We've been wondering just what the heck Bugsnax was going to be about, and now we have our answer. Sony teased us earlier in the summer with the first minute or so of Bugsnax gameplay, confirming that you play as a journalist on the hunt for the famed explorer Lizbert Megafig, who discovered an island populated by bizarrely edible insects called Bugsnax. You're tasked with finding her for an interview, but that turns out to be no easy task.
Upon arrival at the Bugsnax island, you find out that Lizbert has gone missing. It's up to you to find her with the help of a bizarre cast of Muppet-like creatures that absolutely love eating Bugsnax--despite the fact that doing so causes their limbs to turn into delicious food items.
Thanks to Giant Bomb's early look at a Bugsnax demo, we can get a good feel for the core gameplay loop that surrounds Bugsnax. One-part adventure puzzle game, one-part Pokemon-style collecting game, and one-part journalism simulator, Bugsnax is truly bizarre.
We'll start with the Pokemon-style collecting. You're given a SnaxScope and a Snak Trap early on and tasked with identifying and trapping Bugsnax for the consumption of the populace. One of the central mysteries is why everyone wants to eat these Bugsnax and why aren't they freaking out when their arms turn into carrots, strawberries, or whatever other Bugsnak that was most recently consumed.
Your SnaxScope looks and operates like a camera and will help catalog the various species of Bugsnax encountered. After identifying Strabby, the strawberry Bugsnak, you're then tasked with capturing it using the Snak Trap. This involves placing the Snak Trap in the known path of the Strabby while waiting at a fair distance. Once Strabby walks within range, a button on your wrist will spring the trap and capture it.
And then you feed it to your friend, who grows a strawberry hand. Again, this would normally cause panic and consternation, but instead, the Bugsnax people seem to be all for it.
The rest of Bugsnax involves capturing more Bugsnax, feeding them to the populace to unlock additional areas of the island, and interviewing people to track down Lizbert. We’re pretty certain there’s going to be a dark twist in this game, but the overall tone of Bugsnax suggests that even if it turns out that you’re eating former people, nobody will be too upset about it.
Bugsnax arrives on PS4, PS5, and PC via the Epic Games Store on November 12, 2020.
Source: Giant Bomb