Author: Shea Layton
Biomutant is a game full of charm and wonder, from the dialog between your furry avatar and characters in the world to the various breathtakingly rendered environments. The fast-paced and engaging combat masks some underlying issues, such as bland, surface-level story and gameplay loops that can grow tedious. A B-level game that offers a ton of fun if you don’t expect the highest quality, Experiment 101’s first game will entertain you for hours.
Biomutant (PC, XboxOne, Playstation 4[Reviewed] )
Developer: Experiment 101
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Released: May 25, 2021
MSRP: $59.99
After starting the game, you witness an FMV of what the world is about: a post-post-apocalyptic world where animals have mutated to become anthropomorphic. They have figured out how to live and thrive in a world where humans have long gone. Remnants of humanity litter the world in the form of decrepit buildings and old-world items. More on that later. We also witness creatures of various sizes and species fighting using different tactics.
When you hit the title screen, you are integrated more into the world with a dramatic monologue from the Narrator of the game that paints a drastic picture of the world facing ultimate destruction, which felt contrary to the positive vibe of the game when I played it.
The Narrator, unfortunately, is one of my big complaints about the game. When you first start the game, the narrator walks you through the game’s tutorial section, acting as the storyteller and translator. I found him endearing at the beginning. But as time went on, the Narrator was programmed to comment about every single thing I did. And when I say every single thing, I mean every single thing. On top of that, when I would find myself immersed in the world enjoying riding my chosen steed across the landscape, the Narrator felt a pressing need to remind me that the world was in danger and that I was wasting my time. He acts as the only form of reminding you that the world is in danger; no other element presses you as hard as he. The Narrator ended up growing irksome and frustrating. Since the original release, an update allows you to reduce the amount of commentary from the Narrator during the open-world sections, which I happily cranked down to zero.
The game’s intro has you selecting which kind of character you want: his looks, his class system, his playstyle, etc. I labored over the choice, thinking that it would affect the way I played the entire game. As it turns out, choosing which class you choose was not as necessary as I initially thought that it was. When you start leveling up your character, you can allocate your points to turn your character into any kind, making the class system feel a bit superfluous. And as for the looks? There are radiated pools that exist in hidden areas allowing you to alter your appearance, just in case you don’t like your initial design. Due to both of those facts, the customization initially was not necessary, but thankfully it’s not a big-time sink.
The customization of the weapons and armor left me with mixed thoughts. On the one hand, I enjoyed customizing weapons. I could make a blade with a toothbrush handle electrified, or I could make a semi-automatic ice gun that looked like a Nerf gun replica. With you constantly picking up loot, you feel encouraged to see what kinds of powerful weapons you can customize. On the other hand, customizing armor is a different story. You were often restricted to what rare items you find in the world or spending excessive amounts of resources on your armor to improve the quality, making it a viable option. You can find various items that can be affixed to the armor to improve its stats, but it never improved the aesthetic. It often just looked tacked on, making any of your sleek armor look disjointed.
While I didn’t feel too connected with the basic story of “save the world as the Tree of Life is at risk from evil monsters,” what drew me into the game was a lot of the side characters that you run into in the world. They are particularly charming and where the world truly comes alive. Take, for instance, Gulp, a creature past his glory days and wants to spend the rest of his life sharing a good drink with friends on his boat bar…only he has no friends to share drinks with. Will you find some liquor for both you and him to share and eventually invite him to your special ship to escape the possible destruction of the world? Or are you more privy to Moog, a tall monster hunter that doesn’t worry about the ethics of killing the monsters littering the landscapes. Will you find yourself aligning yourself with Moog and removing the creatures that you deem unworthy of life? These characters will give you special missions that have their motivations.
The game attempts to introduce a karma system. How you act in various interactions, dictate where you fall on the system. The system is never fully realized, as it often boils down to the most rudimentary version of such a system. For example, you go into a bandit camp and wipe them out. Often in these camps is a survivor caged by the bandits. You can let the survivor out. They thank you, and you are suddenly given a choice to let them go free or kill them. Depending on what you choose, you will receive one point into the “Good” or “Evil” karma section. The benefit of choosing the good or evil side is access to a few spells. Similar to the character class system, you can put enough points into one side to unlock the spells and then put enough points into the other side to unlock those spells as well.
The combat is one of the highlights of the game. Unlike many games with class systems, I never felt like I was locked into one style of combat. I felt like I truly had the freedom to experiment with different weapons and playstyles to find one that suited me. When I grew bored of how I was playing, there were plenty of other viable ways for me to beat on the enemies. Another highlight of the combat is how fluid the combat feels. With a plethora of moves to use with the various weapons and spells, paired with a blocking and dodging system that flows into one another, it was rare that I ever truly felt I needed to sit still to strategize how to defeat an enemy. The game galvanizes you to make a bunch of quick actions that make you feel like a badass wrapped into a furry creature.
By far, one of the most fascinating aspects of Biomutant is how your character interacts with the old world gadgets. Many of the different gadgets act as puzzles for you to solve, gifting you with various items of different rarities. The charm comes in the form of the names: eye-box for TV, bleep-bleep cupboard for an arcade machine, spiral groover for a record player, clothes-soaker for washing machine, and more. Experiment 101 does a wonderful job of showing just how far the world has come since humans have died out. The anthropomorphic animals have come up with their own names since they never knew what they were initially called. One of the exceptions to my gripes with the Narrator was hearing him say these fictitious names for the old world technology over and over again.
I applaud Experiment 101, a smaller studio, for trying to make an expansive open-world game as their first project. There are a ton of fascinating ideas that never reach their full potential. That is an encouraging thought, as they will hopefully learn from the shortcomings of Biomutant to make a tighter, more complete experience in future games they develop.
Verdict: If you step into the world of Biomutant and expect to have some mindless fun with beautiful landscapes and engaging combat, you will find value there. Even though I hit my fair share of frustrations with the game, I found myself not being able to put it down until I did everything I set out to do. While there are a lot of flaws and partial ideas waiting to be fully actualized, I believe that there is enough to offer.
Wait for a sale
[This review is based on the retail version of the game purchased by the reviewer]