Electric Nightmares

Our four part series about generative AI and its use in video games

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The Gunk is a gooey adventure from the makers of Steamworld

Oozing with delight

Dear reader, do you know of The Gunk? Have you touched the gunk? Tasted the gunk? Sucked up the gunk into your palm-sized vacuum cleaner? Of course you haven't - The Gunk was only just announced, taking a spot in today's Xbox Games Showcase. Coming next year from Steamworld Heist / Quest / Dig, The Gunk is a sci-fi survival platform that's positively covered in slime.

A moment of appreciation for how bloody good a game name The Gunk is. Short, sweet, powerful. Love it.

Cover image for YouTube video

Our pair of spacefaring trucker ladies have found themselves a nice big hunk of rock packed with valuable resources, rare bugs and ancient nonsense to sell down the interstellar market. Trouble is, they've also happened upon a mass of corrosive ooze that's out to gobble up the planet. Fortunately, your leading lass has a glove that can suck up the stuff, sucking great big holes out of walls and clearing out paths.

Of course, The Gunk isn't too keen on being packed into a handheld Henry Hoover. There's a good few nasties on show that I reckon you'll have to clobber. More curiously, though, is the idea of getting "caught in a spiral of festering mistrust", as the official site puts it.

The developers at Image & Form haven't made a big 3D survival platformer, far as I can tell. But then, they're quite good at jamming themselves into new genres, with the Steamworld series itself shifting from Metroidvania sidescrollers to turn-based tactics to roguelite deckbuilding. Expect The Gunk to arrive on PC alongside its Xbox launch sometime next Autumn.

Whatever you call it, hit our E3 2020 tag for more from this summer's blast of gaming announcements, trailers, and miscellaneous marketing. Check out the PC games at the PlayStation 5 show, everything at the PC Gaming Show, and all the trailers from the Xbox showcase, for starters.

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Natalie Clayton avatar

Natalie Clayton

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Writes news when everyone else is asleep, sometimes

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