[GameSpot] - Bugsnax Might Be A Bit Darker Than Its Cute Look Suggests

[343iBot]

I expected Bugnsax to be lighthearted and funny. Its reveal trailer sprays cute into the atmosphere; it radiates cute like some kind of cuteness bomb. What I didn't expect was its underlying narrative drive, or the potentially darker bits of media its developers counts among their inspirations--the likes of Lost, Apocalypse Now, and The Island of Dr. Moreau. But, despite the unexpectedly dark inspirations, and I can't emphasize this enough--Bugsnax is still extremely cute, lighthearted, and funny.

Bugsnax is much more story-driven than it might appear to be at first blush. We got a chance to try about an hour of the game, which introduces the narrative and outlines what the hell Bugsnax is all about pretty well. You play a journalist who previously covered the famed, eccentric, possibly prone-to-exaggeration Elizabert Megafig, an explorer and cryptozoologist. Elizabeth invites you to the island where she and her colleagues discovered a species of insect called bugsnax, and after some convincing, your editor lets you go to try and get the scoop--despite the fact that your last story about an Elizabert Megafig discovery turned out to be a hoax.

As you journey to the island, disaster strikes. You fall off your airship on arrival and, as you start to explore, the place is plagued by earthquakes. You soon discover Filbo, one of the inhabitants of Elizabert's town of Snaxburg, lying on the ground and injured, asking for food. He introduces you to what you'll be doing for the rest of your time on the island: seeking out and capturing elusive bugsnax.

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