Multiplayer food fight RAWMEN coming to the Epic Game Store
4.27.2022
By Craig Pearson
The eight-player arena shooter is a tasting menu of food-inspired games modes and weapons, where you’re sliding around the levels on an endless supply of broth while throwing dumpling bombs at your “hangry” enemies. Developer Animal is embracing the theme like a hungry man at a buffet. RAWMEN is piled high with recognizable game modes but with a foodie twist. Take Claim Chowder: it’s an area defense mode where your team must keep the other team from taking over the area, which in this case is a giant pot of chowder. Their version of King of the Hill, Top RAWMEN, uses doughnut bombs to launch up and over the obstacles to grab golden bullion cubes.
Team Meatball lets players inhabit a giant meatball, rolling around the level like a Katamari, while the other team tries to take control of it. You score by guiding the meat into the “meatball extraction device.” Even their take on a tournament mode has its special sauce: come the end of the round, the winning team has to decide whether to split the winning between everyone or fight it in a winner-takes-all mini-match. It seems inevitable that most players won’t want to split that particular bill. The small teams and plentiful modes make RAWMEN feel like a quick lunch instead of an endless dinner party. It should be easy to pick and play, but with a chaotic party atmosphere that means anything could happen. Skill with a skillet is good, but, like in Mario Kart, your top chef could be undone by another player’s heat seeking matzo-ball on a fork. Or you could be blocked off by a perfectly plonked cracker wall. 
Out of the battle, there’s a complete customization menu from which you can select. The developers promise that your player will look unique; from high fashion to completely bizarre, you’ll be let loose to design the perfect dinner outfit. You might end up dripping in cream, but you’ll look good at the start of the match. RAWMEN is available to wishlist on the Epic Games Store, and an open beta will be coming Summer 2022.