Are you a fan of indie games? What about side-scrolling shooters that offer interesting challenges and gameplay? Then have I got a game for you to check out! This is Bite The Bullet from Mega Cat Studios a new title that has been both extremely fun and odd, to say the least. Bite the Bullet takes place in the not so distant future where humanity has fled to the stars in an effort to save itself from destruction.

Not everyone partook in this exodus though and the ones who stayed back on earth have evolved into mutants ghouls. Thanks to developments from Darwincorp, those who left Earth can survive by eating literally anything be it organic or nonorganic.

In the game, players assume the role of Chewie or Chewella as they fight to collect samples for the Darwincorp’s compendium. Being sent back to Earth your mercenary of choice will fight through waves of ghouls and a final encounter for each level. Levels in Bite the Bullet feel huge compared to other games of this style with a number of different challenges added to boot.

Along your journey, you quickly learn that simply killing your enemy isn’t always the best course of action. By inflicting a certain amount of damage on foes you will stun them long enough to then devour them whole. This aspect of gameplay is key as it allows you to collect resources to upgrade weapons and perform abilities.

Be careful about how much you consume though as eating too much will make you fat and slower but have more defense. Though, being thin isn’t as cracked up as it sounds as it takes more resources to employ your abilities. There is an interesting balance to be had with both sides of the obesity wheel and gameplay is more interesting for it.

There is one final form your characters can take and that is of the mighty Zombro. After consuming a vast amount of enemies and food, a transformation can be triggered that lets players control the massive beast. Zombro is a berserker and employs heavy hits to take down opponents and the trade-off of not being able to eat anything during the transformation.

Weapons are numerous throughout the game and include your basic assault rifles and shotguns but also some oddities like a critter launcher that will shoot exploding animals at your foes! different versions of each weapon can be dropped by slain foes or you can upgrade the ones you already possess to add in new perks such as increasing the damage while you are airborne.

Speaking of perks, Bite The Bullet features a slew of character upgrades that can be unlocked as you increase your level. The upgrade board reminds me a bit of the sphere grid from Final Fantasy X to give it a bit of reference. There are multiple branching paths to unlock and the abilities and stat upgrades chosen are fully up to the player. One example of a new ability is literally being able to eat enemy bullets to refill your health!

Boss fights at the end of each stage feature multistage fights with some truly nasty monsters! These fights will have you employ various tactics to succeed and were the highlight of my time with the game. Taking these monstrosities out is seriously rewarding.

Bite The Bullet launches on August 13 across PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One and is one to keep an eye on for fans of this style of game. From my time with the game, it is definitely one of the most unique experiences I have played in some time! If you would like to see more on Bite The Bullet leading up to next week’s launch be sure to check out the game’s official page.