What if instead of John Wick’s dog dying at the start of the movie, John Wick died and it was his dog who went on a bloody rampage? What if the dog also went on an LSD-fueled trip and started seeing magical unicorns, rabbits, and a collection of various Eldritch monsters out to get him? This weird introduction is only appropriate for a game like Gori: Cuddly Carnage, set in a horror post-apocalyptic world, and featuring the main character Gori, a cat going on a mission to kill everything with a pulse that enters his sight. The fact that someone at Angry Demon Studio successfully pitched this idea is an accomplishment of its own, but beyond this unique setting, the idea surprisingly works well.
A Pawsome Combat System
The main selling point of Gori: Cuddly Carnage in my opinion is its combat system. It is heavily inspired by DOOM (2016). It is made apparent by some direct references such as the glory, or rather the “Gori kill” feature, which lets you perform gory finishers on enemies while replenishing your health and fuel. But beyond that, the influence is also felt in the pacing of the combat, which alternates between platform phases and intense combat phases, with combat usually including a few large enemies that require some strategy to deal with accompanied by an army of small fodder to be used as fuel replenishment.
Overall, the combat in Gori: Cuddly Carnage is incredibly well done, and the variety of enemies as well as some nasty combinations of particular enemies will keep you on your toes throughout your playthrough. And speaking of nasty combinations, a special mention to the extremely annoying flying unicorns that keep dropping bombs on you when you least expect it and make every encounter twice as hard. These guys are almost as bad as flying cockroaches (if you ever dealt with one, you know), and chain-killing them by slicing through the air feels extremely satisfying.
The only negative experience with the combat system in Gori: Cuddly Carnage was the scoring. To keep a streak going and increase your score, you need to keep killing enemies quickly, which actively discourages you from going after the large enemies. This however is only useful to get some extra money for upgrades, so it didn’t end up affecting enjoyment of the game very much.
Another important combat aspect is boss fights. Boss fights in Gori: Cuddly Carnage are very entertaining, and each boss has a unique fight design and specific strategy you have to find to get the kill, which makes each fight feel very different from the others. At the same time, you are given enough clues to figure out what you need to do without too much frustration. Although correctly executing those strategies will still require some trial and error, unless you are a skilled gamer.
The Ups and Downs of the Platformer
Between the intense combat phases in Gori: Cuddly Carnage, you go through classic platform phases where you have to jump around and solve puzzles. This part of the game can be fun, but is definitely weaker compared to the combat. The levels and puzzles themselves are well done without too much innovation compared to classics in the genre. However, the controls made some parts frustrating to go through. You can jump, double jump, and use a turbo boost to move around. However, it is hard to judge which combinations you need to use for some jumps as it is very easy to drop too far from the platform you were aiming for, as opposed to classic platformers where you tend to drop short of where you were aiming when you make a mistake. You may say “skill issue” and that is a fair point, I am a game journalist after all. However, this lack of controllability is exacerbated by the fact that the slightest variation in your starting point for a jump can lead to a very different result.
Another pain point for platform phases in my opinion is the part in some levels where you have to quickly escape an enemy chasing after you. The escape scenes should have been an adrenaline rush, capturing the feeling of running for your life at the maximum speed. But in some of those runs, I found myself having to do slow careful jumps because a maximum-speed jump would get me in the void. This kind of ruins the feeling of danger, which is a shame because when these chasing scenes work, they work very well. This is why I found the platformer side of the game to be a bit of hit or miss, albeit to be fair, it was more often hit than miss.
Pink Unicorns and Cuddly Vibes
Although it is likely not to the taste of everyone, I think the style of the game and the art direction is one of the most important selling points for Gori: Cuddly Carnage. I mean, who doesn’t want to watch a cat commit unicorn genocide in the bloodiest way possible, right? …. right?
The level designs are definitely committed to that aesthetic, with the green/pink palette used a lot. They create a very specific and recognizable vibe for the game, which is a sign of a great art direction. Some levels felt slightly too similar to each other, but others were exceptionally well done, such as the one inside arcade machines or the one with a horror amusement park theme.
The music is also nice to listen to and accompanies well the game and the universe. Some tracks were standouts for me, such as the metal track playing during some fights in level 7, which was a nice addition to the high-adrenaline massacre going on during that level, or the remix of the theme song playing during the last part of the last mission, which doubled as a victory lap after defeating the final boss.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage also is a game from cat lovers for cat lovers, as is made obvious from the multiple references included, such as the fact that you have a button that lets you meow on command. The pspsps sound that you hear when you get close to collectible keys is a straight genius sound design move. And to top it all off, you can see a list of the team members’ cats in the credits, which is a very nice touch.
The story for the game didn’t need to do much, given the setting and the nature of the game. Really, it only needed to give the player an excuse to massacre unicorns and that’s about it. However, Gori: Cuddly Carnage overperformed on this side and delivered a nice solid story for Gori and his relationship with other toys and his master. Do not expect to have your mind blown by the story, but it is a nice accompaniment to the game and compliments its other aspects well.
Should you play Gori: Cuddly Carnage? I would say yes, especially if you like cats, horror, gore, or if you enjoyed playing through DOOM (2016). It is an enjoyable experience with around 10 to 12 hours to finish the main storyline, as well as a few more hours to finish the side missions. You can also unlock the highest difficulty after finishing the game, which gives it some replay-ability. Overall, it is a weird and cute game that doesn’t feel the need to take itself too seriously and would make a good plan for a nice weekend at home.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage will be released on 29 August 2024, on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X, and Series S. The Steam page describes the game as:
Humanity has been destroyed – and it’s up to Gori, along with his deadly but wise-cracking sentient hoverboard, F.R.A.N.K, and morose AI companion, CH1-P, to shred and slay the evil Adorable Army!
Anime Corner was provided a digital copy for review; all screenshots were taken on the Steam version.
©Angry Demon Studio, Wired Productions.
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