The term “mushroom-hell” is not one I expected to have to write today. Or any day, for that matter, but that’s exactly the term that came to mind while delving into the early access release of frantic co-op FPS Mycopunk. It’s a weird one, folks, but that might well be one of its greatest strengths.
First of all, there’s something weirdly icky about the world. Anything with Devolver Digital attached tends to have at least some level of ick, as is Devolver’s charm, but Mycopunk’s focus on destroying an invasion of gross alien fungi means it’s always just a bit nasty – especially as the enemies here look more like giant bacterial cells on wibbly legs than actual mushrooms (fungi-hell doesn’t sound near as catchy though).
It’s a pretty pure and uncluttered experience, as you pick a class from the four available and upgrade on-the-fly, unlocking new weapons and abilities that remain persistent from mission to mission. There’s not much of a narrative to guide you, but there doesn’t really need to be. It’s a good-looking game, too, with a unique, grainy cartoon art-style and deliberate visual glitches that add to the atmosphere of everything being two bad days from collapsing entirely.
Each of the four main characters comes with their own initial moveset and abilities, designed to work solo or in synergy with other players. Stetson-sporting Wrangler has a “rocket-powered lasso” that can either drag enemies and objects to you or propel you forwards. Scrapper has a “grapple pole” which allows you and teammates to swing around on to avoid – or get into – trouble. Glider can, unsurprisingly, fly, or dish out massive sustained damage with her rocket salvo, and Bruiser is the quintessential tank, equipped with a shield generator and a devastating ground-slam.
They all feel more or less the same in motion, but mixing and matching their abilities is what sets each of them apart. When Mycopunk starts throwing heaps of enemies at you from all directions (and I do mean ALL), you’ll need every trick you can muster to stay alive. Thankfully it’s not a roguelike, so death won’t cancel the run, and you’ll instead respawn to continue the fight. Ending a level will allow you to unlock various upgrades or add weapons to your arsenal for the next deployment.
In between missions you’ll visit the HUB, a huge antechamber that houses the mission drop pod and various stations at which to upgrade or tweak your loadouts. There’s loads to do in here, from buffing your character and changing skins to wasting time with an actual Go-kart track that exists just for the hell of it.
I was having fun playing solo, but honestly Mycopunk is the kind of shooter that needs friends. From comedy emotes to the synergy of skills, it’s built for group play above all else. Your companion and guide Roachard pops up in the corner of the screen to drop witty one-liners and advice, but he’s nothing compared to the screaming and cursing of friends when Mycopunk turns up the juice.
What it lacks right now is content. There’s only a handful of missions in the grand scheme of things, and even for a relatively low price-point, it needs more to hold your interest for a sustained period of time. There’s only one primary mode and the only replayability comes in the form of increasing difficulty levels where the rewards have diminishing returns. Developer Pigeons at Play have already promised more characters and content, hinting at something along the lines of Risk of Rain 2, so the future looks pretty rosy for Mycopunk right now.
As an early game Mycopunk has a lot of time and opportunity to add more to its arsenal. Once there’s more base content and more to do overall, it’ll be well worth diving into, but for less than £15 it’s not a bad shout to support a dev who clearly has a lot of passion for the genre.
