Eat The Rich! Review (PC)

I am not a small cog on a big wheel; I am the wheel, and I’ll deface anyone who dares tell me otherwise. Or at least, that’s the threat that I want to convey—that I am the rightful heir to the 1% club. In reality, though, I don’t have four pennies to rub together. At the final hurdle, in fact, I don’t have enough to fund any last-minute wild cards, much less the assets to steer me from bankruptcy. But I won’t tell them that. In Eat The Rich, deception is everything, and pulling the wool over the eyes of the billionaires who’ve since fallen from grace is the only way to secure a fortune. It’s just a shame that said fortune is in the hands of a ravenously sadistic collective.

Eat The Rich isn’t just about finding wealth in weirdly hostile places; it’s about deceiving those who dare to tread on your feet whilst you belittle, cheat, and steal your way to the apex of capitalism. With a treasure trove of carnival-esque mini-games to chomp through and a myriad of methods to extract funds from your entrepreneurial foes, the objective is simple, if not one that carries a lot of baggage, both financial and physical.

The goal, in short, is to compete against a group of aspiring one percenters over a series of short but brutally fast-paced mini-games; collect pennies by either playing dirty or staying the course; and then lie, cheat, and formulate a good strategy to harbor the most cash before the final round without letting your wealth slip through the cracks of your deceptive mind. Simply put, the player who unveils the most pennies at the end of the “big reveal” takes the crown, and with that, the obnoxious title of “pompous *******.”

”If I Were a Rich Man”

It goes like this: ten billionaires have ultimately won the battle of capitalist ideologies, but at the expense of pushing the remaining 99% of the world’s poorer folk into a trying time of economic collapse. To remediate this problem, and of course, to imitate a form of payback, the population has decided to pit the rich folk against one another over a series of anarchic mini-games. And if you haven’t guessed it yet, that’s where you come into the picture. Oh, Eat The Rich isn’t about scheming to squeeze the morally bankrupt of all their funds; it’s about filling the boots of the elite and tactically manipulating your opponents in an effort to be the richest person standing come curtain call.

To state the obvious, Eat The Rich isn’t a “friendly” game, so to speak; on the contrary, it’s a game that influences bad habits and deceptive tactics. But that’s where half of the fun comes into the equation—in the act of forging brief alliances and stepping on other people’s toes to gain the upper hand. And there’s also a level of tension in the process of it all, too, mainly in the latter halves of the rounds where you have to stake your bet on the player who might have the most cash in their back pocket. Honestly, I loved a lot of that. It wasn’t always glamorous, and it often ended in a lot of nonsensical situations and poor judgment. But you know what? The whole experience was a barrel of laughs, and that’s what I’m taking away from this.

Money Can Buy Happiness

If Eat The Rich was just about engaging in short mini-games then there probably wouldn’t be much to talk about. And yet, as it turns out, there is more. See, after each bout that you subject yourself to in Eat The Rich, players can utilize their accrued funds to splurge on various power-ups and other useful benefits. And that brings a strategical twist to the battle, given that the ultimate goal is to amass wealth and keep it veiled until the final quarter. But again, it’s a great addition, and it certainly adds suspense to the situation.

There’s a well-oiled mixture of brawling and social deception to the madness that is Eat The Rich’s pandemonium, with one half consisting of players effectively weaponizing the environment to duke it out and steal other billionaire’s profits, and the other half revolving around guess work and manipulating other players to help sway the tide and cull the herd, so to speak. With that, you also have short bursts of chaotic roleplaying segments there to fill in the blanks, with mini-games that range from Tax Evasion to Crypto Miners, along with a series of fisticuff shenanigans fleshing out a sizable and endlessly addictive saga.

Thankfully, there are several little things that make Eat The Rich pop, too. From its dazzlingly vibrant art style to its in-game billionaire creation suite, the game not only plays well, but also looks fantastic. And that counts for a great deal; it not only elevates the appeal, but it also makes certain intricacies stand out just that tiny bit more.

Verdict

Eat The Rich bags and tags a stupendously chaotic and dangerously addictive party-based game that will no doubt keep fledgling entrepreneurial spirits feeding out of the hand of candid billionaires for hours on end. With thanks to its wealth of stupidly barbaric and entertaining mini-games and beat ‘em up shenanigans, it immediately becomes an absolute delight to watch unfold. It isn’t always pretty, and a lot of egos certainly get thrown around like tangerines in a food fight. But it’s the messiness—the constant urge to claim rewards and seek an upper hand by any means necessary—that brings it all together to create a ridiculously enjoyable battle that feels both thrilling and weirdly satisfying for all the wrong reasons.

I can’t help but feel that I’m in an easy position here, truly. I’m in an easy position because of how many positives Eat The Rich brings in lieu of the negatives. Suffice it to say, then, that if you are desperate to dig your claws into a fresh-out-of-the-box multiplayer game that brings all of the frills and financial benefits of a rigorously competitive tournament, then you would be right to latch onto Eat The Rich the next time you’re feeling the urge to splurge.