Bugsnax Review (Epic Games Store/PC)

Bugsnax takes you on a whimsical adventure to Snaktooth Island, home of the legendary half-bug half-snack creatures, Bugsnax. Invited by intrepid explorer Elizabert Megafig, you arrive to discover your host nowhere to be found, her camp in shambles, and her followers scattered across the island alone… and hungry! It’s up to you to solve the mysteries of Snaktooth Island: What happened to Lizbert? What are Bugsnax and where do they come from? But most of all, why do they taste SO GOOD?

Pros:

• Gorgeous graphics.
• 6.59gb download size.
• Epic Games Store achievements.
• Controller support.
• Tutorials as you play.
• Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, a field of view slider, quality preset, anti-aliasing, shadows, ssao, motion blur, bloom, and grass.
• Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for both controller and mouse.
• You play as a journalist looking for a lost adventurer who you were meant to interview.
• Button prompts and icons onscreen.
• Play how you want.
• Main and side quests, you can pin one to the main Hud.
• Map-fills in as you explore.
• Tools-snaxscope (used to picture bugs but also see their travel path and diet), net to catch stunned bugs, sauce slinger to attract and direct bugs, snak trap (what you use to catch bugs).
• Bugapedia-fills in as you discover bugs and gives a description of each bug.
• Grumpedia-fills in as you talk with other characters and again gives descriptions of them.
• Puzzle elements as you need to work out how to catch bugs or navigate the world.
• Using the trap is so satisfying and unique. Once the bug is in the trap you have a time limit in which to collect them or they break out.
• Big colorful world.
• Feed caught bugs to characters who then take on the appearance of the bug in places like an ants arm or spider leg. You choose what to feed them and where it goes on them.
• Interviews-you can interview characters and learn more about them.
• Snaxburg-the main village where it’s devastated and you help by helping the residents and finding those who left and bring them back.
• You feel welcome and part of the town as everyone greets you and chats as you approach them.
• Has a Viva Pinata feel to it.
• First-person perspective.
• Day/night cycle. Sleep in a bed to change the time.
• Sauce/ammo can be picked from plants and regrow.
• Fully voiced characters.
• Weather effects and changes.
• Donations box in town-fill it up and every 100 percent you increase your backpack size.
• The loading screen populates with bugs you have caught.
• Such a happy game.
• Bugs all have to be caught in unique ways.
• Puzzle elements.
• Bugs can appear at set times or weather.
• Slight Metroidvania deals with a lot of backtracking and collecting new tools so new areas open up in old sections.
• Generally, you are collecting certain Bugsnax for people and feeding it to them.
• Retrieve-at any point hit retrieve to destroy your current tool and have a new one spawn in your inventory.
• Every area feels different.
• As the town feels up it starts to play out like a soap opera as you watch characters interact, overhear conversations, and all the mystery.
• Tools can be combined in ingenious ways to catch people like catapult a Bugsnax into the air to land next to the trap then boom!
• A lot of memorable set pieces.
• You can get something to make everyone’s appearance more uniform.
• Sometimes you can catch a bugsnax without doing anything.
• Boss battles can happen and are actually quite clever.
• Areas do reset with the bugsnax.
• Six tools in total and each better than the last.
• A brilliant well-told story that is gripping and fascinating as it twists and turns.
• A lot darker in places than I thought.
• Full of humor and innuendo.
• A game for kids and adults alike.
• You get a warning before you reach the part of no return story-wise.
• If you mainline the story it takes around 7 hours but it took me 10 doing everything.

Cons:

• Loading can be short or long.
• The bugs saying their name over and over can really bug.
• Can repeat the same gameplay loop.
• Interviews are just a series of button presses.
• Not all menus have the correct wording.
• Little mission variety.
• No deposit all button for the donation box.
• No fast travel between areas.
• Little help with advancement.
• Obvious padding in places.
• New areas will open but if you are not observant you may miss it as the game doesn’t specifically say this new area opened.
• No direction in the mini-games/self-contained tasks.
• No new game plus.
• Bugsnax can get stuck in a loop or on a rock or trap that hinders progress.
• Sometimes randomly a bugsnax can be just be caught out of nowhere.