King of Meat is a new co-op focused dungeon crawler developed by Glowmade and published by Amazon Games coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, complete with cross-play and cross-progression. Ahead of its reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live, I got to head to Los Angeles to preview the game and speak with some of the developers working on it.
A Dystopian Game Show with a Unique Flavor
King of Meat takes place in a magical dystopia, where corporations have created the only entertainment available. King of Meat, is a game show where contestants have to battle through tough dungeons and entertain the crowd while doing it. These dungeons are tackled by teams of four in co-op, working together to smash the high score and complete the objectives.
Outside the dungeons, there is a small plaza, where you can customize your appearance to show off your personality and upgrade your abilities. There are individual skill trees for each weapon, along with powerful special moves you can unlock after dominating in the dungeons.
User-Generated Dungeons: A Standout Feature
Where King of Meat stands out on its own is the user-generated dungeons. While we didn’t get to demo the tools, Glowmade told me that the tools for creating dungeons are designed to be easy to understand and work with controllers first. The game will launch with over 100 dungeons built by Glowmade developers, all of which were made using the same tools players will have access to. The tools were created to make building easier to get into, so players won’t have the freedom to build anything–the example shared with me was that you can’t build a shrine to your cat, but you can build any kind of dungeon you want. Glowmade is also working with a small group of map creators to build dungeons ahead of launch.
The flow of each mission is that you and your team need to move through each dungeon defeating enemies and collecting treasure, which is both dropped by enemies and found in crates. Treasure adds to your team’s total score, which determines if you earn bronze, silver, or gold. Hitting these goals was fairly easy in our play session, but Glowmade told me that the scores aren’t set by the map creator, but instead set based on the scores posted by players running each dungeon. As more people play and score higher, the total points needed will shift. Having flexible score goals seems important since during the demo we cleared gold pretty early in some dungeons and there isn’t an incentive to keep scoring once you reach the highest threshold.
The score total is combined for the team, but individual players have their own multiplier, which is increased by defeating enemies and mixing up your individual moves. Dying or failing a jump will reset this, encouraging you to perform better.
Quirky World and Engaging Characters
The world of King of Meat is over the top and silly, where your character gets rag dolled whenever you get hit by a large obstacle. Many of the NPCs have goofy personalities, although there is an impressive amount of depth to them. During my time playing the game, I spoke with the same vendors four or five times, with unique dialogue each time. It’s nice to have in a game that asks you to speak with these NPCs pretty regularly. Glowmade described the inspiration for the personality of the game as a cross between the theatrics of WWE and the fantasy vibes of Labyrinth.
The reason you have to speak with them repeatedly is because of the progression. Completing dungeons will net you rewards like money, which can be used to buy cosmetics, and tokens, which can be used to level up your weapon’s skill path or unlock new magic powers. The magic powers had some great variety, with a black hole and a giant horse hoof among them. Glowmade said they expect that it will take players between 30 to 40 hours to play through.
The character I was given to play with came in a legendary outfit, which was a black and orange flame design with an eagle head. In addition to being able to mix and match different clothing and weapon options, there were also sprays and special accessories that you could add however you wanted. You could adjust the size of these objects and stick them anywhere, giving you a ton of control. I set a pair of googly eyes, which moved the way real googly eyes do, on my character’s face and played the rest of the demo that way.
Combat Depth and Varied Gameplay Modes
The weapon skill trees unlock new combos and special moves for you to use, adding new depth to the combat as you work through harder and harder dungeons. There were only two weapons during the demo, the hammer and sword and shield, both of which had unique moves and combos. Glowmade said there would be more weapons in the game at launch, although they did not reveal how many. Both weapons seem to excel in different ways, with the hammer better for large enemies, while the sword could cut through small enemies quickly. While Glowmade said there isn’t a need to think about your team comp, it can be beneficial to have a variety of weapons.
While the majority of dungeons we played were designed as early levels not meant to be too challenging, I did get to tackle a more challenging mode. The mode was called Slay of the Day, where you need to survive in an arena for four minutes while scoring as much as possible. This mode was made for a solo player, and neither of my attempts came anywhere near the four-minute mark, showing that these dungeons can have some teeth.
As for monetization, Glowmade and Amazon weren’t ready to discuss the exact details, however, they did confirm that the game wouldn’t be free-to-play, although the exact price is unknown. It also wasn’t confirmed when the game would be launching, but it is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
