Developer: Mega Cat Studios
Publisher: Graffiti Games
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: PC
Bite The Bullet – Review
We are no strangers with food in video games but Bite The Bullet takes it to another level. The game lets you roam in a world where you can literally devour your enemies, whether they are made of a meaty substance or steel, it doesn’t matter to the heroes of DarwinCorp. You will be able to run, shoot and munch your way through this roguelite RPG shooter but even our heroes aren’t immune to an overload of calories, so be mindful of what you put in their mouths.
Story
In the near future, the world as we know has come to an end due to the economic collapse caused by underpopulation. A temporary solution was granted through implantable Bionodes which enabled humans to consume any substance, organic or not. Over time, these nodes caused mutations across the remaining population, this process is known from then on as Ghoulification. Faced with a dying society, many humans fled to the stars where they flourished. And those who stayed behind, the ghouls, lived a merciless existence on what was left of the planet Earth.
Decades later, a Biological corporation called DarwinCorp, has made a name for itself by collecting genetic materials from across the galaxy for preservation, research and competitive advantage. For the more “involuntary” species DarwinCorp brings in Chewie and Chewella, two mercenaries with a hunger for success.
At the start of the game, you have the option to pick one of two heroes, Chewie or Chewella. The story progresses very fast in the beginning and you get a lot of information thrown your way, but it slows down to a normal level as soon as you start with your missions.
Graphics
Bite The Bullet makes use of retro-styled pixelated graphics. Although simple at first glance, they put in a lot of work to deliver nice looking enemies and sorts of ‘food’ that you can devour. The game also makes use of extremely huge stages to play through, so some of the content becomes a bit repetitive after a while. But this could have been fixed fairly easily if they shortened those stages and build a few others.
Visually they aren’t afraid to take it up a notch by making your hero extremely fat after devouring their umpteenth enemy. They show us that whatever you look like, you can still be one of the most badass mercenaries in the galaxy.
Sound
Sound-wise the game is an absolute joy, you are constantly fired up thanks to the punk rock music on the background. It completely fits the theme of the game and although it’s somewhat repetitive, it never becomes boring. Sadly, the game does not provide us with voice-acting, it would definitely help out the game because of the large chunks of text the player needs to read through.
Gameplay
Bite The Bullet is a roguelite RPG shooter, where the Earth is inhabited with ghoulish creatures which are all, wait for it, edible… You can play as one of the two heroes Chewie or Chewella, two members of DarwinCorp who dedicated their lives to collecting genetic materials from the more difficult foes the company encounters.
The game’s mechanics are quite basic in terms of controls but are lacking in execution. You are able to jump, double-jump, dash, shoot and eat your way through the different stages. But when you try to dash or double-jump the controls feel a bit off, probably a delay or just a poor developing problem.
The core play of the game is all about clearing the stages and fighting foes. The enemies you encounter all consist out of tasty bits for your chosen hero to devour. But be careful with the way you’re gunning at them, because you won’t get any edible items when you fail to stun and eat them right before they die.
Consuming your enemy will result in an array of different types of loot you can acquire. They all reward you with different kinds of food, guns, refill some of your health or even provide you with some DNA-points. These DNA-points can be used after the stage to level up your skill tree, which in turn provides you with better stats, abilities and upgrades. It also provides you to match the game to your playstyle. You can even be a vegan, vegetarian, carnivore or omnivore if you choose to spend DNA-points in those particular branches.
Conclusion
Bite the Bullet has a lot of potential to be a great game but the developers missed the mark on this one. Sadly, the controls of the game feel rather off, which broke the immersion quite a lot of times. The stages are a bit too long and this gave us the feeling that we were on an endless grind to even get through one level. Negative notes aside, visually the game is very well made and the way they let their characters gain an enormous amount of weight is hilarious. The developers also managed to create a very fun idea to mix up the roguelite RPG shooter genre by adding an all-edible enemy buffet for us to munch our way through.
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