King of Meat Preview: A Hack 'n' Slash Party Brawler With Plenty To Keep You Entertained

When I was invited to check out Amazon Games’ latest title, I had literally no idea what I was signing up for. No clues, no genre — not even a name. Even as I arrived at the preview venue, located under a train arch in East London, the morning session of journalists was piling out from behind a curtain having just completed the hands-on. They let nothing slip on what the game was about, only that they had enjoyed it very much. With my session about to begin, I passed through the mysterious curtain to get an early glimpse at Amazon Games’ and Glowmade’s King of Meat. 

Let The Games Begin!

King of Meat is a one to four player co-op game that has players hacking and slashing their way through a series of dungeon courses as part of an in-game survival entertainment show. In the game’s world of Loregok, “King of Meat” is where competitors fight through challenges to emerge as a victor and win over the hearts of the audience. Their entertainment is key as the more you impress them during the course, through performing combos or using the environment to defeat enemies, the higher your score multiplier climbs. We sat down at the desks, three journalists and a member of the dev team, for a guided tour of what King of Meat had to offer. 

We started off in Ironlaw Plaza, which acts as the game’s physical lobby. If you’re in a party, you’ll be able to explore the space together, as well as see other players running around and souping up their equipment. Aside from a meeting space, Ironlaw Plaza is also where you’ll meet the game’s NPCs, who manage the in-game stores. From them you’ll be able to upgrade your equipment, cash in any rewards, and even buy a few “performance-enhancing” perks that’ll serve you on your next dungeon run. Perks such as increasing your damage output when you drop below a certain health, for example. These are single-use, and cost some of your resources, so you’ll want to use them tactically. The Plaza is also where one of the most important aspects of the game takes place — customization. You can alter everything from your head down to your shoes, the appearance of your weapons, as well as your in-game title and the banner that shows up when queuing for a match. I opted for the head of an eagle, a casual hoodie, and some sharp trainers. I was ready to enter into my first dungeon, having chosen to compete with the moniker “Big Unit.” A name chosen through the game’s title generator. 

Our helpful dev guide took us to the glowing entrance of Komstruct Koliseum, located to the north of the Plaza, where we would try our hands at our first dungeon. As we queued up, we were given a choice between a few of the available maps for which dungeon we’d like to face. Each one posed their own challenges, gimmicks, and score thresholds. For example, there’s a course that utilizes bombs that you’ll need to throw (and avoid) at various enemies and environments. 

Are You Not Entertained?

A core part of King of Meat is the combat, as aside from platforming, players will be hacking and slashing their way through hordes of enemies in order to complete the level. Players will be utilizing basic, ranged, and AoE attacks, as well as Glory Moves which are high-impact (and often bizarre) ways to clear a cluster of ne’er do wells. One Glory Move has a giant donkey hoof materialize from the sky and stamp down on anything caught beneath it, including your friends.

Players will need to be brutalizing skeletons and trolls and anything in between in order to build a high score and keep the audience entertained. It can be a little tricky to get that multiplier up, especially when you’ve got all four players gunning for the same enemies. But a quick, friendly shove sorts out that issue somewhat. Perhaps I’m more toxic than I realize, but I was hoping that King of Meat would have a few more ways to mess with your fellow teammates. The slight shove is fine, as is the belching Glory Move that knocks everyone back a few steps, but the option to grab or throw friendlies and opponents alike could add to the hilarity. It’s clear that the game’s tone doesn’t take itself too seriously, and encourages players to laugh along with it. It wouldn’t go amiss, then, to allow players to cause more mischief — for the audience, of course. It’s all about the entertainment factor. 

Love What You've Done With the Place

In our preview, most of the courses we took on were all made by Glowmade themselves as official dungeons. However, King of Meat also features a dungeon creator, where players can design and publish their own dungeons for competitors to take on. What’s interesting about this dungeon creator tool is that all of the official courses have been built using it, too. Everything you see can be built by you as a player. While we didn’t get to explore the creator tool for ourselves in this preview (granted I’d probably spend the whole session trying to build a dungeon course from hell to slight my colleagues), Glowmade shared a little more light on how custom dungeons work. For one, all user-made courses must be completable before they can be published in order to ensure no-one is trapped in an impossible dungeon nightmare.

The studio-made levels were reasonably paced. They never felt like they dragged on for too long, and similarly were never over too quickly. While in some of the smaller corridors there weren’t quite enough enemies for everyone to get a hit in, but the more arena-like rooms had plenty to go around. For the most part, the on-screen chaos is fairly legible, though it becomes a little disorientating when everyone begins firing off their Glory Moves and chucking bombs in your direction. Granted, this is certainly part of the fun, but if you’re chasing those leaderboard scores it can be a little tricky to get the most out of each run with a full team. 

From my short preview of King of Meat, it’s clear just how focused this game is on co-operative multiplayer. While it’s possible to play solo, there’s so much more to love when playing with a group of pals. The dungeon creator certainly feels like it’ll be a huge highlight for the title, and offering up players that level of creativity from the get-go is sure to be a boon. For those of us that will be playing solo from time to time, there still seems to be a lot to gain, be it progression, cosmetics, and overall creativity. 

King of Meat is set to launch across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.