If you love Helldivers 2 and have a penchant for anthropomorphic dogs, you’ll probably adore Gravhounds. This debut title from Octopus Panic is part strategy title, part action-builder game, part extraction shooter, and it mixes everything up and delivers with quite a mighty bark and bite.
I entered Gravhounds expecting something tongue-in-cheek and not-so-serious, but I came away having experienced a game that has meat on the bones (yummy!) and enough replayability to keep me (and my wife) coming back for more. For this being Octopus Panic’s first game, I’d say they’ve managed to smash it out of the (dog) park.
Who’s a Good Boy?
Gravhounds is a co-operative action-builder game that can be played solo, but I wouldn’t really advise that, especially not early on. It takes players and plants them in a world where dogs do the hard jobs that others won’t.
You play as literal Gravhounds, a roster of five dogs, all created from existing breeds, cybernetically enhanced, given boost packs, jumpsuits, and toolkits, and sent to alien planets to scavenge resources, defend against waves of enemies, and, all being well, escape the planet again to count your riches.
The gameplay loop is delightfully simple to understand, but things can very quickly become overwhelming.
You land on a planet of your choosing, select your Gravhound, all of which have different attributes and a unique active ability, and head to the ground. Once there, you’ll complete tasks, farm resources, build contraptions and turrets, and work to eradicate endless waves of bloodthirsty bugs and aliens.
Periodically, you’ll earn reward drop pods that you can summon to equip perk cards, which are unlocked centrally as you grind and level up your Gravhounds. You’ll also get free turrets, components, and weapons.
The rotation is easy: you gather resources and throw them in the Collector, you slay hordes of enemies, you get progressively stronger, and things get progressively tougher. When you’ve had enough and you’ve completed your tasks, you ascend in your Collector and head back to relative safety.
But the depth of the game is rooted in that combat loop. Each fight is exciting and can quickly become seriously threatening. The game’s horde mechanics are incredible, and even with hundreds of enemies per wave, the energy of Gravhounds never falters.
You’ll quickly have a network of dozens, if not hundreds, of nodes stretching across the environment, accommodating all kinds of modules and scores of turrets. You’ll see boss enemies, you’ll defend against flanking behavior, and you’ll weather everything unpredictable that the world throws at you.
Each Gravhound feels splendidly unique, and there’s a great synergy when you’re playing with others. My favorite has to be Zane, the big, burly Doberman. His ability is a ferocious bark that sends enemies hurtling away.
There are some elements that work nicely to reduce some of the game’s tension, too. If you succumb to the enemies and need to respawn, you’ll come back wearing ‘a cone of shame’, the plastic dog collars that you see pets wearing after a vet procedure.
I’ll admit that the game is launching in a fairly fundamental state. There’s plenty to enjoy, and the perk card element makes for great replayability, but the weapon pool and selection of Gravhounds are very limited. That said, there’s plenty of room for expansion, and having spoken to the developers weeks before launch, I know that more is coming, including fresh dog breeds.
It’s great fun, and that’s all you want from a game sometimes, right? The visuals are attractive and eye-catching, the voiceover work is charming and funny, and the movement mechanics are fluid and energetic. I had a great time playing Gravhounds, and while it’s not emotionally deep or endless, it doesn’t need to be.
It does what it sets out to do, and that’s just brilliant.
Gravhounds is out now on PC and XBOX Series X|S, and it’s also available via XBOX Game Pass.
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Gravhounds
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Gravhounds
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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