Gori: Cuddly Carnage Review (PC) – I’m Feline Violent
Back in early July, I had my first taste of Gori: Cuddly Carnage’s unique brand of cuteness imbued bloody massacre. In my preview, I dubbed it as akin to Devil May Cry, and if you know anything of my love for that series, you should know just how complimentary that comparison is.
A fluffy-haired ginger, maverick companions that cuss with galore, a combat system that brings the carnage like a nuclear warhead; in theory, Gori: Cuddly Carnage has every tool in its arsenal to wreak bloody destruction. Unicorns have been defiled and childhood toys have become rampant monsters – it’s an absurd setup for a video game, which makes it an eccentric and exciting prospect.
Does Gori have the sharpness in his claws to maintain the early rip-roaring impression of the preview? I daresay he may have even sharpened them further than expected. Whip up your hoverboard and look out for those pesky deformed unicorns, there’s carnage to be had. Cuddly style.
Nine Lives Knives
Sparking our near-unending slaughter of the mutated pixie dust creatures is Gori. An adorable ginger-furred kitty who could win awards for the cutest meows and the most violent of rampages. Gori is a toy literally brought to life by Professor F, his beloved human creator. After an outbreak of decidedly less cute yet equally bloodthirsty toys, Gori is separated from his human.
So, with smack-talking hoverboard CHI-P and depressed, existential AI F.R.A.N.K joining our misadventure, Gori sets forth to find his creator amongst all the chaos. The dialogue is frankly absurd, in the best possible way. F.R.A.N.K swears and insults with the ferocity of an Irishman after a dozen Guinness, while CHI-P provides a hilarious foil with their existential dread.
Cheeky quips about video game story tropes, absurdly entertaining insults and wildly wacky setups make Gori: Cuddly Carnage’s story a delight. It’s a tough line to tread when balancing immature, edgy humour in a way that isn’t “try hard” or just flat out annoying, but Gori succeeds at every swing of its blade.
Cutscenes are delivered at a quick pace with bombastic flair. Gori will backflip from gigantic enemies in an unnecessarily cool fashion, for example. Comic strips are used to deliver exposition and backstory, which works brilliantly with the world building too. There’s a fair bit of dialogue and narrative in Gori, and it makes the most of every opportunity to be zany and ridiculous.
Cuddly But Deadly
Rescuing Professor F involves more than just surfing across the neon-covered urban jungles you travel to. Gori is a kitty cat that’s cute in appearance, and utterly lethal in action. Gori has an arsenal of tools at his disposal, including a basic slice attack and a jack-in-the-box type hammer move. Both can be charged and turned into more powerful super moves by holding R2 (or equivalent) while in the air.
Additionally, this feline comes armed and dangerous with a rocket launcher (complete with a supped up cataclysm-inducing secondary fire), shield, dash and boost. There is little more rapturously satisfying than flinging Gori into the air, holding R2 + Triangle, and watching as you crash land like a meteorite into your poor foes. Each option available serves a specific purpose, and you’ll need all of them to make it through Gori: Cuddly Carnage’s combat arenas.
Angry Demon Studio continually throws new and unique variations of enemy types at you. Some may have shields that can only be broken with the hammer. Some may be pulsating balls of electrical goo that can only be damaged by area of effect attacks or rockets, for example. Knowing when and where to use your available tools effectively is an adrenaline-fueled, rocket-propelled delight.
The shield and parry systems exist in the game, but in truth I never really needed them. Gori is agile, with a double jump, dash and speed boost. Meaning, you can laser around these arenas like a kitten jacked up on steroids and carve through everything with reckless abandon. That’s not to say there isn’t skill involved, as combining your movement with attack patterns requires a decent amount of skill and dexterity, never mind reaction time.
Fast and Fur-ious
Skill is the name of the metaphorical game too, as Gori: Cuddly Carnage will be monitoring and judging your performance. Every encounter will be measuring you from a D to PPP style scale. Consecutive hits and kills raises the meter, while getting hit will dash your score multiplier and your ego in one fell swoop. Like all the best hack-and-slash games, mastery is where the skill ceiling is raised and the fun is elevated.
There are a couple of snags that get caught in Gori’s rather sharp fangs, however. The first is the size of some arenas. This arose in my preview and is unfortunately present throughout the game too. Some areas are relatively small and restrictive, by design, to test your abilities. It’s also a massive test of your ability to defend against massive assaults while not being able to see because of the camera.
The second is environmental signposting. In a handful of encounters or sections of levels, I found myself completely dumbfounded as to where to go or what to do. During one boss, I literally spent 5 minutes battling enemies and staying airborne, not realising the game had designated a small spot I needed to shoot on the boss. Gori’s variety in surviving waves to progress versus doing a particular task to proceed isn’t always consistent, and that can be occasionally frustrating.
However, like Gori himself, my patience has nine lives. While these problems do occasionally arise, they’re forgotten by the time you’re barreling into a group of bloodied and beaten unicorns, leaving a trail of glorious destruction in your wake. This is the most fun I’ve had with a pure hack-and-slash type game since Devil May Cry 5, and I consider that one of the best action games ever made.
