After a terrible pandemic has wiped out virtually the entire population of the planet, you wake up in a control tower in the middle of a barren desert landscape. A storm slams sand hard against the windows, causing an uncomfortable scratch on the glass. You must assume the role of the Guardian, a sentinel whose mission is to repopulate the planet and to achieve this it is necessary to collect the DNA that has not been damaged by the pandemic. You are under the command of a creature floating in a glass container connected to multiple wires and hoses. This being commands you to save the world, but to do so you must attack the mutated cyborgs that are preventing you from obtaining the DNA. Yes, it sounds incredibly strange, but somehow it works.
Aside from the premise, the rest of the plot isn’t very important. The story isn’t the main element of the game because Behavior Interactive doesn’t want us to focus on that. At first glance, no problem with that. The plot only serves to set the tone of the game and show its style and dynamics. In these last two aspects, Meet Your Maker shows us what it is capable of. The aesthetic seems straight out of the Warhammer 40000 and DOOM universes: a raw sci-fi style that mixes industrial aesthetics and gore. The environment looks like a construction site from hell itself and all the walls of the buildings are covered in blood or engine oil. This title blurs the line between man and machine, creating a perverse and disgusting mix of physicality and mechanics. Sparks from welding metal merge with blood and guts in a beautiful tribute to the Grimdark aesthetic.
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Perversion is particularly noticeable in the multiple design of the enemies you fight against. These people are utterly mutilated with wires, steel, and lamps, elements that stand in stark contrast to their pale, sickly, and inflamed skin. The merging of man and machine can also be seen in the setting, which is covered in skulls woven into the electrical wiring on the ceiling and walls. It’s a fun detail reminiscent of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, especially when Bill the Boots merges with the Flying Dutchman’s wall.
All these details show the incredible artistic vision of Meet Your Maker. The game’s style is easily recognizable and while it takes inspiration from other well-known IPs, it manages to stand out on its own merits.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the gameplay, which also borrows from a variety of titles and genres. Meet Your Maker mainly draws on two of them: first person shooters and construction games. First you have to go outside and explore the paths made by other players and then return to the control tower with the necessary resources to level up. Then it’s your turn to create your own paths for other players to explore. This startup routine is interesting at first, but loses its appeal after a few hours. Behavior Interactive has had some success creating an interesting FPS, but only for a while until it feels like a repetitive list of things to do.
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Aside from the main dynamic (shooting and building), Meet Your Maker also works as a roguelike, puzzler, platformer, and dungeon crawler. It’s clear that it takes inspiration from DOOM, Portal, and Minecraft, but it doesn’t stand out. Unfortunately, he ends up relying too heavily on a trick to get attention. Although the creators made a conscious choice not to focus the game on the story, a good plot might have managed to keep the interest longer.
All in all, the first few hours of Meet Your Maker are interesting, fun and challenging, but after a while the magic that pulls you into the game wears off completely.
