What do you get when you add the charm of Risk of Rain, Helldiver-like drop pods, and a little old-school Painkiller-esque movement, and mix it all up? You get Mycopunk, a fun, addictive action shooter by Pigeons at Play.
It’s a smashing game, especially for a debut. It’s also published by Devolver Digital, a team I have a fair amount of respect for. They seem to have a knack for finding fun indie games and helping them flourish.
So, what is Mycopunk, and should you bother playing this game? Let’s get into it.
What to Expect From Mycopunk
Mycopunk is a co-op action shooter at its core. You can play solo, but even with two players, the difficulty ramps up fast as you move through the levels. To get all the way to six, the current most difficult missions, you’ll need a competent team of four.
The premise is very simple. Choose one of four classes to play, choose your guns and grenades, and choose a mission and difficulty level. Then hope in and kill some of the weirdest enemies you’ll ever see.
They’re basically just spheres with legs. Shoot a leg off, and the sphere will do all it can to slowly jiggle towards you. It’s pretty funny to watch. Less funny when you forget about the injured ones behind you as you take on bigger enemies, only to get slashed in the back.
You also get some massive enemies with beam weapons, laser machine guns, and so much more. And when you crank up the difficulty, those big enemies really, really hurt.
Thankfully, you can mostly ignore the biggest enemies and focus on your objectives. Get in, get done, and call that drop pod before the big guy catches up to you. It happens pretty fast, so stay on your guard.
You’ll earn various resources, level up your classes and weapons, and then be able to upgrade your setup with different earned upgrades – once you have the resources to unlock them.
It’s a rewarding experience where the grind pays off pretty quickly, and you and your friends will quickly find yourselves pushing the limits of what you’re capable of.
And that’s about all there is to Mycopunk. Perhaps it’s a little mindless, but as long as a game’s fun we’ve never worried too much about depth, right?
There’s a touch of goofiness to Mycopunk, but it’s by no means a casual game. You’ll find plenty of challenge along with laughs when playing with friends. It also features one of the most unique revives I’ve seen in gaming, where you have to reassemble your friends when they die.
There are a few bugs, which the developers are already trying to iron out, but we haven’t come across anything too serious just yet. The worst that’s happened to me is, when a friend called the drop pod, it stayed invisible to me, and I didn’t have the correct timer on my screen.
Thankfully, jumping up to where he was hovering in mid-air somehow transported me into the drop pod, and we were able to get out of there. I’ve heard of a few more quirks, but overall it seems like a pretty polished game for an Early Access release.
Can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
Another Indie Smash Hit?
We’ve had a mind-blowing number of smash hit indie releases of late, with the likes of Schedule 1, PEAK, and R.E.P.O. Mycopunk falls roughly into this emerging category of games, which some have dubbed “Streamer Slop.”
Call it what you want, but getting so many fun games releasing so close to one another is doing the gaming industry a fair amount of good, if you ask me.
So, will Mycopunk follow this recent trend and become another smash hit? Honestly, I think it has that sort of potential. It’s likely to be a pretty sticky game for a while as well, as the quick missions and endless replayability will keep players around for a while.
- Great replayability
- Charming art style
- Satisfying progression system
- Can be buggy at times
- Grinding can become a little tiresome
- Lacks depth for the story lovers out there
Published: Jul 10, 2025 12:00 pm