SwapMeat is a very silly game, but I mean that in a good way.
I’ve been dipping in and out of this absurd third-person shooter since it first hit Early Access last year. Now, after several months in the proverbial oven, One More Game is ready to call it complete, throw off the EA tags, and embrace the game’s finished form.
My previous deep dive into this quirky sci-fi shooter was late last year, and I spent the majority of that time playing on my own. This time I brought a party of intrepid adventurers with me, to see how SwapMeat feels when it’s played as intended: as a co-op shooter.
The basics first
One More Game has developed this third-person action roguelite to support between one and four players. As a solo game, it’s perfectly fine, but as you can tell from the attached screenshots and my jovial tone, this is not a game that takes itself too seriously, and therefore it thrives in the chaos that comes from playing with your friends.
As a co-op experience, things have smoothed since the EA launch. Objective signposting is clearer, and because you can see your allies moving about the place via on-screen markers, it’s simple to keep on the same track as everyone else, even if there’s no line of sight.
It’s always clear what you have to do, and that is: complete objectives until you can extract. There are some wrinkles, of course, and you must work hard to try and avoid the giant titans that turn up if you run out of time before escaping.
The strange alien worlds that host the action are also pretty varied, with a growing collection of odd-ball enemies to battle and new geographical complexities to consider (surfboards FTW). I quite enjoyed the progression between locations over the course of a typical run, which takes you to several different planets before the boss battle at the end. The in-game objectives aren’t too varied, it must be said, but also I think that too much complexity here would have been to the game’s detriment, given the systemic nuance on show elsewhere.
Chaotic combat
The core hook is alluded to in the title. You’re constantly swapping out parts of your meat-suit for new ones, and this simple feature creates a broad array of gameplay changes. One minute you might be able to jump about the place multiple times thanks to your insect wings, while another set of legs might turn you into a scurrying arachnid.
The body swapping mechanic affects combat and traversal, and honestly, it’s a whole bunch of silly fun. You’ll find combinations that you like, some that you hate, and sometimes you’ll adorn an item only so you can complete a specific task. The point is: this system only benefits gameplay variety and I’m here for it.
Solo play does feel more viable now in the 1.0 build. It feels like the systems around turrets have got a bit sharper, and I was able to adopt bodyparts that ultimately doubled as team mates during crunch moments. Maybe I got a bit better, too.
Roguelite bits
There’s a progression loop to keep you on the hook for the long-run. There are meta challenges with rewards to unlock between attempts. They focus your play and unlock new terminals in your ship, to further deepen your customisation options. It’s not rocket science, even if you are on a rocket ship.
As well as number of in-game discoveries to make, there are loads of weapons to unlock, so if you’re a shotgun fan or if you want rockets, you can work for that. Then, there are skill trees within each weapon class, and you can gradually beef up the effecacy of your arsenal.
During missions there are various resources to mine and collect, and these feed into the meta-system, too. This is about the least interesting thing about SwapMeat, though, so I’d like to end on a more excited note, and highlight how much fun you can have on a run when you’ve levelled up a bit and found a good setup that you like.
It’s when multiple players come together with their bonkers builds that SwapMeat really shines. As a co-op game, it’s a lot of fun, and if you and your buddies enjoyed Risk of Rain 2, there are enough points of difference and enough quality ideas to make this wishlist worthy. The single-player game feels improved, the visuals are decent, the soundtrack is alright, too, but star of the show is the chaotic co-op gameplay and it’s fair to say that we all had a good time with this silly, sci-fi shooter.
SwapMeat is out now on PC (Mac, Win), and we played via access kindly provided by the developers and their PR sidekicks.