Gori, Gori, What A Hell Of A Way To Die
Towards the end of my playtime with Gori: Cuddly Carnage, everything had just clicked. I could blast into an arena, smash the ground with sadistic bombast, ping up into the sky, fire off a volley of missiles, dash into the flying unicorns to sever spine from limb, perform a gratifying Gori kill on a downed foe, then tear out a flamethrower unicorn’s jaw. All in one fluid movement.
The levels are your blank canvas, and Gori’s suite of devilish moves are the blood red paint with which you’ll decorate, as you slay every brightly coloured, mutated creature of folklore. The control scheme is intuitive and Gori handles well, thanks to a quick response input time. The odd misplaced jump and misfired dash can occur, but Gori is forgiving enough around these to not make them an issue.
Between your malicious slicing and dicing through the hordes of mythical horses, Gori will also do some light platforming and chase sequences. Grinding on rainbow-coloured rails and neon billboards charges Gori’s fuel meter, essential for pulling off power moves. It’s also super satisfying. Not only does this kitty nail the thrill of tearing apart a child’s favourite mystical animal, but he excels at looking badass too.
There are three components of keys to collect in main each mission, but aside from that, there’s a slightly disappointing lack of other collectibles to find. Currency for upgrades and cosmetics is earned simply through slaughter, and while the keys unlock new rooms in the hub space, this is maybe an area that could have been expanded for more replayability.
Fur Baby Of Death
Speaking of the hub, this is where you can invest your accrued monies for upgrades and making Gori the most glamorous rampaging killer cat in all the lands. There’s a host of cosmetics for Gori and the gang you can unlock (with no microtransaction nonsense in sight), plus all the rooms are creatively styled and kitted out to fit the theme of a cat, hoverboard, AI and scientific fish on a spaceship. Yes, you read that right.
There are eight main missions and a host of smaller challenge levels that unlock after collecting the keys and finishing the game. Challenge levels run the gauntlet of reaching a certain score, surviving for 45 seconds or racing against the timer to finish a specific section of a level you’ve played. Each main level also has the opportunity to earn gold stars depending on your time, top multiplier, top combo and completion on the highest difficulty.
All of which is to say, Gori: Cuddly Carnage has plenty on its scratching post to keep you coming back for more super-charged slaying. The boss battles are fun and challenging, with their own unique setups or hurdles to work out and overcome. While Gori isn’t the most challenging game (even on its hardest difficulty), it is mechanically brilliant and full of variety, which helps keep this feline fresh.
Look At This Distinguished Gentleman
Before wrapping this up, let’s spare a moment to credit the visual artists for Gori: Cuddly Carnage. This game is chock-full of hideous furballs and nefarious reanimated toy creatures. Not least of which is the jack-in-the-box, spider-legged, deformed doll that haunts your every step. Gori’s cosmetic options are wonderfully vibrant and the designs for enemy types are wildly creative and entertaining.
Levels are fantastic artistic expressions of childhood memories. From a horrific dollhouse to a vibrant arcade, Gori’s art style is superb. You’ll cross rivers of citric-coloured toxic waste, grind across vibrant neon billboards, escape the clutches of demonic toys in slow-motion glory. The ease with which Gori: Cuddly Carnage keeps the visual feast going is impressive.
Importantly for a hack-and-slash action game, it runs smooth as butter, too. I played it on both Steam Deck and my PC, and on both it holds up supremely well. There’s the occasional shudder or slow-down when things are truly manic. However, even with dozens of enemies on-screen at once, Gori is remarkably stable. Having it so playable on Steam Deck is a real boon too. Slaying unicorns in a fiery bloodbath on the go? Absolutely.
Let The Carnage Commence
Playing Gori: Cuddly Carnage was like reliving the old-school PS3/360 era of good ol’ fashioned, no-holds-barred, utterly nonsensical yet entertaining action goodness. Much like Evil West, it’s a carnival of violence, a festival of depraved humour and a cacophony of thrilling mayhem. It doesn’t have the depth of a Devil May Cry, but it can inspire the same sense of brilliantly gory fun.
The six or so hours I spent finishing the game and completing about half the side missions was a sadistic delight. In Gori, Angry Demon Studios have fashioned out an adorable yet deadly mascot, one I hope to see a lot more of going forward. From the visual feast of the world design to the wild and wonderful enemies you’ll cleave to pieces, there’s so much more potential in this universe to be beaten into a bloody pulp.
I haven’t had this much fun in a pure action hack-and-slash since 2019, so for Gori: Cuddly Carnage to finally scratch that insatiable itch, it’s achieved something pretty impressive. Sink your feline teeth into this brutal, hilarious, joyous ride of carnage, and you won’t be left disappointed.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage is a reminder that games don’t have to be realistic or serious to be an awesome joyride of violence or chaos. The visuals are wonderful, the combat is sensationally stylish and the gore delivers on this ginger-haired cat’s name with aplomb. Despite the odd issue with the camera and navigation frustration, Gori is a thrill ride from start to end, and I’m desperate to see more of him in future.
Gori: Cuddly Carnage is launching on PC (review platform) via Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch on August 29th.
Developer: Angry Demon Studio
Publisher: Wired Productions
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
If you enjoyed this article or any more of our content, please consider our Patreon.
Make sure to follow Finger Guns on our social channels –Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Spotify or Apple Podcasts – to keep up to date on our news, reviews and features.
