Ever since the pandemic that forced virtually everyone to stay indoors, a wave of co-op focused party games have seen a dramatic spike in popularity. This created an influx of new gamers across the world playing with their friends via Discord just to feel any semblance of a normal life.
Games like Among Us and Fall Guys were major titles during that time, and since then, new co-op party games appear every year like Landfall Games’ PEAK and Zeekerss’ Lethal Company. While the genre is not as lucrative as it once was 5 years ago, it still lures in thousands of players enjoying some good ol’ friendslop games.
Among these waves of co-op games is King of Meat. A dungeon-crawling 4-player co-op title developed by Glowmade and published by Amazon Studios. Taking place in a universe where everyone is glued to their TV screens just to witness the sadistic game show called King of Meat. For some reason, our player-made character is ambitious enough to enter the arena to get some glory. It’s more like a less twisted version of Squid Game minus the class issues.
Rick and Morty-esque Presentation
Right off the bat, King of Meat felt like watching a Rick and Morty episode, or more specifically one of those weird dimensional TV episodes from the show. The characters are pulled straight out of fantasy novels, with fairies, skeletal armies, ogres, and a whole lot more. From the first cutscene, it's like seeing Justin Roiland's signature cynical humor come alive on screen. Even its 2D animated scenes look like it could belong in an Adult Swim show. It’s a cool first impression for a game that I wasn’t expecting to go overboard with its presentation. I wouldn't be surprised if there are actual Rick and Morty or Adult Swim animators working on the game's cutscenes.
I was honestly expecting it’d be one of those games that offer very little when it comes to its atmosphere, as most players just simply hop in to find matches and play with their friends immediately. King of Meat actually has a living and breathing world apart from its sadistic game show, and its cast of eccentric characters that feel ripped out of Dan Harmon’s Rick and Morty storyboard are welcome additions to the experience.
Dungeon-Crawling Shenanigans
The real meat of the King of Meat is in its dungeon-crawling adventurers. With a team of three other players, you guys hop into a dungeon, slay foes, solve puzzles, collect rewards, impress the audience, and bring home some bacon. The goal is to get as much glory as you can and attain the highest rank possible in a level. These activities are essentially the gameplay loop of King of Meat. It is solely a 4-player co-op adventure where PvE is at its front and center. If you’re looking for a PvP game here, you won’t find any apart from the usual “trolling” with teammates like shoving them off a deep dark pit or throwing an explosive hot potato at them.
This is the kind of game that plays better when you’re with a group of friends. The entirety of King of Meat’s dungeon designs is built around having to communicate with other players to maximize rewards and finishing it as quickly as possible. Playing with randoms with zero communication skills can significantly dampen your experience, but if you’re just in it for some casual dungeon-crawling, then maybe playing with randos works for you too.
King of Meat has over a hundred handcrafted levels made by Glowmade. While there are some noticeable issues with its level designs, the sheer creativity and the logic behind its systems makes me appreciate the hard work that's poured into it. One moment I am grabbing a nearby battery to power up a locked gate, the next I'm using bombs to burrow deep into a cave. These experiences are different per level, with some having more puzzle or combat encounters. It's clear that Glowmade wants to keep making more original levels in the future, especially in future updates, and I'm looking forward to see more over-the-top dungeons.
While the dungeon-crawling co-op adventure is fun at first, the novelty actually wears off after a few hours. There is a level of predictability that not even Glowmade's creative prowess can carry if I've been through this level again and again. As someone pretty into roguelike games like Supergiant’s Hades 2, I half expected that King of Meat would employ randomly generated dungeons just to provide some whacky replay value to its levels, but that’s not the case here. It's not a dealbreaker for me considering that the game has plenty of game modes to choose from like Solo Campaigns, Online Leagues and a Discovery mode which I will explain later.
While I mostly gravitated to its online modes so I can play with other players, I find myself disappointed with the game's lack of love for solo players. As someone who also loves doing things solo and test the limits of my character, the Solo mission list isn’t really interesting, as the first few runs are just glorified tutorials. I’m hoping we'll get more solo missions once the game officially drops next week.
Personalized Dungeon-Crawling
Don’t get me wrong, I love how Glowmade produced over a hundred handcrafted levels, but you have to admit that players will likely grow tired of seeing the same levels again. Thankfully, they are well-aware of this issue. Which is why King of Meat’s biggest draw for me is in its player-made dungeons via its Discovery section. This is the true endgame for Glowmade’s four-player dungeon-crawling co-op. The Discovery mode is where the game's magic truly happens.
If you feel like you're on a creative mood or you feel like crafting the most devious dungeons possible, you can create dungeons and share it to the world. You can also do the same with other player's creations as well, similar to what Nintendo did with its Super Mario Maker titles.
King of Meat’s player-made dungeons will be home to fascinating creations that could even rival what Glowmade created. We could also expect that there will be deceptively simple dungeons that hide mini-torture chambers from troll players.
In my review version of the game, I’ve only played a handful of player-made levels, which was mostly from the game's devs. Some of them aren’t too complex, but I can already see the vision of what the rest of its playerbase could do with it. I've even managed to build a level of my own, but it's too simplistic to make it to the light of day. I might have to revisit it and add more traps if I'm feeling mischievous.
I’m actually looking forward to seeing more players dive into the game’s dungeon creator mode than having to play with Glowmade's handcrafted levels.
Progression and Monetization
In-between hopping inside dungeons and clearing waves of enemies, you’re also gonna spend some of your hard-earned cash to make your character better. Progression is actually easy to do in King of Meat as the game’s online hub has plenty of NPCs to talk to. They essentially act as vendors that offers the same kind of NPC archetype similar to other live-service games like Bungie’s Destiny. This is where you can always find someone dabbling at Battle Pass content, personal triumphs, weapon upgrades and magic (or as the game calls it, “Glory Moves.”)
The best about King of Meat is that everything in this game can be obtained without having to spend actual money. There will be no egregious microtransactions, no shady battle pass that leads to FOMO and no pay-to-win shenanigans.
This is a deliberate choice, as being priced at $29.99 and then having to add microtransactions would severely ruin player goodwill and could cause an influx of negative reviews from its playerbase.
Verdict
Overall, King of Meat is a serviceable co-op dungeon-crawling experience that’s best played with friends. With a generous monetization model and plenty of replay value for players willing to shell out $29.99, you can find that King of Meat is a game made with passion from its creators with an impeccable presentation that reminds me of a classic Adult Swim show.
While I love King of Meat’s artistic direction and dungeon-crawling shenanigans, there are obvious downsides to it as well. Being a co-op game coming out in an oversaturated market full of multiplayer titles, King of Meat might find it difficult to attract a consistent playerbase that loves its dungeon-crawling adventures. Best case scenario: its cynical cartoony aesthetic and player-made dungeons might attract more players. Worst case? It might be just another game that people will play for a week and ditch it for a more popular co-op game. Here's hoping for the former.
