This only happened once or twice in the later stages of the game, but it was still frustrating, especially when the exploration normally feels so fluid. Clearing up the gunk usually results in access to a new area or to more resources, and this leads to one occasional hiccup of the game - when there’s one globule of gunk left hiding somewhere and you can’t find it, you are pretty much trapped until you can. It can be a somewhat lengthy process when there’s quite a lot of gunk, but the result - the sudden burst of greenery and vegetation as you help the afflicted area come back to life - is always enjoyable. Rani comes armed with a Power Glove which lets you hoover up the substance, and it’s sort of like interacting with the world via the Vacpack in Slime Rancher everything seems divided up into “stuff that can be hoovered up” and “stuff that can’t.” You’ll be doing a lot of clearing up after the gunk, so the fact that it is oddly satisfying to clean up the planet really helps. The gunk itself is a nasty, corrosive substance which seems to be draining the life from the planet. Now, let’s talk about the gunk - we can’t go far either in this review or in the game without encountering it, so let’s dig in. The music wonderfully complements that voice acting, with soaring music accompanying your exploration, or with sombre tones for some of the more serious parts of the story. The voice acting does a great job of getting across this gradually-building feud, and while the eventual fallout wasn’t quite as dramatic as I was hoping, the voice acting remains one of the strongest parts of the game. The gunk itself is dropped straight into the middle of this burgeoning bubble of mistrust - Rani is instinctively protective of the planet and wants to clear away the gunk, while Beck wants to stay back and stay out of it.
From then on, Rani begins to build an attachment to this strange alien world, while Beck is focused inward on more practical matters, like fixing the ship. The crux of their conflict is noticeable right from the start, when Beck decides to stay on the ship while Rani goes out to explore. This is thanks in no small part to the stellar voice acting - you might think that keeping one character back would limit their impact on the story, but Rani and Beck stay in close contact throughout the game, creating an increasingly tense narrative about trust and the “right” thing to do. Our partner Beck stays on the ship, and right away, The Gunk sets up that idea of conflict between the two.
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