Everything is Crab is an evolutionary survivors-adjacent sandbox that challenges players to develop a character from Indistinct Blob to…well the possibilities are kinda off the charts. In one run I was a tentacled elder god receiving bounty from my servants, in one run I was a bipedal elephant with a trunk the size of Lancashire, and in yet another I was a sneaky mouse-like shrew thing that scavenged like it was day 10 of a Rust server.
Every run begins with a humble blob only able to do a pathetic dash, a pitiable punch and a sort of lurching, slimy movement. After beating up blobfish and fighting flying dogs you can choose your first evolution. These range from new physical appendages like wings, arms, legs, antennae and shells to more generic changes like thicker skin, types of fur and behavioural quirks.
An almost overwhelming amount of choice
The range is impressive, even before unlocking many new parts through any sort of meta-progression. Unlike indie darling Vampire Survivors, stats and attributes overlap and intersect in a multitude of ways. Everything is Crab doesn’t want you to sit back and AFK a run, it requires planning, strategy and improvisation at every turn. Choosing certain evolutionary paths will make others harder, or straight-up impossible, in that run which makes crafting your perfect Weird Little Goober™ a large part of the gameplay in itself.
In my earliest runs I struggled to get my head around what strategies would ever work, as bosses handed my blobby behind to me a few times in a row. Once you grapple with balancing stat dumps and evolutionary upgrades you begin to see the game actually resembles Streets of Rogue more than it does a “traditional” survivors-like.
A survivors game with a living world and diverse creature AI
As fun and engaging as survivors games are, the enemy AI basically always amounts to “Run up to player, attack” (Or in games relying on contact damage, just “Run up to player”). Everything is Crab dares to innovate an entirely new way to engage with the genre that’s reminiscent of 2D immersive sims.
While you start each run as an unevolved blob, the world you arrive in is filled with other creatures. There’s flying dogs, long ferret scavengers, hatbirbs (actual name) that are quick and unpredictable, and even large roaming capybaras who are cute enough at first glance but will absolutely deck anything that angers them.
These diverse creatures aren’t all strictly “enemies” to you. Some will be unable to be caught and hunted because you’re simply too slow, while others like the ferrets don’t attack directly and instead steal your hard-earned food.
The creatures don’t run these behaviours strictly against the player, though. This is where the Streets of Rogue vibe comes in: Creatures carry out their behaviour irrespective and inclusive of the player. This means you can stumble upon an already angered capybara, you can encounter a ferret who has already stolen a hefty bounty from something else (And mayhaps you can now steal it for yourself…?) and once you arrive, the creatures will react accordingly.
If you’re quick and small some creatures will ignore you, letting you nibble on scraps or sneak in for a clean kill. If you’re large and imposing creatures will either flee for their lives or square up and target you for your masses of delectable fleshy bits. This creates a living, dynamic playspace to explore, sneak through, conquer or flee from at your own behest.
Player choice and gamefeel every single second
Everything is Crab is a victory in diversifying the survivors-like genre, and it does so by prioritising player agency. Not only are you making run-changing choices routinely through every 20-minute session, but how you control the creature you build matters too.
Maxing out my Social and having 12 charmed creatures, many of whom were ferrets, while my main mouthpiece was a leech maw and my legs were tentacles turned me into an eldritch horror. I’d sit in the middle of an area and allow my charmed ferrets to scavenge, then they’d return the goods to me and, if I was injured, I’d give them a little leech nibble to heal up. I really was an elder god.
This diversity extends beyond just levelling and surviving, it affects boss fights too. Bosses are the most under-baked part of the game, but still interesting. The main way Everything is Crab stirs the pot for boss encounters is by giving them a timer. You can win by reducing them to zero health and having a right old feast, of course, but you can also evade, regenerate, tank or hide your way through the boss timer and they’ll simply give up.
Distracting a boss with an army of charmed creatures, regenerating faster than they damage you, perfect-blocking with a turtle shell or simply being unbelievably quick are all valid paths to victory.
If you stayed away from the genre because it seemed too arcadey and based around simple “number go up” stats, then Everything is Crab might be the perfect time to jump in. It has diverse enemy types with their own behaviours, a living world that cares (Or doesn’t) about the player and run-changing upgrades that completely alter the look of your character as you go. It got 150k sales in its first two days for a reason.
Everything is Crab is available now on Steam
