This game was surprisingly really good.

Well, I say surprisingly because I didn’t know it was the team behind Octodad until after I played it.

It has a surprisingly mature story that is accessible to all ages and a fun gameplay loop, although the final third is definitely weaker. It’s most comparable to if Pokemon Snap were open world, although definitely easier.

Most of the Bugsnax were cute and funny, although there were a lot of reskins that had no difference besides appearance. Like Shishkabug, Tropicabug, and Instabug all had different behavior, but I don’t know the functional difference between Noodler and Stewdler aside from location.

Overall, I really can’t recommend the game enough. It’s not perfect, but it was a game that I was able to get really into without any glaring flaws. It doesn’t have much replay value, but I could see it being fun to return to in a year where I forget everything like The Witness. If you were able to get it for free through PS Plus, definitely play it. If not, $25 isn’t that bad but I could see it being too much for a game you’ll probably only play once. If you ever see it on sale for $10 or less I’d definitely pick it up.

  • SerLava [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Folks, there's a god damned CHEE POOF in the mayor's house!

  • Judge_Juche [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Oh cool, I dismissed it as some kind of meme money-grab, I thought the bugsnax looked really cute but assumed I would get bored after an hour. I didn't even know it had a story. I'll give it a try.

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      the gameplay loop is pretty good but I got surprisingly engaged in the story for it being one with characters named shit like floofty

  • joannavocado [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    I was fairly happy with the game overall, though I wish they'd leaned more into the body horror aspect.

    spoiler

    Perhaps I missed it, but it would have been nice to have the Undersnax and the like foreshadowed a bit more. Also that texture in the Undersnax was garbage

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago
      spoiler

      ___at certain parts throughout the game you can catch the Snaxsquatch (controlled by liz) snooping on you. for instance the first time you enter the beach if you go to the left you can see it just out of bounds on the hills. Also if you turn around during the ghost story quest you can see it behind cromdo mart.

    • MarxistHedonism [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      ChristopherOdd did a full play through but he never really grasped the mechanics and rushed through the end of the game and skipped most of the side content.

      I platinumed it in less than 10 hours so it’s really not big investment if you want to see everything.

  • PurrLure [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I watched a movie version of the game on youtube and the story got really good in the last half.

    spoiler

    I got thoroughly creeped out when I watched the trailer and it turns out the island is very spooky.

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      there was a ytuber that made a video as a shitpost about the game and basically predicting the ending. lol