Edmund McMillen became a name synonymous with indie developers “making it” after he met overwhelming success with Super Meat Boy, originally a Flash game in 2008. Then along came The Binding of Isaac, which McMillen couldn’t seem to get away from for a time due to its popularity. Aside from outstanding game design and unique premises, he might be most known for his brand of humor, which is starkly irreverent and profane in as intelligent a way as possible. Mewgenics is no exception.
You are a cat hoarder. In the game, I mean. You meet a nice, crazy scientist who insists on experimenting on cats. He hooks you up with a house whose squalor serves as a glorified breeding ground for a criminally irresponsible number of cats. In addition to the mad scientist, you meet a few other loons who are just as depraved and offensive.
I find Mewgenics‘ writing and characters to be an edgier version of South Park with a similar attempt at knocking people off their high horses. Not everyone’s going to like the writing or commentary here, though I enjoy the poking and prodding at the most sanctimonious among us. This doesn’t matter, though, because like most roguelikes, the story takes a backseat to raw gameplay.
At its core, Mewgenics is a strategy RPG with roguelite elements. Four kitties will head into the wild to battle McMillen’s nightmare-fuel armed with a small set of special abilities. You get a move action, a basic attack action, and mana-dependent skills to scratch, claw, punch, headbutt, and laser whatever comes your way. Then, move in an isometric view on square tiles, interact with the environment to accrue money or equipment, and take turns with pustules (i.e., enemies).
Each of Mewgenics‘ kitties have five equipment slots that increase stats, offer new abilities, interact with a whole assortment of effects throughout the game, and sometimes produce unusual and unclear effects. Fun! The short battles, encountered in a highly predictable fashion on a clearly laid out trail, offer money, food, and equipment upon victory.
Between battles, players may find a treasure chest with a random item and encounter a random event thrust upon one of the party members. Each event requires a skill test in one of the stats, and the potential for winning is clearly marked with shades of green or red, right alongside the character’s stat sheet. After reaching the map’s boss, players can continue on to one or two more maps to meet the finale of that run or return home early to secure goods.
A character dying on the field doesn’t wipe them from the game, though. They accrue an injury, which is almost always a blow to a random stat. If the corpse is hit too many times on the field, the kitty will actually die and disappear from the party. This may not be the worst outcome, because that means more level-ups for the other party members. Unlike most RPGs, every battle in Mewgenics results in a guaranteed level-up for one of the kitties, typically keeping each one at around the same level. When a party member dies, that means more levels for the others.
After a run, prepare to embrace birth defects and disfiguring injuries as you squint at sheet after sheet of stats and try to decide who gets donated to one of the creeps begging for cats and who gets to stay to fight whatever monstrosities lurk in the depths of a junk yard, desert, graveyard, and so on. Cats who’ve completed a run get a retirement crown and can’t go back into the field. This means every run in Mewgenics starts with a fresh new set of cats, so don’t get too attached.
Worry not, these cats will likely be stronger than the last, because breeding happens at the end of most days, and that means passing stats and abilities along to the children. Maybe. In order to increase the likelihood of this occurring and to help players grind stats to tackle new challenges, furniture can be bought for your hovel that increases the house’s stats.
McMillen and his co-developer, Tyler Glaiel, have mastered the art of steadily introducing new side quests, challenges, and locations. This is critically important because, as fun and involved as the stats and abilities are in Mewgenics, the game can feel repetitive at around the fifteen-hour mark. Make no mistake, Mewgenics is a grind. A fun grind, but definitely a grind. What has kept me going is finding whatever bizarre new monster the developers have around the corner and what unique game effects a revealed area may thrust upon me.
The most grueling part of Mewgenics is the return home. Having to manage my cats is a bummer. Some folks who are a little more carefree may find this to be an easier, more joyful responsibility, but if you’re like me and compulsively min-max in games like this, you’re going to have a bad time. At first, picking who lives and who dies is fun, but meticulously trying to craft the strongest kittens quickly feels like a chore.
On the other hand, sending a new set of cats into the field and deciding what character class to give them is always exciting. Having to decide what items to take with them and what abilities they might unlock is a bit of a dopamine hit. The game can be “broken” with the right level-ups, but even then, death is only a critical misstep away on the field. I’ve had my fair share of nailbiters, but even in the most dire circumstances with over forty hours of gameplay, I have yet to party wipe.
Speaking of wiping, there’s a lot of poop in Mewgenics, but if you’re a Binding of Isaac fan, that’s just good news. Visually, McMillen certainly has a style. The Frankensteinian monsters are rarely direct ports from Isaac, but the resemblance is uncanny. What’s shocking to me is just how many new monsters the team came up with, as I already thought Isaac had a substantial amount of imaginative foes.
Musically, expect simple, sometimes creepy tunes for routine battles and gallivanting around. The standouts in Mewgenics are the boss themes, which are lyrically outstanding, such as with the lounge singer describing the boss and their lives. As impressive as these songs are, the repetition sets in at a certain point, as well.
Unfortunately, the controls are not to the level they need to be, though pointing and clicking almost always works as intended. In more than a few situations, the game shifted my cursor to a new square, causing me to misstep on the field. I’m not sure where the hiccup is here, but in a game that requires precision and careful planning, one square to the left might be a cat-astrophe.
Mewgenics is best enjoyed as a marathon, not a sprint. Due to the sheer volume of content—with no clear end in sight aside from “collect all the achievements” and unlock all the stuff—Mewgenics can feel overwhelming right out of the gate. Despite how incredible the game design, balance, and mechanics are, the lack of any real story makes getting attached to a team or battle impossible. This is a “wow, that’s so weird and cool” sort of game that you move on from every once in a while until you want to hop back in so that it all feels fresh and new.
Make no mistake: I love this game, and I’m almost definitely going to 100% it, but there’s no telling when that’s going to happen.
