Bugsnax

Bugsnax is a charming creature-catcher that I first became aware of back when it was first revealed. I remember being intrigued by the seemingly cartoony nature of it, but the trailer hinted at a darker undertone to the story, so when I saw it for sale on Steam recently, I decided to finally pick it up and play it. The best part of Bugsnax is catching the Bugsnax. Some require you to get real creative with your tools and surroundings to catch, resulting in very satisfying gameplay. This isn't like a traditional creature-catcher where you fight them, it's about laying traps and lures which is something I haven't seen in other games of the genre. Throughout the game, you will be tasked to regroup the townsfolk, called "Grumpuses" who have spread out through the island. To be honest, many people praise the characters in this game, and while I found some to be charming and interesting, half of them I dreaded having to listen to. Maybe it's the dialogue, maybe it's the body horror, because as you progress, you'll have to feed the grumpuses bugsnax, which turns their limbs and body into food parts. That made it hard to take them seriously for me. The story otherwise is good, I liked the mystery, I liked the ending a lot, I would say the trailer is a bit misleading though. The end of the trailer depicts a monster made of bugsnax parts in the night attacking the camera, but this creature never appears in gameplay. It is mentioned as having been witnessed near the start and it appears later in a cutscene, but never interacts with the player. You actually can't take damage in the game, nor die. As much as it keeps you engaged in the general gameplay loop, it takes all the stakes away from the bugsnax that can attack you, especially the bosses. Most of why I decided to play was the intrigue of the monsters in the cutesy bug food game, so I was quite disappointed to see none of that. Catching the bugsnax was hella fun though. 7.5/10