I kinda knew what I was getting into before sitting down with SwapMeat. It’s not a subtle game by any means, and within minutes of starting your first round, you’ll be swapping out body parts for the various alien things that you discover on the battlefield.
It’s pretty good fun, too, although up until now, it has been pretty hard to get into for solo players like me. I’ve been chipping away at it, but I was getting my ass kicked at first, and it seems as though I wasn’t alone. Pushing through that first difficulty bump took a little time, but I can absolutely see why developer One More Game decided to tone things down a little.
What’s in the new update, then?
After booting the game back up again today, I can confirm that it feels a bit easier thanks to the efforts that have been made to rebalance things. Less notable I’m sure, but there has also been a reworking of the meat drops to make them feel less random and therefore weighted towards improving your build.
After reading through the patch notes, it’s clear that there was a lot of work-in-progress stuff still in the game at launch. Game Director Jamie Stormbreaker explained on Steam that the plan is to replace that kind of content with polished assets ASAP, with big changes coming to the UI as well.
The update post also mentions that the game has more elemental interactions as of today, with electric attacks and ice attacks combining for a new shatter effect. Again, more are going to follow. This is definitely a step in the right direction for the game, and while the list of weapon tweaks is extensive, it sounds like balancing the interactions between them will take longer.
This, I think, comes to the heart of what SwapMeat needs to do more of, and that’s lean into the things that make it unique. The fusion of body parts with different abilities is a great gameplay hook, and I’ve already enjoyed playing around with this mechanic, particularly on the second world, where I could start putting alien brain helmets on! Whether it’s fresh attacks or new options around traversal, the experience is constantly evolving with your build.
The move to add in more exciting weapon interactions is a must, and I’d also like to see a bit more from the inventory items and upgrades. I can understand why the devs wanted to play things safe in some regards, but the incremental upgrades you get as you level up mid-level are pretty run-of-the-mill. It’s a tame system in an otherwise batshit video game that’s full of fun sci-fi parody and wonky legs.
Final thoughts on the update
SwapMeat is very much an Early Access game, but today’s patch is a good nudge in the right direction. However, despite plenty of promise, there is clearly still much work to do. If this quirky third-person shooter is going to step out of the shadow of Risk of Rain 2 and be a definitive entry in the genre, I think we’re going to need to see it dive even deeper into the things that make it stand out.
For what it’s worth, I like what I’ve played so far. I’m a sci-fi nerd, and I’m really enjoying the theme, and I like the visual style, too. The body part swapping is super-cool, and once you’ve got some good elemental weapons on the go, the gunplay starts to pop, too. Yet mid-level upgrades and even some of the objectives go grey and pale in comparison to the absurdity of the game’s central hook.
Having said/written all that, there’s definitely enough here for me to remain intrigued. There’s a way to go and a lot to tweak and balance, but with a few new parts thrown into the grinder, SwapMeat still feels like it could be a contender.
SwapMeat is out now in Early Access on PC (Mac, Win), and I played the game via access kindly provided by the game’s publisher – thanks!
