Guts and Glory is glitchy, it's ugly, the sound is bad, and the gameplay is pretty awful, but it’s fun to play and that was enough for me. If you can snag this game on sale, or as part of Gamepass, I fully recommend giving this game a try one night when you’re in the mood to sip a tasty beverage and show off a silly game to your friends. At its current price of $15 though, I just don’t think there’s enough reason to purchase it, unless you are Pedro with a pickup truck full of nose candy and money to burn.
You'll have a good time with the Guts and Glory proposal, a ridiculous and intentionally poorly made game, that gets much more fun than other titles and that fulfills what it wants and what it needs.
I'm going to start this review off being completely honest - from a technical standpoint, Guts and Glory is by far one of the worst games I have ever played. But I love it. Sure, some games strive to be the prettiest, or have the biggest and best mechanics in order to drive players in droves to their local GameStop, but not this title; Guts and Glory aims much higher. The best thing about this game is that it will likely having you and your friends laughing to the point of pissing yourselves.
This is a physics based racing game, but most of the joy that it evokes comes from the death and destruction that you will cause with your racer of choice, not actually completing the game's challenges. The game starts off small, requiring you to make it through a series of checkpoints, evading traps and hazards in the game world. Each level will get more and more challenging as you progress, with many culminating in the racer or random spectators being chopped to bits or exploding in a vicious explosion of gore and viscera. Death comes quickly and quite often, with racers being dismembered, blown up, impaled, run over, and pretty much any other **** means to an end you can think up.
The racers and their means of transportation are fairly robust, ranging from the standard fare such as bikes or cars to crazy contraptions like a hobo outfitted with a lawn chair that’s been converted into a jetpack, or a young kid with a Back to the Future inspired hover board. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses which are not disclosed at the character select screen, and more often than not you'll need to select the right one to complete the specific challenge you face. Why these levels do not simply require you to use the player in question is a bit of a missed opportunity, since I found myself struggling at many points just to make progress using the trial and error method, especially when all of the racers are offered as a choice at the character select screen.
Each character has three set tools in their bag - the first is a boost ability which does what it says. The second is a slowdown ability that makes some of the more difficult groups of traps much more manageable. Both of these can be refilled by completing midair stunts or tricks, simply by moving the character around with the directional sticks. The third ability allows you to eject your character from the vehicle, as they are the only part of the character that needs to meet the checkpoint or finish line. The rag doll physics work well on a large scale, but I found outliers here and there that didn't quite add up, one of which is what looks like a giant version of corn hole, with the player representing the bean bag. No matter which direction the player was facing or moving, they always seemed to go in the same direction once catapulted from the car or bike.
The tracks are just as varied and insane as the racers themselves, with theme parks, wilderness, and city settings covered. While some challenges require more dexterity and thought than others, much of your progress will be chalked up to dumb luck, with a few of my wins coming from cheating the game’s systems, often creating hilarious results. I kid you not, you haven't lived until you've completed a race while your avatar has his head cut off, bleeding profusely from the neck all while still having full control of their bike. Another instance allowed me to avoid a cluster of traps the level included by simply flying over them with the boost feature on the hover board, when this isn't a part of his skill set on any other course.
The bugs don't always work out in your favor, and this game has plenty of them. On many occasions, I died upon respawning for no reason, having to sit through the loading screen multiple times. When similar games include instant respawns, this stands out more than it should, even when the load times are only ten seconds or so. The checkpoints will also cause some frustration if you're actually trying to complete the game as you should. There are two types of checkpoints, which took me awhile to get my head around. There are yellow markers that simply designate the current goal and save no progress, as well as an orange alternative which works as a legit checkpoint in the event you die or fail miserably. On many occasions, the orange markers, which are typically placed too far apart for my liking, do not register as a legit checkpoint, resulting in some of the more tiresome challenges to be even more difficult. A few instances of this resulted in me losing progress and actually put me at a start point as far as two checkpoints behind where I had last perished.
Guts and Glory is destined to be a hit at a party as a great alternative for the Cards Against Humanity crowd due the dark yet downright hilarious results that come regularly. While there is no true multiplayer element (sequel?), the short levels are great for trading off the controller.
