Edmund McMillen has done it again! With the help of developer Tyler Glaiel, he has released a nasty game with simple and memorable graphics that sucks you in with its gameplay and atmosphere.
Cat Adventure
In Mewgenics, the player takes on the responsibility of caring for and breeding cats. To ensure the cats have enough food and money to live on, they must go on adventures. Each adventure begins in the Alley, and as you progress, you unlock access to new stages like the Desert and the Laboratory. Once the cats overcome all the challenges and defeat the enemies, additional locations such as the Junkyard, Bunker, and Sewer become available.
All cats possess a set of characteristics and skills. Collars give them a class: fighter, mage, butcher, druid. If you want a challenge, you can choose not to wear a collar, but it's easier to rely on the skills provided by the classes.
Traveling through locations is associated with difficulties:
- Due to the heat in the Desert, the bonuses from healing are reduced. This is compensated by the water you buy from the ubiquitous saleswoman;
- The Sewer has an overwhelming amount of filth;
- The Bunker contains robots, mutants, and nuclear bombs;
- Hell has demons and lakes of magma.
Incidents occur periodically, the outcome of which depends on the characteristics of the cat leader. A successful decision leads to the appearance of allies, increased characteristics, the acquisition of a high-quality mutation, access to a store, or a skill like coprophilia (the cat heals by eating feces). Failure ends in dire consequences and curses. Curses add fire, sandstorms, and aggressive plants to the battlefield, but they don't always harm – the rain caused in the Desert cancels the heat and replenishes water supplies.
The items obtained are used as artifacts. Equipped artifacts give bonuses to characteristics and have pleasant effects: bonuses for allies, changing the main attack, creating friendly flies and spiders, cleansing negative effects, and imposing positive ones. Active items help with healing or dealing damage – a cleaver destroys ordinary enemies and seriously wounds bosses. Alas, artifacts become fragile after adventures – you can't use them forever.
Battles here are turn-based, but dynamic. On their turn, cats can move, attack, and use abilities – cast until mana runs out. Enemies can disguise themselves, poison, charm, and spoil life in many unusual ways. If they defeat a cat, it will lose consciousness and get injured: if you don't pick it up in time, you'll lose it forever. Particularly dangerous enemies kill instantly!
In battle, it is better to use the environment: hit enemies against spikes, cacti, tires, stones, impale them on harpoons. In tall grass, you get a bonus to evasion. Enemies are smart and use the environment to their advantage. Some skills create dangerous zones and shelters.
The bosses and mini-bosses encountered are the main challenge. They scatter traps, evade attacks, summon reinforcements, and conduct sinister rituals. Non-standard tactics work against bosses: you can pee on rat bombs to extinguish them, or feed an enchanted shark to the sewer boss.
As with The Binding of Isaac, the point of Mewgenics is to break the game. Thanks to my build, the thief crit more often, the priest created an army of enhanced flies, and the fighter increased overall stats after each kill – the mage shared mana with everyone. This combination made it easy to destroy everyone in its path, and this is an example of the game's limitless possibilities.
After winning, the cats bring home the collected food, money, and items. They acquire veteran status and can no longer participate in adventures. If you manage to defeat the boss of the final location (Caves, Hell, Moon), the cats that have passed the test unlock new abilities for their class – cats without collars are also counted.
Immoral Selection
At home, the picked-up cats and veterans go about their business. Every day they consume food, and one of the events may occur: the cats will start fighting or mating. In a fight, the winner gets bonuses to characteristics, and the loser gets injured or dies. Mating leads to the birth of kittens, who inherit the characteristics of their parents.
You need to ensure that the born kittens have the best characteristics and retain the acquired high-quality mutations. To avoid consanguinity, you will have to pick up stray cats. Otherwise, kittens will be born with defects. Buying items improves the mood of cats, their libido, health, and the chance of acquiring mutations. Items also affect the quality of housing, which attracts more capable stray cats.
As you progress, new neighbors will appear. They improve the house, open new classes, sell goods and furniture, and give advice on breeding. The mad doctor gives tasks where you need to take an item to a specific location. To get new bonuses, you will have to sacrifice veterans, disabled people, old people, kittens, mutants.
Periodically, powerful bosses raid the house, which only veterans can fight. In fact, this is a chance to assemble a dream team and allow the veterans to show themselves in battle for the last time – after the battle, they are permanently out of action. Items fall out of the invading bosses, which must be taken to a specific place and gain access to additional content.
Atmosphere
In Edmund McMillen's games, items and characters often intersect. Playing Mewgenics, you can find references to Super Meat Boy or The Binding of Isaac. The developer remains true to the tradition of generously using satire, feces, and religious undertones.
The musical component remains at its best. In The Binding of Isaac, you listen to the tracks when you visit the store in the original or the cathedral in Rebirth. In Mewgenics, the music during the battle with the bosses is so good that I turned off the background videos!
Verdict
It is safe to say that Edmund is a genius! He has once again created a game where you want to spend hundreds of hours.
In Mewgenics, it's fascinating to breed cats, pore over characteristics, and break the game to create the best teams of fluffy adventurers. Here, victories unlock new content, so you won't be bored even after the hundredth run!
If you like the author's games, turn-based tactics, a multitude of mechanics in one package, and a crazy style, then you should definitely pay attention to Mewgenics!
