In its heyday Mythbusters was a show that captured the hearts and minds of many a nerd like myself. Heck even people who weren’t into the geeky science stuff found it fascinating because the hosts made it all look so damn cool! So recently the folks over at Byte Barrel and Movie Games S.A. set out to make a game inspired by that much beloved franchise, and Mythbusters: The First Experiment is the result. Well a prologue (demo) of the result. So we dove in to see just what is in store for us in the full game.
The graphics for this game are a definite draw. They are well done with plenty of crisp realism and a definite spark of inspiration from what you could expect to see when Jamie and Adam were puttering around their workshop. Unfortunately though that’s about where the tie into the show ends. Sure you have to go through the steps and phases to assemble an experiment but it was not the wacky myth busting experience I had been expecting. Really the game is more of a building simulator with the idea of running a tv show about experiments in the background. You have to choose an experiment to work on, go through a few minigames to draw the blueprints, collect the materials needed and then cut, hammer, and assemble the materials before you leave for the test site. You even have to put together the circular saw itself to be able to cut the wood pieces…what?
After you fumble your way around with a whole mess of awkward building you then have to travel to the test site to perform your experiment. That means more awkward building and assembling which usually ends with you anticlimactically pushing a button and calling it a day. Your experiment will be called plausible or not and you can retry if you want or dump everything into the trash. Then you have to go back to the studio to actually make the video using the event cards you gathered in such a way as to gain as many viewers as possible to fund your next experiment. Honestly, condensed like this it sounds like a fun idea, but the execution in reality just felt bland and overcomplicated. After completing two experiments, the whole Mythbusters name being on the cover feels like a way to draw attention to a game that would otherwise probably be overlooked. Not cool in my opinion.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with the game other than maybe some cumbersome camera angles and a slow walk speed. I don’t particularly find myself excited for the full release or even encouraged to recommend it. If you’re going to tout the name Mythbusters there better be some wacky science related shenanigans involved. To which this game delivered exactly none of. If you’re into using your mouse to hammer nails or deciphering an alphabet’s worth of button prompts then perhaps you will find this game entertaining but for me it’s a hard pass. The demo is free so you can give it a try for yourself at no cost.
You can find the free Prologue episode on Steam right now. The full game is set to release on June 8 of this year (2022).
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