Bugsnax is the 12th game of the UUGPGC! Finish by July 11, 2022 to join in the discussion! Spoilers open.

EDIT: Spoilers are now open to discuss this game!

PRIOR MESSAGE:

Welcome to the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club. Our 12 game is Bugsnax. The target completion date is July 11, 2022.

We ask that until that date you use the forum software to mark any spoilers, either story based or mechanical, in the discussion below. Ideally the bulk of the discussion will occur after July 11, but if you want to comment before then you are welcome to so long as the spoilers are marked. We ask that if you leave a comment before that date you also come back to the thread after it to read other people’s comments and respond to them, though of course we cannot force you to do so.

All are welcome to participate regardless of whether you have stated a preference to or not and there is absolutely no commitment. You do not have to finish the game to participate but please let us know if you have not.

You can find out more about the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club or suggest future games for it here.

What is Bugsnax?

Bugsnax is a first person adventure game where you explore an island, talk to its inhabitants, and discover its secrets, all while capturing adorable little critters made up of snack foods with funny names like bunger! I personally really like it!

How long is Bugsnax?

How long to beat lists it as 7.5 hours long

Finally, everyone will be talking ‘bout Bugsnax!

I’ll save my longer comments for when spoilers open up, but I will say that my 2 year old daughter loved watching this game, even the ending sequence. She was probably young enough to not understand the body horror involved in this game. There was one thing associated with the late game that did upset her, but I’ll get into that in a couple of weeks (and for those who’ve beaten the game, it’s probably not what you’re thinking).

I'll come back after spoilers open, but I just want to say I was really surprised with how great all the writing and voice acting was in this. Like I knew the cast list was solid, but everyone played their part perfectly. Really really well executed.

Spoilers are now open!

I played this when I first got my PS5 and talked about it then.

I really enjoyed this game (I platinumed it!) and thought it created a fantastic atmosphere with a simple aesthetic style that really worked and some really enjoyable if melancholy and at times body-horror inflected writing. It has a great reputation that I personally think was well earned.

I ended up ranking this game at #5 on my 2020 list, probably because it was a welcome distraction from the rest of November 2020. My wife played through once it came to Game Pass, with me and my 2 year-old watching. I was extremely curious how she (the toddler) would deal with the ending, but she was completely fine with it for the most part. I think the “Bugsnax are parasites” twist is something that flew over her head, so it just looked like all the Snax were just being mean / silly. Kids don’t get enough credit, I thought.

Everything was great until all the Grumpuses fled the island, and Eggabell wasn’t with them. This prompted bawling and commands to go back and get Eggabell. Obviously, we couldn’t do that, so she got progressively more upset. There’s a moment in the slideshow at the end where Lizbert and Eggabell are back in Grumpus form on another island, and while that’s a comfort to her now (I just checked to make sure), it was insufficient at the time. She had another crying episode on the way home from the grocery store a few hours later, which was only sated by drawing Eggabell on her whiteboard when we got home. So while Bugsnax being a malign force of nature is not a problem, the Grumpuses not being in a single group is a big issue to young kids, at least according to my small sample size.

For my part, I really hope there’s a Bugsnax 2, and that the ending wasn’t just a throwaway joke. I have no idea how you follow it up knowing that feeding Snax to people does what it does, at least with the characters in this game.

I enjoyed meeting these characters and uncovering their story. I really didn't care for the gameplay, I did not enjoy figuring out how to catch many of the Bugsnax, so I ended up googling "How to catch X" for a bunch of them -- and didn't catch any more than strictly necessary to help everyone.

I did start the DLC island after finishing the main game, but the interactions with the big bugsnax there seem even more unclear to me there. And as I don't want to google my way through the DLC island, I've given up on that and switched to the next game in my backlog.

I didn't realize that that postcard was supposed to inform me that Eggabell and Lizbert somehow escaped the island, I just thought it was a photo of them in better times. But an interview at IGN confirms that they don't die at the end. Which is good to know I guess, though I wish that was clearer in the in-game ending.

@allthedinos: Well shoot, if the world is terrible, might as well try to tackle it with friends. Lesson checks out. Now if only I could remember where I left my friends... or... hmm..

First experience with this game was with Game Pass. From all of the *wink wink nod nod* conversations "there's more than you think going on!" around the spoilers, I had figured there would be some sort of twist on the nature of Bugsnax coming (I mean, hell, even the initial trailer was a bit like hmm...). Didn't expect it to play out exactly the way it did, but yea.

For all the discussions on the overarching story and even on the character writing (like Jess fangirling over Chandlo in the Big Snax expansion QL), I found them to be good but not genre definingly-so. Not that anyone expected that, but the characters were solidly good (I liked all of them in their own weird ways), the story was suitably engaging, the overall vibe was succinctly fun.

As opposed to Ben's thoughts on the matter [IIRC], I thought the mechanical nature of the puzzle of catching each bugsnax was the draw of the game for me. Finding each one, figuring out how they worked, and working out a solution (then failing, then trying something new) was super fun. I think I had to look up one solution - I was too successful at catching the sundae and didn't realize it even broke up into smaller pieces that I could catch lol.

Would have liked more information on the lore. The Big Snax DLC does fill in some of the gaps re: where some of this started and some of the forces at play behind the scenes. The weird triangle cult area.. The end tease with the newpaper editor being in on the conspiracy is all juicy stuff. But still many unanswered questions.

I did all the achievements, caught every bugsnax in the game and the DLC (though I did tap out at some point on the mailbox quests... those starting getting tedious and they kept replenishing and sapped my will to continue. Overall, really enjoyed my time with it. Not sure if they're planning on doing a sequel. Would be cool if they are. But I also wouldn't mind seeing them move onto something else. I'm a bit bugsnaxed out for a while now haha.

@warpr Oh.. I didn't realize that either.. Interesting. Are they back to their normal selves, free of Bugsnax? Or..

Oh, nice!

Obviously that part didn't work for me, in situations like these I do sometimes wonder if a game is bad or just not for me (the difference isn't always obvious). So, it's interesting to read that it is your favorite part of the game :)