Meet Your Maker is a self-described first person shooter video game that fails to surmount or even meet any actual fun gameplay. At times, the idea of meeting my own maker seemed to be the better option as I laid my eyes upon the colossal structure that a random player had generated. With several attempts under my belt, I knew the ins and the outs of this 4,500 capacity fortress filled with several traps and endless corridors lacking any sort of substance. Ultimately, those painstaking corridors would always lead me to the creator’s magnum opus which was essentially a giant room occupied by a dozen traps and 17 npcs.
As a level 10, I was equipped with a reasonable amount of gear yet it would never lead to success when attempting to tackle this specific arena. In Meet Your Maker, it only requires one hit to kill you. With heatseeking projectiles and random npc behavior that will knock your socks off totally on accident, the odds seemed heavily stacked against me. I invested my time, character’s blood sweat and arrows into attempting to defeat this room. Each time I would get closer and closer, inching my way ever so close to the “genmat” found at the end of this nightmare. With a crossbow wielding only three bolts, I would painstakingly dismantle on or two traps before retreating. The specific guard type with explosive always managed to bounce the explosive directly into the room I was in, with it actually reaching down the hallway.
Equipped with an item that could resurrect me once and several grenades, I finally defeated this ever so cumbersome room. I felt no joy from it as lower the left side of my screen read out the experience I gained from defeating the room. My attempts were running in the 20s now I was only receiving 1 experience point at a time. Neverminded, I thought to myself as I relished in the success I had found. I carefully made my way to the end of this horrific maze, only a few more traps stood in my way. Once I dismantled those, I reached for the genmat. An experienced player knows that traps will spawn once you reach the genmat. I quickly reacted to the spike trap under my feet and the long range arrow trap to my left. I took a step and let out a sigh of relief.
Above me stood a grey cube that might signify a cube that turns into a trap when a player approaches it. I predicted this and stared closely at the grey mass, it did not change. I took another step forward and it evaporated into thin air, revealing an explosive trap that releases a half dozen explosives into the area. To my dismay, I found myself back at the start of the fortress. Battered and broken, I contemplated whether this game was really worth it to play.
The gameplay loop was not all that exciting and I felt a headache developing after having to look up and down to check for traps. I had given that outpost my all and I was ready to move on. I exited to the operating base and unfortunately for me, I needed to complete that outpost if I wanted to reap the extra rewards that I had been tirelessly working towards. Foolishly, I loaded back into the outpost and there I was, on the outskirts of the deathtrap that this random individual designed. I made one last attempt. This was a careful attempt, not a carefree version that I had tried before. I reached a similar spot on the map and could not take having to look at the inner walls of that outpost any longer.
This is my biggest gripe with Meet Your Maker. I could not attempt another level of similar difficulty in hopes of earning my additional rewards. I had killed over 50 npcs in this run and amassed dozens of trap kills. All of this work lead to absolutely nothing. I could not move on and do something else within the game after investing time and effort into completing this specific outpost. I simply stopped playing the game.
Upon starting the download of Meet Your Maker, I knew that my favorite part of the game would be building outposts. Sadly, this is locked deep behind a progression system that lacks any excitement. You make several runs to level up your squad and eventually PRESS THE BUTTON. It all leads to pushing the button. The sacred button that empowers the chimera. I was beyond tired of raiding at that point and would have loved to build another outpost or simply edit my own but I lacked the currency to prestige my own outposts. This left me with nothing to do in the game other than go play something else.
I am sad to make this realization as I do love the intriguing premise of the game. The idea that you can earn some sort of reward by building an outpost so incredible that no one can complete it. The map editor works somewhat well on the Xbox platform and I don’t have any complaints in regards to that part of the game. That is other than the placements of the genmat itself which lack creativity. Imagine investing time into earning enough currency to unlock a new outpost. You make your way to the mainframe computer and purchase the schematics. Upon opening the outpost for the first time, you are met with a barebones area with a genmat location about 100 steps ahead of you. The position of the genmat is randomly generated and you can be often stuck with a position that is not in the lower depths of the map or in the higher quadrant of the sky. Instead, it is at the same level of your character as you spawn. This removes a lot of the creativity that goes into editing an outpost in Meet Your Maker.
Another outpost that I purchased actually featured a genmat location that was up in the air. This inspired me to create a sprawling complex that lead off into different directions until they met their match high above the ground.
In order to unlock new traps and goons for your outpost, you’ll need to spend the very same currency that you are forced to use in order to unlock new outposts and prestige your current ones. This creates in obvious point of contention for the player as you had to carefully choose what the invest the currency in. Annoying enough, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for me to invest points into new traps or guards when I cannot even use my current outposts as they have expired.
The lack of creativity in user generated maps bogs down the experience as I come across situations similar to what I’ve described above. Instead of a varied experience I am met with a similar feeling and scenario that I’ve witnessed dozens of times in my short run with Meet Your Maker. Ultimately, map designers are attempting to do three things:
- Force you to lose your arrows
- Catch you off-guard with two traps in the same place
- Overwhelm you with armored npcs
Often times the best tactic is slowly move through the labyrinth of an outpost at a speed only challenged by the mighty tortoise. This leads to the player ducking and dodging around corner, waiting for the corners of the screen to turn red to signify that danger is nearby. Moving forward towards a trap before quickly moving back is a surefire way to locate most of the traps. This leads to a tiresome experience, one that is only made exponentially worse when you have to start over.
The many corridors of Meet Your Maker have potential but it depends heavily on the user generated content. After investing a few minutes on the Reddit thread for the game I soon learned that some players even block outpost builders that create “killroom” outposts. This is detrimental to the community and the overall experience. Players should not be having to do this in order to enjoy the game.
I have yet to earn all of the upgrades that a player can invest in and I’m not sure it would be worth it to do so, both in playtime and my own personal time. I do have a small sliver of hope that these upgrades will alleviate some of the pain I endure while attempting to enjoy the game. Sadly, I don’t see myself playing Meet Your Maker long-term as I am quickly losing interest in the raiding aspect. The game is incredibly intriguing and wields a unique concept. If I had the ability to skip certain outposts, even at a certain cost, I would be more open to playing the game more. I simply cannot fathom having to log into Meet Your Maker just to have the same two outposts appear.
If you’ve made it thus far and are still interested in learning more about the game, below I will include some basic features of the game.
The Basics:
You’ll find two core experiences in Meet Your Maker, Raiding and outpost building. You raid other user-generated outposts to gather resources. After conquering enough outposts you’ll perform the most important action of the game, PRESSING THE BUTTON. Pushing the button evolves the Chimera, earning you currency along the way. With each push of the button you earn a quip from the Chimera and move on to repeat the process or move onto something else.
Once you’ve acquired enough currency, you can either invest it in upgrading your traps, guards for your outposts, your own suit, or your weapons. You will quickly earn a hefty amount of the first two currencies through the Chimera, allowing you to do most of what you want. Synthite will be the currency you are in search of, forever. Synthite allows you to do the most important actions in Meet Your Maker.
Platforms
- Steam
- Xbox One
- Xbox Series X and S
- PS4
- PS5
Geoff W - A Space To Myself 