King of Meat Feels Like Fall Guys With Combat And User-Made Content - Gamescom 2024

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When I think of Amazon, I still don’t really think about video games. Even after New World released, I never really saw Amazon as a game publisher, and only really thought of the store and the sweet free 2-day shipping. Regardless, I am glad they didn’t give up because their next game is one I see so much potential in and have high hopes for. At Gamescom, I got hands-on with King of Meat, the upcoming co-op dungeon crawling game, and I can see how great it could be if the users are there.

I went in not knowing much about the game, so I had to figure out a lot of what happened as I went along. The game is a third-person experience where you will work together with a group of 3 others to try to complete dungeons. These dungeons are filled with traps, enemies, and loot to pick up while trying your hardest not to die. The game was designed to be flat-out ridiculous, from the customization options to the fact that this is all a survival gameshow with made-up ad placements everywhere, and it works extremely well. Still, developer Glowmade has decided to take a chance and focus more on the users in the form of custom dungeons.

While King of Meat will have pre-made dungeons from the devs, there are also extensive options to create your own dungeons filled with puzzles, traps, and many enemies. I didn't get a chance to try this myself, but I did see a trailer showcasing it, and I love it. I am a sucker for games that have user-generated content, like Super Mario Maker and Quest Master, so taking that formula and putting it into a 3D landscape mixed with an intriguing and ridiculous setting checks all the right boxes for me.

The actual gameplay was also pretty great, albeit a little floaty. You can run around freely from room to room and fight enemies while armed with a melee weapon and crossbow for ranged attacks. You can get and equip multiple weapons, each with different moves to fight against enemies. You can also pick up and throw items, which I did a lot, such as throwing bombs to destroy obstacles or exploding enemies further away. There was a nice variety of enemies to fight, with skeletons, orcs, trolls, and more all coming for us.

My team did work well together, but based on how the game was, I can totally see how chaotic it could get. Again, with user-generated content, you can make incredible dungeons for your friends and random people, which is so appealing for a game like this. It did feel a bit hard to move, and I had latency, but that is attributed to the game being in early alpha, so I expect this to be fixed on release.

If I had to relate it to another game, a lot of the movement and overall gameplay feel like a variation of Fall Guys. You can dive, and you are mainly dodging obstacles, but with the addition of enemies to fight and dungeons made by users. I enjoy this spin on the gameplay, though, and I actually think it's a nice evolution in some ways.

The loot you get while playing is a solid mix of customization options for how your character looks, different attacks and moves you can take enemies down, and new customization options for your dungeons. With the awesome cartoony aesthetic King of Meat has, I think these will be awesome rewards for playing the game. There is a hub world to navigate and customize yourself in, and it is nicely designed, but it wasn't fully ready for prime time.

It does have some minimum specs available to look at now, and while the game does have controller support and the CPU/RAM is within the Steam Deck's playability, but the GPU is a bit high. I think with some compromises, it will run well on the Deck, and it would be awesome to have some local King of Meat runs with friends, but it isn't required due to online multiplayer being included! Regardless, the game is awesome, and I really can't wait to see the wackiness in full swing when it releases.

King of Meat can be wishlisted now on Steam ahead of its release.

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