You have a journal that keeps track of your clues and information about the Bugsnax you've identified and your quests and everything. So a spider made out of fries is a Fryder and a sandwich crossed with a centipede is a sandopede. Your airship is wrecked by a giant creature upon your arrival and you find out that the explorer is missing, all the members of her expedition have scattered and hate each other, and in addition to the members of that expedition, who are Muppet like creatures called Grumpuses (as are you and your boss) the island is inhabited by a bunch of creatures called Bugsnax, which are bugs crossed with various snacks. You play a journalist who travels to the mysterious Snaktooth island to interview an explorer and the members of her expedition. It’s an adventure game with some of the trappings of a Pokemon style monster collector. It’s not actually that hard to describe what Bugsnax is. ![]() Bugsnax reminds me of the best parts of the fifth and sixth console generations, when quirky little games were released alongside the big budget blockbusters and mainstream gaming was bursting with creativity and weirdness. Instead it’s one of the best games to ever launch free on PS Plus, and the kind of slightly rough around the edges but still very fun game that shows why it's so frustrating that the big third party publishers don't invest in smaller properties anymore. I started playing it at a time when I wanted a chill game that straddles the line between relaxing and engaging, which Bugsnax does perfectly. I wouldn’t say that Bugsnax is my favorite game that came out in 2020 but it easily slots into my personal top 10. I was ready to peevishly say “well who cares if it is PS5 only on PS Plus, it sucks anyway” and move on. I also was, and remain, annoyed at Sony for only releasing the PS5 version on PlayStation Plus but I nabbed it there anyway and once I got my PS5 and finished Astro’s Playground I decided to show Sony that I could not be deterred from using my subscription even if they placed part of it behind a $500 paywall that most people still can’t even buy if they want to 2 months after launch.Īll that is to say that I went into Bugsnax with some interest but also some cynicism and feeling a bit standoffish. There’d been a fair amount of buzz around the game, including some discussion on the Bombcast, but I wasn’t sure quite what it was and I wanted to see for myself. I started playing Bugsnax half out of curiosity and half out of spite. It’s a bit like Slime Rancher if the slimes were actually a sentient hive mind (which may be the case for Slime Rancher, for all I know).Bugsnax is proof that careful game and narrative design are more compelling than flashy graphics. Yes, the big shocker is that the cutesy Bugsnax, with their big googly eyes and trilling voices, exist solely to fatten up the island’s unwitting victims. ![]() (Wow, there’s a ‘90s marketing tagline waiting to happen.) By feeding Bugsnax to the Grumpuses, you’ve put them at risk of becoming food for Snaktooth Island, and many of them can die if you don’t take the time to get to know them and give them the willpower to resist the Snax. Spoiling Bugsnaxīugsnax’s climactic reveal is that the island you’ve been exploring and the cute Bugsnax you’ve been force-feeding to the hapless Grumpus residents of Snaxburg are a single entity - a carnivorous entity. And yes, there will be spoilers in this article - consider this your warning. It’s only in the last few minutes that the game takes one of the darkest turns of any game in 2020. And around 80 percent of the game is exactly as pleasant and cheerful as you were probably expecting. Bugsnax, the bizarre indie adventure game from late 2020, looked charming enough from its original teaser trailer.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |