Freaking Meatbags: Full Release Review

Freaking Meatbags

Developed By: Wild Factor Games

Produced By: Plug In Digital

Release Date: February 4th 2014

Available on: PC/Mac

When i first got my hands on the early access version, I was impressed by what was an all around solid (and mostly bug free) tower defense mash-up. I was left wanting a bit for a few more level types and that the robot was more useful. With the full release out now, I figured I’d go back and see how the full version stacks up.

Freaking Meatbags is a tower defense/RTS hybrid with a few RPG mechanics thrown in. This mish-mash of genres may seem like it would be cumbersome, but it handles rather simply. As the player, you control a robot overseer who has to protect the freaking meatbags from hordes of evil robots. Using a DNA Mixer you can combine the traits of the various creatures to get laser eyed protectors, resource gathering miners, or tower boosting soldiers, but it’s more in-depth than it was in the old version. Instead of simply getting one effect by mixing two beings, you’ll be able to add various minor effects to the offspring to help create exactly what you need. There is a clever balance in deciding which of your fleshy meat creatures you’ll bring along to the next area which leads to some difficult decisions, especially early in the campaign. Your humans can even be modified with items to allow them to shoot rockets, move faster, be more obedient and more.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a tower defense game without towers. Your standard towers like machine guns, missile launchers, and laser towers appear, but there are some other interesting types. The new Poison Plate was one of my favorites and it deals damage over time while an enemy is on it. Using it creatively with a path of walls helped destroy more than a few waves of enemies.  Should enemies get through your defenses, you may still be able to hold on if you get the proximity laser for your home base. Using the Tower Booster is vital in the harder areas of the game. It never hurts to spread your best soldiers tower boosts to other towers. Finally, the Drone Factory helps make Chip the robot useful in battle by dropping weapon attachments he can equip.

The level’s are mostly well designed, but are pretty much the standard fare of the genres. More often than not, you’ll be forced to survive enough waves to move on to the next planet. Some planets force you to think more creatively by using varying amounts of un-buildable land. There are some change-ups thrown, such as the planets where you have to explore all the crashed wreckage in a set time. Other planets are over quick, and require you to simply find drones and mow down evil robots. These robot exploration planets don’t have much depth and feel like a skipped world.

One of the funny moments that keeps Freaking Meatbags endearing.

Part of why I enjoyed Freaking Meatbags is its design. The game itself is presented in an 8-bit style. Action flows smoothly and I never had any speed hiccups during the hectic battles. The baddies are all simply designed but easily and quickly recognizable, though I wish the same could be said about my allies. While the DNA mixer does a decent job at changing appearances, sometimes I can’t quickly discern who can mine and who can’t while they’re moving. Some sort of quick-select toolbar for my allies would have been useful. Additionally the small jokes like the fact the humans are only protected because the wife of Chip’s boss thinks they’re adorable, or constant check-ups from your robo-mom. Freaking Meatbags‘ endearing charm will keep you smiling between levels.

Freaking Meatbags‘ clever mixture of tower defense and real time strategy make it rather unique. Its simplistic and straight forward design belies the strategic depth in some of the levels. The few minor gripes I have shouldn’t stop any tower defense fan from checking this out. .