Gungrave: Overdose is everything a sequel should be. Mechanics are tweaked, the game isn’t a retread and explores different ground, and presentation is more polished. That being said, I prefer the first iteration. The first Gungrave was published by Sega, and typical to Sega’s roots, it was an arcade style game that had very short cutscenes, enough to get the story along, and short levels, with massive super-over-the-top boss fights. In other words, exactly how I like it.
Gungrave:OD is published by Mastiff (?), and while the main hero is the same, the style of game is not. The game is nearly five times longer, with an hour of cutscenes and dialog, and extremely long levels. There are three different characters to choose from instead of one, and there are more demolition shots. The game also focuses much more on melee instead of just straight up ‘gun-kata’.
I have a number of issues with the game. First, it’s not as pretty as the original – it’s not purely cel-shaded as the original, and looks more closely to metal gear solid (PS1) type textures, only more sharp. This is probably due to the fact that there are so many more enemies on screen than the previous iteration. The second problem I have with this game is that the style demands that it shouldn’t be this long to finish (three hours). This style of game requires a certain level of repetition since you’re limited by what you can do. The number of enemies you fight at any given time borders the obscene, which is fun the first few times, and of course natural curiosity takes hold and you can only wonder how many more enemies they can throw at you (note: a LOT more). But, by the ninth level (previous game had six), you’re just looking for it to end.
That’s not to say that I didn’t find the game enjoyable – I’m just saying that it isn’t as enjoyable as the first. I also appreciate RED Entertainment experimenting instead of a retread of the first gungrave – had it been a few months instead of a few hours between iterations, I’d likely have appreciated it more.
I think part of the problem may just be how the story broke down in the first one versus the second one. To draw a parallel – the Crow is one of my favorite movies, but the Crow: City of Angels is one of the worst movies I had ever seen, ever. The Crow: Salvation was a good movie. Why? TC:CoA tried to draw too many parallels from the first movie, when only one would do – if you’re wrongfully murdered, you come back to life to set right the wrongs. That was the only tie between the first and third crow films. Between Gungrave and Gungrave:OD, several enemies are reanimated, albeit in creative ways, but there’s little logic in that decision. You beat them once – reanimating their corpses is going to accomplish what now? And unlike the first game, where the boss fights were memorable, this seemed woefully pathetic.
You see, the main character in the first game was limited: he couldn’t run and shoot at the same time; if you shoot and jogged, your accuracy goes down; if you dove, getting up took a few seconds. In this iteration, he moves faster, has no issues with movement, and can run, dive and roll obscenely fast. Whereas the first iteration was an imperfect assassin, the second iteration was an unstoppable juggernaut. Granted, the number of enemies you face this is almost five times more, but I can’t help but feel this game was a hell of a lot easier.
It’s definitely a game worthy of a collection, especially if one likes Max Payne type games, and I’ll definitely revisit it using the other characters. All in all, a good game; if I did those arbitrary number scores, the first Gungrave was a 9/10, the second, a decent 7.5.
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Incidentally, this game finally brings me over 30% completion (adjusted); I want to get closer to 60% completion before our next child. 
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