Mewgenics: The Binding of Isaac Creators’ Chaotic New Roguelike
▼ Summary
– Mewgenics is a complex, turn-based roguelike game centered on selectively breeding and battling an army of superpowered cats.
– The game offers deep strategic management, including cat care, genetic breeding for traits, and turn-based combat with over 1,200 abilities and 200 enemy types.
– It provides extensive content and replayability, with multiple branching paths, hundreds of items, and an estimated over 200 hours of gameplay.
– The game’s tone features crass, grotesque humor and art that may feel dated to some, but its core gameplay is well-paced and inventive.
– While lacking some accessibility features, Mewgenics is Steam Deck compatible and successfully delivers a challenging, nostalgic experience for fans of creative indie roguelikes.
Mewgenics, the latest chaotic creation from the minds behind The Binding of Isaac, is a surprisingly deep and addictive turn-based roguelike that masterfully blends strategic cat breeding with brutal tactical combat. While its surface is coated in a layer of crass humor and monstrous charm, beneath lies a meticulously paced adventure packed with content. It demands careful planning and rewards long-term strategy, proving to be far more than its initial premise suggests. The game’s particular brand of humor might feel a bit dated to some, but it stands as a wonderfully whimsical and complex addition to the indie roguelike genre.
After a long and uncertain development cycle, the collaborative project from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel has finally arrived. This is not a peaceful life simulator. Your primary goal is the selective breeding of cats, but the purpose is to forge an army of superpowered felines. You’ll then lead this army through grim, turn-based battlefields like sewers and junkyards, fighting grotesque enemies and developing winning genetic formulas. The loop is compelling, offering a vast array of collectible items, numerous achievements, and significant replay value. Fans of classic indie titles will feel a warm hit of nostalgia, but the creative twists on the roguelite formula ensure things stay fresh. It’s an unforgiving game that rarely offers an easy path, but the journey is consistently engaging.
Your adventure begins in the dilapidated Boon County, where your shack serves as the hub for your feline operations. This home base is where you’ll manage your cat collection, a task involving feeding them, cleaning up their waste (and occasionally their remains), decorating, and shopping for supplies. Strategic macro-management starts immediately, as you can prune your genetic pool by sending cats to allies to unlock new features. The cats you choose to keep directly influence upcoming battles through their inherited mutations, stats, and even their tendency to fight each other, which can cause permanent injuries. After daily chores, your cats can either fight or mate, creating new messes and, eventually, new offspring. Later, you gain more control by grouping cats in new rooms. There’s a darkly satisfying joy in selectively breeding for specific, often absurd, traits, even if it compromises a cat’s viability. New strays arrive daily to replenish your ranks, but when supplies dwindle, you must venture out with a team of four to battle for crucial resources.
When you embark on a run, you assign your chosen cats to a starting class, with over a dozen becoming available over time. Each class has unique abilities and passive traits that can be inherited by future generations. With over 1,200 abilities and passive traits in the game, no two playthroughs will ever be the same, creating an incredibly varied and addictive experience. Each cat has seven core stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Speed, Charisma, and Luck. These determine class suitability, but chaotic breeding often results in powerfully broken combinations. Equipping stat-boosting items and granting new abilities finalizes your team before heading into randomized encounters. The enemy variety is fantastic, featuring over 200 foes ranging from zombie cats to psychic eldritch beasts. Enemies can down your teammates, and each down inflicts injuries or jinxes that persist for the run, with few ways to cure them. Between fights, you’ll find items and face random encounters where a party member’s stats determine a probability-based outcome, often with cruel results. Permanent death is a constant threat, forcing you to balance sentimentality with cold practicality.
The game world unfolds across multiple branching pathways, starting with the Alley and leading to areas like the Sewer, Graveyard, Caves, and Junkyard just in the first act. Later areas introduce environmental challenges, like the Desert’s heat which steadily damages cats unless they are kept cool. Successfully completing a run allows your battle-hardened cats to retire to the breeding program, though they typically cannot venture out again. All of this merely scratches the surface. After thirty hours of play, I had only experienced about twenty percent of the total content. With a reported 200-plus hours of gameplay, not including achievements, Mewgenics offers staggering longevity, akin to the endless replayability of The Binding of Isaac.
The presentation is a major strength, with excellent music, consistently great art, and well-designed levels. Boss fight lyrics are chuckle-worthy even amidst feline carnage, and the soundtrack’s pace perfectly complements the addictive loop. Each session seems to unlock some new chaotic event, like a weekly visit from a monstrous doomsday cat that challenges retired fighters. The chaos only seems to amplify the deeper you go. While it may not have the broad, pick-up-and-play appeal of The Binding of Isaac, it is a must-try for fans of creative, deep, and grotesquely charming roguelikes.
(Source: TechRadar)
