Extreme Meat Punks Forever

[got_quiet]

Name: Extreme Meat Punks Forever
Status: Incomplete. Part 1 only
Site: https://hthr.itch.io/extreme-meatpunks-forever
Pairing: None
Description: Queer punks punch Fash off cliffs in meat mechas to survive.
Controller Score: F. No support.

This game grew on me a little. It's set in what appears to be some sort of dystopia, somewhere in the US, where it's nothing but desert and large mechs made out of flesh. The story follows four young people who come together as part of a Meatpunks group, which is not particularly explained but appears to basically be antifa with mechs. Comically evil Fash show up and act stupid and bigoted. You're obligated to play a little mech fighting mini game, and then go on the run from the cops, who are also Fash, of course.
 

 

There are some choice elements in this game, though in the beginning I wasn't sure if it was having much effect on the narrative. In at least one spot you can just refuse to take in a character who probably had some effect on something given he had a profile in the main menu. But because this is a unity game that lacks most of the basic VN functionality like saving on demand and you're only given one save slot that is updated at the start of chapters, going back and seeing just how branching some of the paths might be is not worth it for me. I don't know if parts of the story focused on one character because I preferred him in certain choices, or just because it was his time to be the focus, or because he was the dev fave.

The most significant choices appear to be deciding who is "running point" each round of mini game, which determines what mech you will be using to play the minigame.

The minigames are a large portion of the overall game which is unfortunate because they suck ass. The goal is to whack the enemies off of the map without getting whacked yourself. Constantly getting whacked results in brief disablement. The maps are set up in such a way that there are a lot of rocks and obstructions preventing you or the enemy from getting properly pushed off, requiring a certain degree of exactitude in your position and aim to get the deed done. The enemy AI is simplistic but also annoying, and it felt like some mechs had a clear advantage over others. Any speed or repositioning really helped deal with the fact that if you weren't in the right place in just the right time you had to spend another minute trying to set things up. And one mech has a downside that is effectively input lag. I thought the game was breaking when I played him because it would take multiple seconds before movement commands registered, but no, I think it's just that mech. Because of this feature I literally walked off a cliff twice after beating a round because it was just impossible to know how move the damn thing to prevent it outside of extreme, tedious caution.

You are given the option of skipping encounters if you fail once, which I have always said is a concession by the devs that something isn't actually fun to play.  In the interest of a more complete review I guess I opted to play through every combat and did not enjoy myself.

Which is unfortunate, because while I wasn't sure I would like the writing in the beginning due to its heavy reliance on text speak as personality, some of the characters did grow on me, and there were some interpersonal conflicts between the four main characters that made this more than a simple "Fash bad" parable. The writing style isn't my thing, but I could look past that and feel some real emotional resonance in how flawed people worked together in a difficult situation.

But the game ends before anything resolves. In fact it ends on a low note, with success turning to failure and the main cast still completely alone in a hostile hellscape swarming with Fash. As far as tone and message, the game remains harsh and aggressively punk through the end. It would have been nice to see some closure to the story, but this is actually only part 1 of a "serial" VN, and part 2 is 15 bucks.

Given that the twitch part of the game is straight bad, and the story without it is actually short, I don't know how I feel about doling out money for a sequel, especially since I don't know that the sequel is the end of the story either. If it were more traditional VN and I could mess with the routes a little to explore its narrative possibilities I would feel more positive about it, but since it's narratively locked off I find my curiosity has been successfully extinguished.