Review of The Monster Breeder

Last week I found a brilliant Indy game called The Monster Breeder and I’ve already sunk many hours into it. It is $19.99 on Steam, in Early Access, and a labor of love by one developer.

Monster Breeder bills itself as a monster cross-breeding game, and it is; but the monster breeding part is the icing on the cake that is a core good gladiatorial management game.  Once I understood that the economics of the game is to win big purses by fielding your monster hybrids in the more lucrative gladiator arenas, then everything clicked into place.

My insectoid hybrids ready to rumble

You start with some seed money, an old keep and a spring in your step as you immediately swing down to the hunter’s shop to see what types of juvenile monsters they have that you can purchase and eventually crossbreed.

Monster Breeder is in Early Access, so systems are rough around the edges. There is a hard limit to the interesting monsters you can crossbreed, however acquiring a monster hybrid with the attributes and traits you want will undoubtable take a while. And it’s a lot of fun to tinker around with the systems of blood infusion, feeding baby monsters with different meat, and treating baby monsters with different magic fields (from runestones and scrolls) and potions to improve certain traits.

Also Monster Breeder has a lot of systems. Forgers can make you arms and armor, and some items can be sold to keep you economically afloat. This is a necessity in the early game when you are just treading water economically and a majority of your income comes from the pittance given at the Catacombs arena. Alchemists can make potions you can use in combat, but more importantly at greater levels alchemists can make you potions that allow you to crossbreed, mutate, tame or enchant the monsters you collect. So, they are a long-term investment.

Once you get into the midgame when you have viable monster hybrids to take on the challenges in the non-Catacombs gladiator arenas and win thousands of gold, things really open up as you can run multiple monster breeding programs in parallel. You can also invest in human gladiators coming from warrior, archer or mage backgrounds.  Equipping your human gladiators with the best gear either from your high-level forgers, gladiatorial winnings, or special shopping festivals is another fun gameplay loop of optimizing your units. 

The biggest drawbacks have already been described by other reviewers.  The graphics are quaint, the sound effects can be annoying and the early game has a learning curve.  However, this is one of the best monster breeder games on the market that I can think of and one of the better gladiatorial games available on Steam.  Ultimately as other have said, it’s rough and in Early Access but it already has a good gameplay loop and personally I want to see how the developer further iterates and defines this monster breeder game. 

Review of Nemesis: Lockdown, Digital Edition

 I bought Nemesis: Lockdown on Steam. It is a direct port of the boardgame if you are familiar with that. It is multiplayer, there are five different survivors (characters) to choose from so far and it looks like some hidden goals allow you to betray your teammates. The trick is you can’t take direct action against each other by directly attacking with weapons. There is a solo mode also. I should also mention it is in Early Access. 

Played about four solo games. They were interesting.  I think the gameplay might be slow for some people but I like it as it builds tension slowly and it models the Alien(s) movie experience. In my first game I managed to drag my heavily bleeding body to the room where I sent a signal off Mars.  It wasn't enough to finish my second goal however (kill the Queen). An Adult alien cornered me and turned me into a tasty meatball.  

In my second game I played a Janitor and got infected by alien Larva.  I used a card in my hand to scan the infection and it killed me because I had a larva residing in my body. Woops! I didn’t even get to use my jury-rigged flamethrower!

In my third playthrough I was a Xenobiologist with the goal to capture the corpse of an alien intruder.  I was making my way quietly from room to room and gaining knowledge about the alien threat when the game crashed.  

In my fourth opportunity I played a Survivor character.  I learned that each character has starting equipment they can make into something useful assuming they reach the right room and pay for the item.  I successfully made it to the crafting room and made myself an assault rifle! Hell yeah I thought. Fast forward to two turns later where I was in the Surgery room and trapped by an Adult alien. I missed four out of five shots on the alien and then again got turned into a spicy meatball after it had shredded my arms and legs.

I'm excited to try multiplayer with other people who have competing goals.  Fair warning though I think the multiplayer servers may be a bit unstable right now in terms of trying to connect to them.

Another warning about Nemesis: Lockdown. As much fun as I am having with it, I have encountered two Unreal Engine errors, one resulting in the solo game crash I mentioned above.  So, I'd maybe wait until they have fixed these.