Background
A space exterminator and a laboratory filled with hideously mutated alien bugs, what could go wrong!? The Bug Butcher, developed by Awfully Nice Studios, is a side-scrolling bullet-hell game in which the player must blast his way through hordes of ravenous bugs to cleanse a science center and allow the scientist to keep working. Released on January 19th, 2016, this game features simple controls and three difficulty levels, but lacks on the content. Can you survive the waves of bugs as they attempt to eat your face and destroy the facility?
Story/Gameplay
In this extermination adventure you play as Harry, who is an exterminator and I think he is supposed to be a badass… I think? He is called to help out some weak scientists eradicate a horde of insects who have invaded and made a home out of their workplace. Your goal; to kill every bug in the facility and save the scientists.
You run back and forth in a room shooting all the bugs who come your way, some will try to crush you, some will try to latch onto your face and kill you in one shot, and others will try to eat your scientist friends and you must protect them as well. A basic story and basic formula, with out much that really sets it apart from other bullet-hell games. It is a fun game and keeps you on your toes, hoping for the next weapon drop or power-up to make it’s way to you, but once you beat it that's it. The trailer promotes boss fights but they don’t really feel like bosses at all. They just feel like slightly more difficult bugs that you fight further in the game. If I hadn’t seen the bug in the trailer I wouldn’t have known he was a boss.
Power-Ups
The Bug Butcher features a few different weapons for Harry to use. He has a few different power-ups in his arsenal, including various weapon upgrades for Ol’ Reliable, and a couple active skills that will help give you so breathing room when times get tough. Harry can also add one of three passive abilities to him that will help through each level. All of these power-ups, excluding the passives, also feature 3 upgrade levels to improve their overall effectiveness. Now the weapons vary pretty well in their application such as the Laser Beam, while destroying everything in it’s path, has probably the quickest usage decay rate of any of the weapons meaning you have to be careful how you use it. Then you have the Gatling Gun which sprays bullets all over the place indiscriminately. The game also features active power-ups such as the Freeze Grenade which obviously freezes enemies, and also a Rocket Pack which launches rockets that seek out your enemies. I am not a fan of how each weapon and power-up only has 3 levels. I do not how dumbed down the level up system is and wish it allowed for more personalized upgrades. But that’s just my opinion. The weapons are very useful for getting you out of a sticky situation.
Playtime/Difficulty
The Bug Butcher falls short in one major way, and that would be it’s level content. The game features 5 chapters with 6 levels each and 3 difficulty levels. So the whole game consists of 30 levels to play in any of the 3 difficulty levels that all share progress. In other words, if you beat the whole game on easy then you can choose to play the final level on hard. It would be nice if each difficulty level kept it’s own progression.
The Bug Butcher also features one other game mode called Panic, which can be played solo or with a friend. It works like a survival mode where you must fight oncoming waves of bugs and collecting coins to level up your weapons and skills mid fight. It’s fun for a little while but it lost it’s appeal to me after a little while. There really isn’t much to do afterwards besides play the same missions over again.
Verdict: 6/10
Awfully Nice Studios, has by no means produced a bad game here, but they also don’t have a great one. With an arcade-style bullet hell, one would expect a smaller amount of level content than most other games but with this game, I find certain aspects that would prolong the game are absent. Such as each difficulty having it’s own separate story progression. I am not particularly fond of it’s dumbed down level up system but enjoy it’s selection of available power-ups and weapons. When all’s said and done, it’s not a bad game, but it’s not one I would implore anyone to go get with any urgency.