I first saw Guts and Glory when I watched my friend play it on PC and despite it having a few teething problems here and there it did look like a game that carried with it quite a bit of fun. As you can imagine then I did have some interest in the Xbox One version and after playing it for a while it’s clear that it does have some enjoyable moments present, but unfortunately it also has a few problems present as well which in the end stop the game from reaching its full potential. That being said at first the game can be really fun and the easy to pick up and play style that’s been implemented means you can jump into the action straight away. At first I did become a little bit addicted but after a short while it’s clear that this game is best enjoyed when played in short bursts because it can get repetetive quite quickly when played for long periods. Another problem the game delivers to you when played for long periods is technical issues. Granted most of the technical issues are quite small and only happen every now and then but when they all combine together it can harm the fun factor quite considerably. Thankfully though I was just about able to look past these issues and when I did I realised that the physics that have been implemented in the game are actually pretty decent. Unfortunately the controls that accompany these physics are not as good. Throughout my time with the game I never really felt truly comfortable with the controls because they never seemed to do what I wanted them to do which did cause me to have quite a few frustrating moments. When the controls did perform well though I did have quite a bit of fun and you’ll be pleased to know that there are a decent amount of maps for you to race and ultimately have an horrific death on. Despite there being quite a few maps available to you as far as content is concerned the game doesn’t have a huge amount for you to get to grips with which means in terms of replayability there isn’t a great deal, which is a shame. One of my favourite things about the game was its presentation. Don’t get me wrong it does lack polish in some areas but in a way I think this made both the visuals and sound design have quite a bit of charm packed into them. At the end of the day Guts and Glory is game that’s perfect to play for a quick 30 minutes here and there because if played for longer the game’s shortcomings become a lot more noticeable. That being said despite its shortcomings it probably just does enough to get a very small recommendation from me.
Guts and Glory is a good old bit of fun. It’s the perfect game to play with some friends for a few hours, just so you can see who can be obliterated in the most hilarious way and who will come out on top with bragging rights and the fastest times. However, these sessions won’t last too long and you will find yourself getting a little tired after the game begins to repeat itself for the umpteenth time.
Guts and Glory won’t appeal to all audiences, but as a fun game to play with your friends, it’s worth your money. The carnage is so over-the-top ridiculous that it’s hard not to laugh and have a good time at seeing the outcomes of failing certain obstacles. So, hop on your bicycle, get on the track and go break a leg. Literally.
Guts & Glory is a game that’s far too bare for its own good, consisting of little other than a range of challenges across a variety of uninspiring maps. The game’s most defining aspect is that it’s brutally gory, and although it is indeed fun to begin with, repetition swiftly rears its head soon after. Furthermore, performance issues, dated visuals and a lack of content diversity mars this already bland experience.
I would say if you’re looking for a trial and error game with high difficulty, but rewarding game play, go for Trials over Guts and Glory. You’ll get a few laughs seeing how characters die, but in the end, it becomes frustrating far too quickly.
Guts and Glory
Fun until it’s not
Guts and Glory is a physics based obstacle course game featuring over 60 different obstacles for you to overcome...
At the start of a course you choose your character and your goal is to basically go through all of the checkpoints and get to the end dodging the blades and cannons, basically whatever is being thrown at you...
the game is super simple, not crazy tricks you have to worry about, it simply is just about going forward and dodging, there are super forgiving checkpoints to stop the game from feeling frustrating and unfair which I appreciate.. And tracks get more challenging as the game goes on
The thing though is that unless you have green hair and are making $2,000 in ad revenue per 15 minutes of playing this game, you’re going to be over it pretty quickly...
it just really starts to get dull and numbing after a while..
It goes from having potential to nothing cool is really being done here... it’s just upping the challenge more so than creating a really cool and challenging experience...
at least for most of the tracks... there are a couple of cool moments here such as the frogger course.. But for the most part the game just feels more of the same throughout...
it’s a tug of war between being okay and mediocre
Theres not much else to say about this game, I was enjoying it and then after a couple of hours I wasn’t anymore… it over stayed its welcome and didn’t do anything for me to remember.
If you’re into obstacle course games snatch it up, if not... youre not missing out on anything…
I give Guts and Glory
a 5.5/10
It's A Game To Pass The Time ... I Don't Understand How You Can't Play The Community Levels, Since On PC You Can Create Levels Rate Them I Bought The Game To Play World Levels But It Doesn't Have Any, Now Playing It And Noticed Many Crashes of Frames, The Gore effects look very ugly and it is inexcusably unplayable and graphically it looks horrible, Do not spend $ 14.99 Dollars Like me there are 10,000 better games for that price