Attack of the Mutaydid Meat Monsters

by Duncan Bowsman profile

Sci-fi, Horror, Comedy
2009

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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Bad taste, July 29, 2012
by Victor Gijsbers (The Netherlands)

Some games present us with a serious issue, but refuse to deal with it in a serious manner: for instance, The People's Glorious Revolutionary Text Adventure Game treats communism and capitalism as jokes. This is kind of okay. But some games present us with a serious issue, seem to engage it with it in a serious manners, but then turn everything into a cheap joke at the very last moment. This is problematic. The game trivialises the issue and breaks its contract with the player at the same time.

Now one could argue that the title of this game should have given me enough warning that it would not be serious. But Bowsman actually presents us with a set of powerful images and ideas, and a slowly rising tension as we contemplate the horrors of meat --

You shudder, knowing as only you may that all butchery hides under the shadow of anthropophagy.

-- and one's expectations change. Attack of the Mutaydid Meat Monsters starts to look as a profound meditation disguised as a cheap joke. And then, at the final moment, it turns out to be in fact just a cheap joke, which is disappointing and in somewhat bad taste.

(Until one starts thinking about the fact that every year, nine billion animals are slaughtered in the U.S.A. alone, at which point "somewhat bad taste" turns into "very bad taste". One might want to continuously chant the nonsense word "Mutaydid" to avoid this thought, because, well, if seen as nonsense, the game is a lot more palatable. The author undoubtedly saw it that way, and you will enjoy it more if you do as well.)

Although I generally like the works of this author, this is one game I cannot recommend.

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