Nom Nom Apocalypse – Review (PC)
Nom Nom Apocalypse is a new twin stick shooter from Deadleaf Games that mixes gourmand with gruesome and action with appetite. This Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs meets Enter The Gungeon indie title utilizes frantic isometric shooting and rougelite dungeon crawling with an emphasis on cooperative play. We checked out the game ahead of its February 13th release date to see if it can satiate both our stomach and shooting desires.
If you’ve played anything that somewhat resembles a twin stick shooter over the past five years, you’ll be immediately familiar with Nom Nom‘s mechanics. The left stick controls movement, right stick aims your weapon and the right trigger fires. Inputs are smooth, simple, and do exactly what they’re supposed to. A dodge roll is added in for increased defensive maneuverability and players will need to get used to using this type of evasion a lot. The entirety of Nom Nom Apocalypse is playable in coop – either locally or using Steam’s remote play functionality. We definitely recommend going with the couch route on this one. Remote play is difficult to get working and since the game is streamed from the host’s connection, it means one player has a downgraded experience.
Four playable ‘Food Fighters’ are available to select from the start with seven more to unlock by clearing levels or unlocking achievements. Each Food Fighter has at their disposal a set of unique passive and active abilities. These include things like speed boosts, health with successful knife throws, or a bubble shield that protects from ranged attacks. The active abilities are fueled by Power Grease that is accumulated as you kill enemies. The Power Grease meter drains completely with each use, so you’ll need to carefully pick when to use it. One of our favorites was the Baker Food Fighter who spawns a gargantuan rolling pin that slams down on enemies and sends shockwaves into the distance. This came in very handy in crowd control scenarios and with massive bosses.
When working your way through one of the game’s five themed dungeons, you will collect cash. Cash can be used within dungeon runs at vending machines to purchase ammo, power grease, or health. Conversely, this cash can also be saved and used to purchase perks at the end of a run. Perks range from health buffs to defensive shields and everything in between. The perks are somewhat important to progression as the difficulty ramps up considerably as you move through each level. The trouble is only three perks can be equipped at any given time. It won’t be long before all of your slots have filled up and you’ve found your ideal mix of abilities. This makes the secondary use of cash redundant and it’ll only be needed to purchase items within levels.
Enemy and weapon variety are two of Nom Nom‘s strong suits. Some baddies will charge for up close melee attacks while others will constantly evade to keep their distance while unloading a barrage of custard and cream ranged attacks. Bosses follow this trend but amp up the challenge with their lumbering size and screen filling attacks. Every new dungeon plays host to an amusing and creative new set of enemies that ties in well with that level’s overall theme. Weapons take on a similar personality in their design. A Chili Flaker was a standout with its persistent fire and massive damage while a Fork Bow required more precision but with huge payoffs.
Up to three weapons can be carried at a time. With scarce ammo, players will need to choose wisely what to take into each battle. Further to this, all loot has to be shared when playing coop. This means you’ll need to work closely with your partner to ensure everyone has the strongest arsenal possible.
Where Nom Nom Apocalypse falters is in its repetition. Progression feels like it’s handled similarly to a horde mode. This means that when you die, it’s game over and back to the start. Be prepared to play the opening dungeons constantly because you’ll be seeing them a lot. All that is retained after death is your cash. But, as mentioned before, its post death utility becomes almost meaningless rather quickly. As this is a roguelite, levels do change up with each subsequent run. But when all that changes is enemy placement and map layout, the whole gameplay loop quickly gets stale – even with the interesting enemies and weapons.
Recommendation: Nom Nom Apocalypse is a fast paced and personality filled twin stick shooter. But battling it out against an enraged buffet of beasts goes stale quickly – even with a friend. Without enough variety to make each repeat of dungeons feel exciting or alluring, we’re afraid this will cause players to walk away from this smorgasbord before long.
*Nom Nom Apocalypse was given to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion*
