Atomic Butcher: Homo Metabolicus preview, brutality!

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I never really thought that I would ever get the chance to play an action/platformer that looks and feels like a mix of “Toxic Crusaders”,“Boogerman”, “Soldat”, “Life Force” and “B.O.B”. Well, I´m glad that I was wrong, because that´s exactly the mix that describes Humankapital´s ultra violent and disgusting post-apocalyptic 2D action/platform game “Atomic Butcher: Homo Metabolicus”. And I´m not even exaggerating either, because you can literally kill your enemies with pee, poo and vomit (there are also tons of firearms that you can use, like flamethrowers, machine guns and rocket launchers).

atomic butcher homo-metabolicus the vomit attack

You can vomit your enemies to death in “Atomic Butcher: Homo Metabolicus”.

Awesome! So what about the “ultra” brutal aspects of the game then? Well, I can reassure you that you won´t be disappointed if you like really violent games (like “Brutal Doom”, for example). As all the enemies in “Homo Metabolicus” always dies in very brutal ways when you (or someone else) kills them. And it doesn´t matter which weapons you use either, because people and monsters will still die extremely gruesome deaths. And I have you know that there are tons of creative ways for you to kill your foes as well. And a perfectly example of that would be that one time when I slam dunked a blissfully unaware zombie to death with my ass, which resulted in one of the most brutal fatalities that I´ve ever seen in a 2D platformer to date.

atomic butcher homo metabolicus slaughter

This is what happens when “Brutal Doom” goes action/platformer.

That´s very cool of course. However, I should point out that you can die in very violent ways too. And there are plenty of enemies in the world of “Homo Metabolicus” that want nothing more than to tear you apart. And even though you play as an oversized and mutated super freak (in “Homo Metabolicus” humanity has died, and the world is now a big post-apocalyptic wasteland). You still have to pay close attention to your health and meat status. The health part is obvious of course (zero health = Death). However, I haven´t seen in all that many video games that uses meat quite like this. Because in “Homo Metabolicus” you eat meat in-order to get back some health and to get stronger piss attacks (yes, you read it right the first time), and once you reach 100 in meat.

You will be able to unleash the gross (but super powerful) vomit attack (do you remember that vomit scene from the 1982 “Poltergeist” movie? Well, “Homo Metabolicus” tops that scene with ease), and trust me on this. No one will be left standing if you play your cards right, for example. During stage 2, I cleaned out a whole room full of monsters solely with the help of the vomit attack. And when I was done, there were just limbs, guts and blood left of my enemies.

atomic butcher homo metabolicus poop attack

Death from above? More like “shit from above”.

I know that this might make it sound like you’re invincible in “Atomic Butcher: Homo Metabolicus”, but don´t let that fool you, because you´re not indestructible (not by far). In the matter of fact, death exists in many different kinds of shapes and shapes in the game. And I´m not just talking about all the traps and mutated monsters want nothing more than to kill and eat you. No, I´m also referring to deadly things such as suicidal hippies (I accidentally died when a hipster jumped down in front of me at the same exact time as I fired my rocket launcher) and “things” that´s been set on fire (stay away from things that burn. No matter if it´s alive or dead, because fire hurts like hell. Unless you’re on the other side of the pain train, as in “taste the flames from my flamethrower you bastard!”).

Said the whiney hipster, then he died a very brutal death.

Well, I don´t know if this sounds like your cup of tea (you can download and try the “Homo Metabolicus” demo if you´re not quite sure if it´s your kind of game or not), but personally. I had a blast with “Atomic Butcher: Homo Metabolicus” (and the Metal soundtrack is just as bad-ass as the actual game itself). And even though I played a very early pre-alpha demo of the game, I´m still truly impressed with what I´ve seen and experienced from “Homo Metabolicus” so far. And at this time, I have very few cons to report as well. So “if” Das Humankapital keeps up the good work, then I wouldn´t be surprised if they end up having a big indie hit on their hands. Well, time will tell. Nevertheless, We will know for sure when the game launches to Windows. MAC and Linux later this year though (if you enjoyed the demo, then don´t forget to vote for “Homo Metabolicus” on Steam Greenlight).

Pros:
+ Epic Metal soundtrack
+ Tons of weapons, attacks and ways to kill your enemies
+ Entertaining gameplay mechanics
+ The enemies are really fun to kill (especially the hipsters)
+ Checkpoints and clear goals

Cons:
– Bugs
– No difficulty settings
– The controls can be somewhat stiff at times (or slippery)