's voices, which is f***ing hilarious).

But I will admit that comedy is where it falters for me, and I can say that it will land for a lot of people for sure, but there are indeed a couple of critical points to make. Frank, the self-aware hoverboard is a little too much and spews way too much dialogue in an attempt that some jokes will make you laugh. And some do, some are great, and I do like him as a character. But there are moments which don’t entirely work where he has to do the heavy comedy lifting. What does work is when he bounces off Ch1p, the manic-depressed AI who I generally liked and found quite funny.

But then another supporting character is added a third of the way in the campaign, who again allows the former two companions to bounce off comedic jabs and venting. The character is a talking Goldfish who is German … that character sounds incredibly familiar, right? Like they're from another show. Anyway, they’re fine but the big thing is that they're German, and a fish, even though they believe they’re a human … okay, again. Sounds very familiar.

And as things go on, there are more random characters, more banter back and forth, and while there are moments which did make me laugh. It feels like the writer(s) might have just decided to throw everything and the kitchen sink in to see what works.

I love Shadows of the Damn’s Johnson, and while there were a lot of stupid dick jokes there, Johnson was amazing as a supporting character. He was restrained in his dialogue, had great comedic timing, and worked out the main protagonist Gracia incredibly well, as he was more the straight man, to Johnson’s somewhat wild, crazed yet structured persona. One joke which always killed me was where they open a door to see monsters, Gracia is like “oh, I get it, I’ll open it again and it’ll be all clear”. It’s not, and Johnson’s response of “It was a nice thought” is comedy gold due to the timing, the acting, and the reactive nature of the scene. A bit like that scene in Event Horizon with Laurence Fishburn giving comedy gold timing in a gruesome scene.

Anyway, back to Gori. The comedy is fine and does work well for the most part, when certain characters show restraint and good comedy timing. But when it’s just all thrown out there, and kind of endless in the delivery, it feels a little tiresome, to be honest. But a lot of these missteps are made up due to the gorgeous visuals, which are eye-meltingly neon, punky, and have ultra-Unreal Engine vibes without the baggage of texture pop-ins and all. The only downside is the lack of accessibility options, and this would not a massive deal if certain things were highlighted better. Some areas and chase sequences are placed within neon-bright locations, and the rails, which are neon rainbow colours, can blend into the backdrop. Options to change these types of things would have been appreciated.

But this is made up just from the world-building, the Toy Army, and a lot of colourful characters (including a talking German Goldfish … I’m sure that is from somewhere), and when a good joke or bit of banter lands, it can land very well.


They call him … The DOOM KITTY!


Okay, so I can see a lot of people seeing Gori as a new Lollipop Chainsaw or Shadows of the Damned…

But Gori is a lot more like DOOM Eternal if you ask me. Especially in the late game.

What Gori: Cuddly Carnage is, in a nutshell, is a fast-paced action-adventure game, with plenty of hack-and-slash elements, combo meters, cool upgrading systems for various perks and weapons, and a whole heap of carnage to deliver to the Toy Army. But Gori’s most interesting gameplay aspect that makes it different from most is his hoverboard Frank, who also acts as his main method of attack, allowing Gori to hack, slash and stomp his way through a mass of unicorns in a bloody spectacle.

Frank also allows Gori to traverse the environment in fun ways, feeling like an old-school Tony Hawk game, where you can grind along magical, rainbow rails, and massive neon-lit billboards. And while this is a nice way to travel, it also allows Frank to be charged up and thus Gori can execute some of Frank’s stronger attacks and powerups.

Gori can do an array of basic attacks whenever he pleases, but when Frank is charged up, you can perform the most brutal output Frank has to offer. This is a great design choice that will keep you moving, thinking about how to approach a battle and manage a vital resource in a fast-paced situation. You’ll be switching back and forth between grinding the rails for a power boost, and helicopter slicing a bunch of ravenous unicorns. There’s a great flow to the combat, traversal, and resource management for the most part, even if the first couple of hours are a little tedious as power gets used up so quickly and regaining it without some vital upgrades is quite slow. It doesn’t stop you from attacking, but the basic attacks feel mega weak, and only when you fully upgrade a weapon, do they feel more impactful.

