What Gang Beasts is
Gang Beasts is a silly multiplayer party game where surly gelatinous characters throw themselves into brutal slapstick fights across absurd hazardous environments. The whole thing is set in the mean streets of Beef City, and the comedy comes from the physics: wobbly limbs, clumsy grabs, and bodies ragdolling into whatever danger the arena happens to hold. You can customise your character before you start, so everyone in the group can look distinct when the chaos begins.
How your group plays together
There are two main ways to play with friends. In the melee game mode, you fight local and online enemies, which suits a free-for-all where everyone is out for themselves. In the gang game mode, you team up with friends and take on the gangs of Beef City together, so the group works as one unit instead of scrapping among themselves.
Gang Beasts supports online PvP and local play, including four player local, plus Remote Play Together for getting people in who are not in the same room. That mix means a group can split between people on the same couch and people joining over the internet without much fuss.
Before you start
Expect a party game built around physics rather than precise inputs. The characters are soft and clumsy by design, so a lot of what happens is funny accidents as much as deliberate plays. The slapstick is brutal in a cartoonish way, and the environments are full of hazards that can end a round just as easily as a punch can.
It is a casual, family-friendly pick that works best when the group is happy to laugh at failures as much as wins. Pick your mode up front: melee if you want everyone against everyone, gang if you want the group on the same side. Then customise your characters and get into Beef City.