Crabmeat is a prime example of a quality indie you’ll never hear about until a famous streamer makes a movie about it. Or, if you’re on this marvellous website. I had never heard about the game published by Searching Interactive until it came through in an email. Would I like to spend some time out at sea in a point and click environment, hauling crabs (the edible kind), whilst trying to survive? You had me at ‘point’.
However, ‘tis not a typical point and click of rubber chickens with a pulley in it, nor are you searching for hotspots on what to interact with. Tell a lie. A little. Crabmeat is a survival horror that takes place in the Antarctic, where you’re expected to haul a large quota of King Crabs in just seven days. Fail to do so, and you’re gonna be kicked out of the country, and your kids will pick up the bill. Not too much pressure then.
After a sinister intro from your employer (read: captor), who even has their face blurred out – in person! – you awake on a beat-up trawler, alone, and tasked with sourcing the local fisheries for crabs. Big ones. A map will depict a few key areas to cast your crates. You reel them in, sort out those you’re required to keep and return the rest, including fish, back to the icy waters. Easy. If only.
As you’ll experience in the very first few minutes of Crabmeat, there’s a lot of maintenance required on this old rust bucket. Picking up a blowtorch will allow you to repair gear by burning off parasites and clunky rust patches. It looks quite weird and bizarre how equipment immediately rusts, but it works. This isn’t a one-off, however, as the machinery will continue to break down through usage and… outside parties, plus you can cause damage with shoddy navigation.
But first of all, how do you move about? Remember that this is a point and click. It’s also from a first-person experience. With that all in mind, there’s no WASD involved as everything is controlled via the mouse. This doesn’t work well on the Steam Deck. After some trial and error, it becomes a bit more practical with a mouse when there isn’t so much urgency. Think of it like a VR-type game where you click the floor and move forward, free to look around with the mouse.
The first hurdle was expectations. Yes, you need to meet the quota – that makes sense. How do you do it? There are various pieces of equipment you need to interact with in a methodical manner. This includes filling up the crates with bait, loading them onto the winches and then dropping them into the sea. Awkwardly, you then have to turn the ship back around as the winch hook you’re about to use is on the other side. After firing a harpoon at the crates, you winch them back in, then sift through the livestock by separating the King Crabs you need and dropping everything else back. No wastage.
Initially, this is a little clunky, but before you know it, it becomes second nature, and then you feel like you’re playing one of those PowerWash Simulator types. Why is this so relaxing and hypnotic? Then, after burning out the engine with too much throttle and afterburner, there’s some tapping going on and smoke bellowing out of the winch. Hop on deck, and there’s a big-bastard crab destroying everything on your boat, and despite feeling you can talk it down with your rizz, it’s going to attack you, so best whack it with an axe. Alas, these kills don’t add to your quota.
There’s far more stuff going on in this game than you might think. We have the simulation aspects of running a beat-up trawler, the maintenance and mild urgency of fixing gear on the fly, FPS elements with melee combat and shotgun blasting (though incredibly limited), and an ominous series of breadcrumbs that allude to something… not quite right. Crabmeat is promoted as a short game, but it needn’t be. While this isn’t Fishing: North Atlantic, it’s a repetitive (positive) simulation experience that keeps you on your toes by keeping the crabs at bay. Again, the edible ones, not Sunday morning visitors after a night of clubbing.
Crabmeat is Paratopic meets Dredge meets Overcooked. That’s great company, and this tidy little indie keeps up the pace. Though there are some aspects that are not so user-friendly, such as how to play – despite having a manual and prompts – and the occasional frustration with the controls. I enjoyed the experience and, pending you can stomach the waves, salty air and ‘they don’t make ‘em as they used to’ bits of equipment that repeatedly need a bash, I’d encourage you to try it out (there’s a demo as of writing).