But to be fair, personally speaking, I crushed it with the combo meter and upgraded a lot of my stats to a nice level about a third of the way through the campaign. It’s just mindful to think of what to upgrade first (Frank’s power and power gain!). This is the first comparison to DOOM Eternal, a game I love so much, but those first few hours were … difficult.

Gori’s pacing does pick up immensely quickly, but again you need to do quite well early on with the combo meter and upgrade the most critical stats over damage output or health.

Gori will be dropped within a level, tasked with finding something, someone, to kill someone/something to come closer to their goal of finding Professor Y. Levels are sprawling, hives of murderous toys, where you need to venture through kill things, collect things, solve puzzles and evade deathtraps. It’s all solid action, adventure, and platforming stuff and all done quite well for the most part, when making the most of the environment. As I mentioned there were times when the game did not take advantage of a setting, which can offer gameplay/set-piece gold! Like the Arcade level, which is filled with arcade machines, and things like Foosball tables. I kept thinking “Man, this would be a great place for a cool set piece”, and when going into each of the three giant arcade machines… they only offer arenas that look 16bit, but nothing else is pushed in presentation or mechanically.

There were a few moments like this, but things do pan out for the best most of the time. As for the arcade level, I could understand as it’s the second level of the game, and later the environments are taken advantage of more in a whole heap of fun ways. Including an underwater level which is so much fun! As Gori gets more powerful, new enemies come about, often massive hordes where different types are mixed up, providing plenty of comparison to DOOM Eternal’s “Push Forward Combat”. And Gori replicates this so well in all honesty.

Enemies are varied, and interesting, all providing different forms of strategies to the situation, and overall it pushes the idea of the 4Ps (something in game design that analyses good enemy placement, enemy design, and enemy importance to the player). And again, Gori nails it. Combat is lightning-fast, intelligent, and thoughtful, without feeling too cluttered or messy.  As I mentioned, the early stages are a tad tedious, especially when your power drains so quickly, but later stages provide more compelling arena designs, granting you a good deal of boosting and allowing you to unleash carnage, but still feel tense and conscious of your resources.

There is a good line-up of bosses which all have their own unique thrills and destructive qualities. Making them feel different from one another in meaningful ways, even if some boss forms/stages were a little muddled… One boss threw about 4 different stages at me, and it never felt like it was certain or finished properly on one. One boss had a first stage, and a second, which would go back and forth. The second had me destroy four weak points each time the stage came about. But after two weak points were destroyed, there was a new stage for the boss, and then another, and back to the first. It was a mess but not game-breaking to be fair.

And while I loved the level design, the use of Frank to traverse the world, and the killer aesthetics, I did feel there was a lack of secrets. Again like DOOM Eternal, Gori has their fortress where they go to between levels, and there are plenty of locked doors. In each level there are keys to find, that thus open said locked doors … and that’s kind of it for secrets.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of costumes, paint jobs for Frank and some nice customisable bits to find behind each door. I was hoping there would be a little more on offer, with the developers going all out on the lootable goods and in-jokes. Like a massive, missed opportunity is here, not having statues of famous internet cats to find … sorry keyboard cat.

But overall? These are minor complaints as the level design, combat, traversal, and general vibe and creativity in the bosses, enemies, and again the combat being so damn good once things get rolling, are all bloody top-notch stuff!


Overall?


It did take a little bit of time to click with Gori: Cuddly Carnage, but when it did, it was freaking awesome 2000’s shlock that I sorely missed.

Gori’s adventure of blood-soaked unicorn murder is one of immense creativity, unrelenting carnage, and ungodly fun-filled joy that it’s just a blast to play. If like me, old, love classic Xbox 360 filled with angst, and love cats, then this is a no-brainer. Gori: Cuddly Carnage is an ultimate cult classic in the making, one that’s so chock full of inventiveness, great combat, interesting level design, and all that glorious 2000 flare that is missing from much of the modern gaming landscape.

++ Lots of fun, creative, gory aesthetics, and gameplay mechanics
++ The traversal is neat, the combat is super fun and brutal, and great level design
+ Lots of extra bits, customisable content, and cool content
+ Good 2000s shlock-style fun

- The comedy doesn’t always land
- The first couple of hours are a tad tedious
- Needed some more in-level secrets, and utilise certain environments better  

A review copy of Gori: Cuddly Carnage was kindly provided by the publisher.