Gunbrella

Introduction

Gunbrella sends the player through a rain-soaked, noir-tinged metropolis armed with the title weapon — a bulletproof umbrella that doubles as a firearm, grappling tool and movement device — investigating a personal tragedy against a backdrop of cult conspiracy and industrial unrest. Developed by doinksoft, the studio behind Gato Roboto, and published by Devolver Digital, it released 13 September 2023 for NZ$21.99. Over two years on, it holds 1,044 Steam reviews sitting at Very Positive, roughly 85.3%, with recent sentiment running softer at 79% across its most recent 100 English reviews. This review reads a substantial share of both the negative and positive samples, and finds a game whose fundamentals draw strong, consistent credit, wrapped around a specific, widely shared frustration with how little the game explores its own central idea.

Movement reviewers rate among the genre's best

Start with what draws this review's clearest, most enthusiastic praise: Gunbrella moves beautifully. Reviewers repeatedly and specifically compare the platforming to Celeste, a genre benchmark, and mean it as genuine praise rather than a loose comparison — the gunbrella's dual role as weapon and traversal tool gives movement real fluidity, letting players chain grapples, dashes and shots together in ways reviewers describe as consistently satisfying. Art direction earns matching credit for its noir-western aesthetic, giving the world real visual identity rather than a stylistic label applied over generic level design, and music draws steady, positive support for reinforcing that tone throughout.

A title mechanic reviewers say never gets explored

Set against that praise, this review's sample shows unusually consistent agreement on a specific frustration: the gunbrella itself, the game's namesake mechanic, doesn't get explored with the depth its central billing implies. Reviewers describe it functioning more as a novelty than a system with real mechanical range, with combat variety limited mostly to a handful of ammo types offering minor tactical differences rather than genuinely distinct approaches to encounters. Several reviewers frame this as the core disappointment of the whole game — a clever, distinctive weapon concept that never gets pushed as far as its premise suggests it could go, leaving combat satisfying in short bursts but static across the full runtime. A related complaint concerns structure: Gunbrella is frequently perceived and marketed as metroidvania-adjacent, and reviewers who came expecting non-linear exploration describe the actual game as considerably more linear than that framing implies, with navigation guidance in places reviewers found genuinely unclear.

A story leaning on weight it hasn't quite earned

Story and writing draw the most consistent criticism outside of combat depth. Reviewers describe a narrative that reaches for real emotional and thematic weight — grief, conspiracy, industrial unrest — without writing developed enough to fully support those ambitions, several noting the tonal reach feels more considered than the actual script delivers. This isn't a complaint about the premise itself, which multiple reviewers credit as genuinely interesting, but about execution falling short of the ambition on display.

Final Verdict

Gunbrella succeeds unambiguously as a platformer — movement and combat feel this review's sample consistently rates among the best in its weight class, wrapped in genuine noir-western atmosphere. What keeps this from a stronger recommendation is a specific, widely shared frustration that the game's own central idea, the weapon it's named after, never gets explored with the mechanical depth its premise promises, paired with a story reaching for more weight than its writing currently delivers. For players who want tight, Celeste-calibre platforming wrapped in strong presentation, Gunbrella delivers convincingly. For anyone hoping the title mechanic itself would be the star, this review's own sample suggests tempering that expectation.