To fight bugs, Stonefly demands you become a giant robot bug

I love mechs. But I also love a good bug. Thankfully, with Stonefly, I don't have to choose between the two, with a first look at Flight School Studio's chill action-adventure showing off some delightfully insectoid robots to kick about in.

Something wonderfully catastrophic must've happened while I wasn't looking, because humanity's been shrunk to the size of ants. To get around this, folks get around in bug-like mechs. As one of these pilots, you'll be cobbling together your own machine to hunt down your dad's lost mech—reworking and rebuilding your robot to suit whatever challenge faces you.

I do adore these robotic battlemechs, too. It's such a delightful approach to killer robots, creating mechanical multilegged beasties that skitter and crawl over the game's world. Adding new components at your tent will give your rig new abilities, and improve your survivability in more dangerous environments.

Of course, you're not the only bug in town. But rather than just blasting up other insects, Stonefly features a diverse menagerie of bugs with their own characteristics, and you're encouraged to use those to shoo them (not shoot them) away. Bugs can be distracted, or flipped over, or blown off the branch with a well-placed gust of air. A more humane form of combat, really.

It's also bloody gorgeous—which, honestly, should be expected from the team behind the striking Creature In The Well. Stonefly sports a similar kind of bold, folded environments, scratched with vibrant colours. It lends a phenomenal sense of scale to the game, and in the trailer at least, I really do feel like I'm watching teeny tiny beetles duke it out.

Stonefly is out this summer on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.