Before I jumped into Gravhounds, the new third-person co-op shooter from Octopus Panic, the most pressing questions on my mind were centered on gameplay. In trailers, it seemed to have touches of both Helldivers 2 and Deep Rock Galactic, so I wondered which it resembled more. I saw elements of physics-based gameplay, so I was curious how chaotic that might get. With its alien worlds, I was eager to know what exploration was like.
But once I finally got into the game, I was struck by a more immediate conundrum: Which dog do I pick?
Out now in early access on PC and consoles, Gravhounds is a third-person shooter with tower-defense and extraction elements. It is a little like Helldivers 2, a bit more like Deep Rock Galactic, and the physics of its world are fun, but damn, I took a long time picking which doggo hero to play as.
Currently, there are five characters to choose from, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and special abilities. Though these are the aspects of a hero-based shooter that typically give me pause on a character-select screen, here they were merely secondary to the look and biography of each powerful pup.
Dozer is an English Bulldog who is meant to play the tank role of the group. I practically never use the tank role, as I strongly prefer mobility to health whenever I can choose, but his blue-collar attire is easy to love, and the tag on his ear makes me root for him. What jerk did that? I get that it may mean he’s up to date on his vaccines, and that’s great, but can’t we think of a different system? He’s already fighting aliens from 9 to 5. Let’s give his ears a break.
Selene is an all-rounder with no major strengths or weaknesses in her attributes. That likely makes her a good starting class for most folks, which is pretty neat considering she seems to be a Weimaraner, often remembered as the dogs from Sesame Street. In a way, she was a lot of kids’ first dog, too. Though those dogs from Jim Henson’s world had human hands mimicking human behaviors, in Gravhounds, all dogs are pre-anthropomorphized, so Selene is shootout-ready, like the gun dog she apparently is.
