Freaking Meatbags was just released on May 20th, 2014 and is currently available as an Early Access title on, you guessed it, Steam Early Access. The story in Freaking Meatbags is done in a very lighthearted and witty fashion. I found the experience to be a particularly enjoyable retreat from the normally serious tone of most TD games found on PC. Even though we’re talking about the robotic enslavement of the human race, Freaking Meatbags manages to keep things less than serious the entire time. From the e-mails you’ll receive from other robots, to the packs of wild robots that roam the countryside and attack you at night, Freaking Meatbags is just a funny game through and through.

Starting a missions involves deciding what planet you want to colonize, the inhabitants of which are not always human in nature. In the traditional TD-style missions you’ll have the opportunity to build a DNA splicer building, giving you the ability to combine the DNA of multiple species into a new hybrid creature with shared abilities. As an example, I found mixing my humans and the laser eye aliens produced a very useful creature that excelled at mining and could provide a bit of extra defenses in a pinch.

One of the cool aspects of Freaking Meatbags is the RTS influence in the form of base building and mining. Your alien slaves can be assigned to mine various resources, assigned to explore a shipwreck, or offer emergency base defenses when the wild robots attack. Instead of simply scrolling around the map and clicking things, you actually play as the robot that commands an increasingly diverse collection of creatures. During some missions you’ll simply be moving around to push back the fog of war, at other times you may be the main point of offense (or defense) against the wild robots as you pick up some machine gun turrets and lay waste to the attackers.

I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t mention the superb soundtrack that accompanies the game. Freaking Meatbags‘ chiptune-style music fits the game perfectly and really stood out as a high point for me. The graphics are decidedly retro, but there’s still so much personality in the game. It kinds of reminds me of the classically addicting Kairosoft games that are so popular on mobile platforms.

Despite the fact that we’re talking about an Early Access game, Freaking Meatbags feels very complete even at this early stage. With the initial release only 3 days removed, I went in expecting rampant bugs. I was pleased to find a working and playable game that felt near complete. That being said, I did encounter difficultly recording in-game footage in while playing in windowed mode. Due to the nature of the graphics, the game uses a particularly blocky font that at 1920 x 1080 can make things a bit hard to read. I much preferred playing in a 1400 x 900 window but just couldn’t record using Nvidia Shadowplay. You’re mileage may vary in this regard though, there’s a lot of variables at play.

At the end of the day, I’m super pleased with what I saw thus far with Freaking Meatbags. I’m excited to see what the developers come up with as this game moves through the development cycle. At a low price tag of $10 you’ll probably get your moneys worth even at this early stage.

Steam Store| Official Website | Developer
Steam Cards: Unknown | Steam Achievements: Unknown | Version Previewed: 0.8.5252.40190

Hello fleshy lifeform, and welcome to our Early Access release! Freaking Meatbags has reached alpha and is fully playable in its current form. A large portion of the content is already in place, including the first stages of DNA mixing and most of the buildable structures. We’re hard at work fixing bugs and adding new features, so if something breaks before your very eyes, it’s ok, it’s supposed to do that! For now, anyway. Join the Early Access program to get the game at a discounted price and share your feedback/suggestions with the team. We promise we won’t implant a brain slug into your head while you’re not looking.

You can check out the game at http://store.steampowered.com/app/297060/

It’s inevitable that you’re fleshy existence will be coming to an end sooner or later due to robot attack. While you await the robot rapture why not hone your robot horde defense tactics with Freaking Meatbags? Be on the lookout for the game to hit Steam Early Access early Summer 2014!

We’ve got some of the current features listed below, you should also check out the video after the break.

Current Features

• Fuse alien and human DNA: Create hybrids with special alien abilities by mixing DNA from two different meatbags. A human is useful, but a human with a rocket launcher arm is even more useful.
• Build offensive and defensive structures: Hold back the wild robot hordes with lasers, missiles, bolts of electricity and your very own personal attack drones. 15 unique structures to create and upgrade.
• Enhance your base with technology: Influence the battlefield and manage your base with nine different pieces of buildable technology. Need to heal yourself? There’s tech for that. Want to build drones? Tech for that, too!
• Motivate your meatbags: The humans usually do what you ask. Unless they’re tired or bored or just plain apathetic. Fortunately there’s plenty of alien biotechnology you can implant to give them a little encouragement.
• Robotic enemies: Nobody knows where the wild robots come from, but they sure are well armed. Eight unique enemy types that range from creepy crawly things to dashy explodey things.
• Boss robots: Three sinister bad guys to take out with your turrets. One of them has a giant brain. How do you figure it got in there?
• Multiple planets and environments to explore
• Four alien species to encounter, chat with and steal DNA from
• One giant trans-dimensional space squid