RAWMEN: Food Fighter Arena Review (PC)

Put on your oven gloves and pick out your best ladle — it’s time to hit the ground running and rustle up some good old-fashioned meatball marinade with the blood of your culinary friends. That’s right, folks, RAWMEN has just this moment launched on PC as a brand-new PvP battle arena campaign, and it’s giving off, I don’t know, Splatoon meets Party Animals sort of vibes. The only major difference between those two factions and this, of course, is the theme: a kitchen sandbox, of all things, one in which you, the foodie with a natural grudge against celery sticks and other aspiring chefs, must wage war against each other’s cuisines and thrash it out for a spot on the menu.

RAWMEN is more or less your common PvP battle arena-type game; it sports a lot of the same mechanics and high-octane elements as a bog-standard shooter. Its blatant love of food cast aside, the game centers itself around a simple gameplay loop, one that sees you and up to seven other friends duking it out over a series of gluttony-centric encounters with various snacks, melee weapons, and all sorts of projectiles. With all of that in place, RAWMEN essentially lays a foundation for a ravenously simple concept that, while proportionally more gut-loaded than the generic PvP game, sports a hearty amount of quality and variety. And that’s us barely scratching the tip of the iceberg here, believe it or not.

So, is RAWMEN actually worth shoveling into your pockets, or is it one that you should leave for the trash compactor? Let’s talk about it, culinary wizards.

Meatballs & Malice

It goes like this: eight players are dropped into an arena—a fairly large-scale map that comprises a mixture of items, including ramps, launch pads, and other environmental effects—and are then given the single objective of competing against other brawlers. Like countless other iterations that descend from the same genre, the game accommodates a collection of game modes, such as a traditional beat ‘em-up mode, which serves as a basic appetizer for coveted users; Claim Chowder, which tasks teams with defending a pot against other opponents; Meatball, which sees you taking the shape of a—you guessed it—meatball, and attacking other players; and Top RAWMEN, which mostly revolves around the act of deploying donut bombs to obtain award-winning ingredients and other lavish perks.

In addition to the plethora of game modes and PvP antics that the game has stowed away in its menu, RAWMEN also offers a palatable customization suite that allows you to create your own sous chefs from the ground up. Aside from the odd ladle upgrade and a colorful mustache to boot, you can also unlock things like aprons, mitts, and soup pots — all of which are obtainable through simply romping across the vast repertoire of modes and harvesting a treasure trove of post-victory perks and other in-game currencies. So, like I said — a simple yet luxuriously addictive system. The question is, do all of these ingredients formulate a stomach-lining product when poured into the same cauldron?

Food Fight!

I will say this: RAWMEN is an absolute blast to play—to the point of it being so fun, that it makes other stocking fillers of its kind appear almost mediocre and drab. To think, the concept is almost identical to that of so, so many other party brawlers out there. And yet, the simple inclusion of meatballs, ladles, and a whole heap of springboard settings still makes for an excellent addition to the formula. Sure, it’s a little simple-minded and even a bit silly at times, but that doesn’t change the fact that, at least from a gameplay point of view, it’s still a real delight to chomp through — doubly so when you’re strapped to the teeth with a solid collection of perks and are subjected to a full lobby of ravenous eaters whom share the same passion for relentless fighting.

The feature that took me by surprise, really, was the size of the maps, and not to mention the amount of set pieces that each one brought to the table. In addition to each arena boasting a unique selection of elevated platforms and other skate park-like features, a lot of them also brought an interactive touch that could make even the likes of Rocket League quake in its own wok. The only difference between the rocket-centric soccer game and this, of course, is that the oversized ball is, well, a little meatier, and a lot messier. Even still, a lot of the design is vaguely similar; it features a meatball, and a whole bunch of players sloppily nudging it around and into certain target areas. And that’s just the one mode, to be fair — so there’s a lot left to analyze and consume.

Meat Is Back on the Menu, Boys

I’m thankful, in ways, that RAWMEN isn’t in receipt of a significant amount of technical errors or glitches, because honestly, that probably would’ve spoiled an otherwise excellent thread of battles. To say that it’s consistently fluid wouldn’t be entirely true, for it does often thrive in situations that are forever relying on rapid movements and ever-changing conditions to create a smokescreen of sorts. And it’s with that screen in place that, due to the evolving nature of each battle, it isn’t always easy to tell if things should be going a little off the rails, or if they’re practically breaking down and continuing to plod along with their respective scenarios, warts and all. What I mean to say is that, you know, there’s a lot to absorb, and it isn’t always easy to keep track of what’s what, who’s who, and which meatball goes into which pocket.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a huge amount to learn just from serving as the average bystander and watching the antics unfold and the sparks of the ladle fly. Matter of fact, you could, provided that pay close enough attention to the way the world works, master a lot of the techniques and game modes that RAWMEN has to offer in an hour, maybe two. And that’s a great thing; it isn’t a difficult game, nor is it something that requires much more than mindless button mashing and the occasional flick of a trigger. Still, with the sheer volume of things that take shape on the screen, I would quite go as far as to say that it’ll do your senses any favors. But hey — small errors don’t necessarily make a bombshell of a product. There’s just a lot going on, and that might not do it for you.

Verdict

RAWMEN signs, seals, and delivers a meaty product that comes loaded with all of the same nutritious toppings as a traditional squad-based brawler. Again, its modes don’t exactly do a huge amount to reinvent the wheel, and it seems that they don’t quite do enough to make the cheeseboard look any different from the bog-standard blueprint, either. Having said all that, it’s easy to discard its shortcomings and lack of originality thanks to its inclusion of digestible mechanics and addictive combat systems. It’s also thanks to its quirky map designs and well-rounded characters that, while still being no different than the regular brawlers types, there’s still a tremendous amount to explore. And I think I speak for everyone when I say, in spite of everything, the fact that there’s still an incentive for us to chase is enough to keep the fires burning and, in this case, the meatballs soaring.

To cut a long story short — yes, you should definitely consider sporting your own ladle and checking into the world of RAWMEN, if not for its snack-based PvP shenanigans, then for its stomach-quenching combat and wacky set design. Moreover, if you’re looking to scratch that one itch, in particular, or one that has since been left unscathed in the aftermath of, say, Party Animals or Brawlhalla, then there’s a strong possibility that RAWMEN will have what it takes to cement over that gaping hole at the bottom of your stomach. It’s an unusual game, for sure, but one that also has the power to make Foamstars look like a low-calorie drink with little to zero substance. On that note, I’d happily wage war with a pork meatball over a blob of candy-popping foam any day of the week — and that’s saying something. Heck, even the veggies’ll like it.