Something very wrong has happened in Earl’s world. He’s living through the post-apocalyptic end times, you see, and there are mutants everywhere. They’re not just any old mutants either; they’re sentient, they talk, and they dance when you die a horrible death.
How did these monsters come to be? Why are they so damned talkative? And why the hell have they got a problem with Earl and his boss Edna? These are not questions that are answered in Earl vs. the Mutants. This is not a game about diplomacy or subtle action; it’s a game about driving a monster truck into a crowd of shotgun-wielding mutant farmers and splattering them good and proper.
Who is Earl and why is he versus the mutants?
Before everything went to shit, Earl was a pest exterminator. Now that the pests are mutants, his calling is to drive his increasingly armoured car into swarms of exploding slime beasts and other ghastly creatures. Low-poly bodies are constantly flying this way and that thanks to the game’s ragdoll physics, which stand out as a differentiating feature in a super-crowded sub-genre of gaming, the roguelite auto-shooter.
Unlike Vampire Survivors, which is riddled with characters to unlock and enemy types to tackle, Earl keeps things somewhat simpler. There are four vehicles in the game, and you need to level them up individually, as well as unlock coloured variations with different weapons. Then you drive said vehicles into your enemies, instead of avoiding them at all costs.
When you’re behind the wheel and auto-driving around one of the game’s three biomes, you’ll suck up XP points and credits from fallen enemies. Fill up a meter with points and you can unlock new powers or abilities for your ride. You get three options to choose from each time – a system we’re all familiar with by now – but I have to say that a lot of the time it’s a no brainer in terms of which option you’ll pick.
As well as boosting your damage output, your armour, and your health bar, you can pick up additional weapons, health packs, and my personal favourites: drones. These drones circle your car and aid in both offensive and defensive ways. They offer a means of enhancing your build, but they also have the potential to unbalance you, so be careful and don’t be afraid to re-roll your options.
Mutants of the world, unite!
Each round consists of a ten minute countdown, followed by a boss battle, if you survive that long. On top of that basic structure, there are in-game objectives to complete, and trying for them can be quite disruptive to your best efforts.
There are three different levels with three different bosses and three different sets of objectives, as far as I can tell. If you’ve managed to assemble a sturdy build, you’ll have a good shot against the boss, but their chonky health bars require a change of tact when compared to more rank and file enemies.
There’s just enough to think about and keep you engaged, with enough potential build variance to facilitate new tactics during any given run. The objectives and difficulty settings add to this, forcing you to lean your decisions this way and that to suit the scenario, however re-running the same maps will only enthrall you for so long.
Enjoying the end times while they last
As mentioned, I like the physics, and this aspect is highlighted further by the contours of each environment. You really do have to use the terrain with care as going up a hill without any boost will slow you down and make you a more likely target. Momentum is king in a desert full of mutants.
I’d have liked a bit more interactivity from the levels, as you can drive straight through the little scenery that’s there, but otherwise I’d say that the moment-to-moment gameplay is more reactive and therefore more satisfying than you’ll find in most games of this ilk. The narrative wrapper is nice and silly, too, which I think complements the leftfield gameplay.
I’m hoping that Billy Bob Thornton is being lined up to play the eponymous Earl in a movie adaptation, because I’d love to know more about him, his world, and his beef with the mutants. I’d also like to drive around more locations, splatter more mutations, and uncover a few secrets while I’m at it. There’s a fun little game here that neatly builds around a handful of core mechanics, and it’s a nice change of pace from the standard pixel-art auto-shooter fare.
Earl vs. the Mutants is out now on PC Steam, and I played the game on a code provided by the developer – thanks for that!
