Meet Your Maker is a first-person raid-and-build game created by Behaviour Interactive, where players must navigate player-built bases filled with traps and hazards while constructing a deadly base of their own. Set in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi world and released for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on April 4, 2023, players can enjoy the game solo or team up with friends in 2 player coop.
After sweeping up all the sweet loot from my blood-soaked halls, I looked up in awe at what I had created. A giant death structure, one that even my biggest horror idols could be proud of. And it’s all pretty on par when it comes from a development company known for its iconic horror tie-ins, Behaviour Interactive, makers of the popular Dead by Daylight. After playing the game through the closed and open betas and now the official launch, I can confidently state that Meet Your Maker is a fun new game in a genre of its own.
A Basic, But Fun Gameplay Loop
In Meet Your Maker, players assume the role of a Custodian, an apt name as you sweep up the loot from the ravaged corpses that fall victim to your mechanized death traps. It’s all in service to the Chimera, a grotesque-looking creature and living experiment meant to save life on Earth. To evolve your Chimera, players need to collect Genetic Material or GenMat, which can be extracted from other players’ bases.
I’m not sure if the gameplay loop lends itself to the story or if it was the other way around, but generally, the idea is pretty simple. Raid other player-made bases and grab the GenMat, upgrade your Chimera and equipment, and build your own base to kill other players.
Like other Behaviour titles, the game excels at being fun. As the Custodian, movement feels snappy and responsive — you can double jump, use a grappling hook, and nothing really feels restrictive or clunky. Attacks can kill you in one hit, so having freedom of movement and good mechanics is key for a game like this. Each level you explore never feels too long, and if something is frustrating, you can always quit and try an easier level.
As a builder, you’ll lay down different traps to mislead and trick other Custodians looking to loot the GenMat from your base. You can be super creative and create an elaborate labyrinth-like maze or construct a short but sweet high-intensity death trap. Really, the choice is left to the player.
Cronenberg Meets Dune
Meet Your Maker has a pretty cool aesthetic, especially if you are into body horror and science fiction. The Chimera is pretty disgusting and looks more like a failed experiment from the lab of Seth Brundle from The Fly than something that can save Earth.
Body horror blends with mechanized sci-fi , creating a unique dynamic between organic and machine elements that’s reminiscent of Tetsuo or Akira, but that manages to maintain its own style.
Killing enemies feels pleasing, and the game doesn’t skimp on gore as each hit is accompanied by blood effects, and shots have a feeling of impact, even if the enemies sometimes feel like mindless meat bags.
The Custodians themselves look more like bounty hunters from Blade Runner or Star Wars set in the deserts of Tatooine. Eastern and Central/South American culture influences the flowing style of apparel and makes for a pretty unique-looking protagonist that the player can get behind, even if you won’t be looking at your own player model often.
All of this comes together and helps set the setting and narrative of Meet Your Maker and makes up for aspects the story may lack. Rather than relying on narrative to help immerse the player, Meet Your Maker does it by how things look and feel.
Punishment that Feels Good
I’m not typically a sadist, but for this game, I’ll make an exception. As I said, you’ll die in a single hit or two (if you’re lucky), which feels appropriate. Since you’re on both sides of the aisle here, these punishing damage and death mechanics also apply to the players that take on your levels. Since traps die in one hit, it makes sense for the player to die, too.
If the movement felt more clunky, then maybe I could complain, but because you can pull off some pretty amazing aerial acrobatics all while swinging a giant machete, there’s a lack of excuses unless you’re on a poor internet connection.
The only place this goes wrong, however, is when you encounter bases that are quite literally impossible to beat. It’s not a case of “get gud, kid,” it’s a case of players using traps and blocks in ways the developers didn’t intend, making an inescapable death trap.
Whether the problem actually is a problem depends on whether the developers consistently patch around exploits and bases that aren’t fun to play. With a game that gives players the freedom to do almost whatever they want in build mode, it creates a scenario that’s rife for exploitation, so I suspect it will probably be a balancing act the creators will have to pull off as long as they keep releasing new traps and minions.
Are You a Builder or Raider?
One of the great things about Meet Your Maker is that it gives players a choice between Raiding and Building. While you’ll need to do both to progress through the story and afford upgrades and new traps, you can really spend most of your time doing one or the other.
I enjoyed building bases far more than raiding them. The replay mechanic makes watching other players attempt to outsmart your traps, then tweaking your base to combat it, a blast.
Seeing someone die to multiple mind traps but eventually coming out triumphant made me feel like I did my job, and the post-level rating system helped reaffirm my base-building confidence.
The only thing that bugged me on this front was the pathing for the harvester robot, which needs a clear path to reach your GenMat for your level to be valid. This pathing can sometimes get cut off and is hard to reconnect, restricting the size or shape of the base you want to build. Maybe it’s just me, but it led to me deleting and replacing a lot of blocks and wasting a lot of time.
More Content Will Improve the Title’s Longevity
The only complaint I have about Meet Your Maker is the lack of content. Currently, there are only a few choices of weapons, a couple of player models, and around 9 traps. The developers have already stated they will add a bunch of new content, which is great, but the game’s ultimate longevity will come down to the pacing and scope of those content releases. With a pretty straightforward gameplay premise, the devil is in the details.
That’s not to say Meet Your Maker isn’t fun enough to come back to after a major update, but if Behaviour wants to maintain a consistent player base, it will have to add more content and variety to the game. I’m not a game developer, so I’m not exactly sure what that content needs to be, but it should be something that adds even more community interactions and incentives for players to keep coming back for more.
Final Verdict
Meet Your Maker is a fun, addictive new experience, unlike any game you’ve ever played before. While the gameplay loop boasts a fairly simple premise, the deepness of the game goes as far as the player’s imagination. Snappy and responsive movement and a creepy dystopian backdrop lend themselves well to this unique, satisfying title.
Meet Your Maker Review
Great
Meet Your Maker is a unique new game with a fun gameplay loop, an interesting story & setting, and is a great value for the number of hours you can sink into it. If you can’t get into the core gameplay loop of Raid-Build-Raid, the game may not be for you, but if you enjoy those types of mechanics from other games, you will enjoy Meet Your Maker.
Meet Your Maker is available on Steam.
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PC Review Copy provided.
