Count me in as one of the 100,000 players obsessed with Mewgenics, the new tactical strategy roguelike from the demented minds of Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel. The art is crude and hilarious, the writing pitch-black, and the strategy incredibly deep and rewarding. This is a game that demands to be played for hours and hours — provided you’re comfortable with the gleeful disregard of your own feline forces.
Read on for our early review of Mewgenics!
King of the Alley
In Mewgenics, players collect and breed stray cats, then send those cats off on adventures. These adventures brilliantly combine tactical roguelikes such as Slay the Spire, with the isometric, turn-based battles of Final Fantasy Tactics.
My feisty felines travel through nodes such as the Alley or Sewers, with each node representing either a battle, a loot drop, or a little event with some choices.
Battles are the main part of the game, taking place on small, isometric grids. Players take turns according to their cats’ speed, using their unique moves and class abilities to defeat random enemies, which include mutant cats that spit glass or fart toxic fumes, bloated insects, animated turds, and literal bags of trash.
Later biomes get even crazier, with zombie cats, sand worms, robots, and, well, it’s a little spoilery to get too detailed, but the Rule of Cool (and gross) is definitely on full display.
Battling a literal army of turds
Between runs, players manage their undoubtedly foul-smelling home in the hopes of breeding better cats with superior starting stats, traits, and mutations.
Hilarious neighbor NPCs can offer upgrades and services by sending them extra cats, with each NPC desiring a certain kind of cat, such as a veteran of different levels, or older cats, or new kittens. One particularly deranged fellow even collects dead cats (and takes their name from your own Steam account!), allowing players to fall-forward a bit whenever they completely fail a run.
I’m a veteran of the XCOM reboots, dumping hundreds of hours between the two games and their expansions. In XCOM, players utilize randomized soldiers, selecting different classes and leveling them up, while the threat of permadeath always looms.
But whereas in XCOM I grow more attached to my seasoned veterans, Mewgenics forces me to retire my party of adventur-cats after a single run — assuming they survive. My cat-house is less of a battle headquarters than a deranged kitty mill.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Kitties
Cats are somewhat randomized, but proper breeding can yield some impressive results. But during a run, cats level up and obtain new abilities and passives, which are also somewhat randomized, leading to a tantalizing balance between optimization, and adaptation.
Leigh was a Bruiser with the Dumb Muscle passive, making her stronger if she had less Intelligence, which she lost whenever she was hit. I could combine that with the Clown Nose item to lower her Intelligence even further, making her pack an awesome punch, though reducing her mana gain (which scales with Intelligence) to literally nothing after awhile. But who needs mana when you can hit like a freight train?
Leigh was the epitome of a straightforward bruiser
Ranger Raja had a Catch Projectiles passive, with a chance to deflect enemy shots. But he also absorbed ally ranged attacks, giving him an extra attack. I could turn my Cleric’s ranged healing ability into a boost to my Ranger’s attacks!
Julian the Mage became afflicted with Blood Frenzy, which means he would go crazy whenever he got a kill. Which, as a fire-wielding mage, was quite often. As I soon discovered, madness turns the cat into an uncontrollable killing machine. Thanks to his equipped items, I watched in horror as Julian wiped my entire team, and the enemy, through several battles in a row.
Somehow, I actually won that run, because Julian was an absolute beast.
Also, he spent all my dang money by repeatedly using his Gym Membership ability to spend coins to buff his stats.
A berserk fire mage turned a whole run into chaos
It’s these kind of wacky stories and emergent scenarios that make Mewgenics such a memorable experience, even when things don’t exactly work in my favor.
Runs can last awhile depending on how far I make it, with many completed zones opening another area. And, in an interesting twist, I can choose to end the run early after every boss, allowing my cats to return home with their loot and breeding potential, versus risking their untimely annihilation.
Since cats don’t level up until they start adventuring (or even have a class yet), all of these adjustments and combos are discovered on the fly, making runs that much more exciting — or delightfully aggravating.
But we can’t talk about Mewgenics without discussing its striking art, music, and writing.
I’m a Chumbucket Kitty
I’ll be honest: I’m not a fan of the flat, notebook-style art, and general gross-out humor. Enemies often excrete, fart, or vomit. Cats are mostly dopey, genetic disasters (increasingly so as the game progresses). Each run constantly bombards me with random acts of cruelty and uncomfortable situations. For example, a Razor Blade item can be equipped so the cat can cut themselves (dealing damage) in order to receive an attack buff. Cats often randomly become afflicted with real-world mental and physical diseases that impact my entire playthrough.
Sometimes the narratives write themselves
And then there’s the breeding.
I get the idea: the game’s title is based on eugenics, and we’re supposed to be callous and malicious when it comes to our cat charges — literally dumping their bodies, living or otherwise, down the drain when they’re no longer of use, or not good enough to breed. It’s the opposite of carefully developing my soldiers in other tactical strategy games, such as XCOM and Fire Emblem.
On the plus side, the official soundtrack of catchy jazz music by Ridiculon is absolutely phenomenal. Many fans are declaring it the best indie soundtrack of all time — a highly competitive field, and I don’t disagree.
Every new area has its own theme song. A purely instrumental version is played throughout the level, then the full lyrical version fully unveils in all its glory during the boss battles. It’s a brilliant effect that makes the boss battles that much more epic.
“Chumbucket Kitty” lives in my head rent free, and I’d bet money that “Eatin’ Rats” will be nominated for song of the year in this years The Game Awards.
Julian’s retirement party
Mewgenics isn’t quite perfect. I find it annoying that I can’t look up my cats’ stats when shopping at item stores. And managing my unstable cat population at home is needlessly tedious thanks to its overly simplistic UI of individually selecting cats. Can I get some charts, or filters, or lists, or something?
And ultimately, I love Mewgenics in spite of its twisted art and humor, not because of it.
After over a dozen hours I’ve unlocked Act 2, providing a completely alternate path with new levels and enemies, and had my first satisfying battle with Guillotina.
I’ve discovered that Julian is apparently gay and refuses to breed, but I can’t bring myself to send him off to the neighbors. His incredible fire magic was absolutely clutch in winning his run, and later defeating Guillotina. Julian will live out his days at my house, watching over future generations of genetic abominations.
Or until I forget his deeds, and finally ship him off for some much-needed upgrades.
Mewgenics is available on Steam PC.
