Mycopunk’s Chaotic Co-Op Is Already A Blast, But It Still Has Room To Grow
In recent years, a certain brand of chaotic co-op game has taken off. You have Risk of Rain 2, where escalating waves of baddies force you to make tough decisions about when to fight for upgrades versus move on to the next area before you get overwhelmed. Last year, there was the breakout success of Helldivers 2, a game that skillfully keeps you on the brink of disaster, as ordinance, unexpected swarms, and occasional friendly fire send these slogan-spewing soldiers to an early grave. While both these games likely share a bit of Left 4 Dead’s DNA, they manage to be even more manic and varied, with procedurally generated levels and multiple layers of upgrades to make each scuffle a bit unique.
Mycopunk, the latest from Devolver Digital and freshman work from Pigeons at Play, slots in nicely next to games like Helldivers 2 and Risk of Rain 2, combining the mission structure of the former with the screen-filling bedlam of the latter. Here, you and up to three other unfortunate robots run jobs for the SAXON corporation, taking orders from a cockroach man while repeatedly dropping onto a planet infected by a strange mycological phenomenon. Once planet-side, you race against the clock to scrounge up resources and complete objectives before you’re overrun by a growing horde of cyborg fungus monsters.
The game is launching in Early Access today, and the good news is that its central first-person-shooting action already feels fully formed. As you disembark from a junky SAXON corp drop pod, it won’t be long until you’re surrounded by spider-like monsters that are actually bits of scrap metal combined with a rampant purple fungal growth which threatens the galaxy. Each of these creatures has a metallic center that you need to destroy, as well as appendages that can be snipped to slow them down.
Where things get particularly interesting is that if left unattended, these fungal colonies will grow strong by absorbing scrap metal from their downed or delimbed comrades. This creates an interesting balance between targeting enemies’ cores and their limbs; smaller foes have weak defenses, so it often makes sense to target their bodies right away, but with bosses, it’s frequently more prudent to snip their limbs to slow them down and disarm their long ranged weapons before chipping away at their cores. It all channels some of the appeal of the Dead Space games, where you’re forced to make snap decisions about where to shoot next while getting mauled by an alien that’s trying its best to kill you.
The ability to blast apart these spindly monsters, bit by bit, gives your arsenal satisfying feedback, and these weapons only become more interesting as you move past the base assault rifle and shotgun combo. My favorite of the bunch so far is the DMLR, a laser rifle that functions like a scalpel for taking apart mechanical joints thanks to its precise semi-automatic blasts. And then, once you’ve charged up this gun’s secondary mode by firing enough shots, it becomes more like a hammer as it transforms into a sustained plasma cannon. While it’s tempting to stick to your favorite weapon, there’s an interesting ammo mechanic that encourages you to switch things up. Instead of picking up items spread throughout each area, expending ammo on your currently equipped weapon automatically restocks your secondary, unequipped one. This leads to interesting situations where, to remain ready for all types of threats, you need to switch between the two liberally to ensure neither runs dry. It all creates an interesting mixture of frantic and tactical, forcing you to fight overwhelming waves of enemies with a fair bit of precision.
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