Biomutant Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Experiment 101
Released 25th May 2021
To be honest, after seeing the reveal and gameplay trailers, I was genuinely hyped for this game. Being able to play as a small, furry, kung-fu fiend as if you were a rejected cast member of Kung-Fu Panda was really enticing to me, especially when that was coupled with a promised, deep, intricate RPG system. This is Experiment 101's debut title, and while they do have experience in game development, with most of the employees having worked at Avalanche and their Just Cause games, I finished the game regretful of pre-ordering it, despite their attempt at making a game that is "fun in a good way".
Story
The story of Biomutant centres around the fuzzy little creature you create at the beginning of the game, following a player-set path of deciding the fate of the world. Sounds plain, basic and done before, and you'd be exactly right. The game attempts to plot down multiple narratives of solving a tribe war, saving the Tree of Life, etc. but fails to make them captivating. The concepts alone for each of these arcs are intriguing, but they lack not only time to fully flesh them out but also enough spotlight as they are shoved together, expected to work. The narrative could've either been done better to illustrate a world crumbling apart at the centre, with tribes fighting over each other's fates or split the game into 3 chapters, each following the different paths set and followed by the player. Either way would've been better than what is presented as an unfinished and overly ambitious journey.
Gameplay
The gameplay is enjoyable with its handful amount of flaws. The combat revolves around switching and using your guns, blades, psi-powers and biogenetic abilities. While you get to customise your furry, you'll be able to dictate your starting stats and class. The stats definitely matter as they will mostly decide your fighting style, between being a magician of powers, a blade-dancing warrior, a nimble rat and more. The class you pick is only used as a starting loadout in this game. Overall, in terms of combat, it was enticing with a fantastic crafting system and it was great to play but it struggled due to the enemies being maximised bullet sponges. While it did provide time for the player to unleash some very stylish and cool-looking moves on the enemies, the awesome factor disappeared quickly as they felt like they did nothing on the opponent, especially in the beginning phases of the game where all you had was a below-average sword and gun that didn't even nudge the enemies.
The enemies themselves also did strike a nerve in me. At one point in the game, it felt like there were clusters of ranged enemies that dealt too much damage to get enjoyment out of, and while it served as a challenge that felt rewarding to overcome, it did drain much of my time and reward me with satisfaction, for all the wrong reasons. The unfair nature of these enemies somewhat continues again as they would fully regenerate, back to full health, the moment they get one step away from their spawn locations, causing some angering moments. It did confine the player to the visually impressive mini-arenas and make them play the game the way it was supposed to instead of the run'n'gun tactics, but they could've at least widened the out-of-bounds area to avoid such unfairness. The small variety of opponents didn't strike down on the fun though, as the reappearances of the mini-boss fights that could smash, hurl stones, dive into the ground and more added some more parry-striking chaos into the action.
Another form of gameplay was the puzzles hidden among the world. They were disappointing. The puzzles appeared practically everywhere you went, and on top of that, they would be ridiculously easy and the same each time, adding a repetitive and monotonous experience to them. The traversal of this game could've been faster as each objective point would feel like an eternity away as it was 2000m of travel from where you are, however, this didn't really hurt my experience of it as traversing this very beautiful world whether it being on a robotic finger gun, a horse or mech, was relatively pleasing. The choices also made have barely any impact on the story or world whatsoever, except maybe an ending change. This was mostly due to the poor development of the story and the shallow morality system.
Bossfights
The bossfights of this game were great but had a monotonous feel to them. Each boss in this game consisted of nearly the same design, except for the final boss. The 4 world eaters all had great mechanics to them and did provide for some fun moments of either having an underwater battle in an Octopod, using a mech to strike and dodge around a falling-apart city or even horse-back riding and gunning - these were some of greatest moments in the game but they didn't cause my excitement to ramp up to 11 due to how similar the bosses attack, look, sound and how they even shared the same weak spot most of the time.
Characters
The characters of the game had potential but suffered due to many reasons. Characters like Gizmo and Goop strike interesting personalities and they could've had unique identities within the player's experience but that ultimately gets swept away due to the narrator "translating" the character's dialogue which just ends up being exposition fuel. The world-building is phenomenal and adds so much more depth to this weak experience but the way its presented sacrifices plenty of the charm that could've been unleashed from every character.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is delightful visually, but uncomfortable audibly. The comic book style pop-ups when you perform combos and deal damage, tagged along with a well-detailed post-apocalyptic world consisting of multiple beautiful biomes, and unique designs to characters, are, unfortunately, not presented the same way with the audio. At times, the audio either isn't synched well enough with the actions presented on screen, is done awfully or is even missing completely. This and the rare-reoccurring frame rate drops and slow loading times really massacred my full-on enjoyment of the game.
Story - 4/10
Gameplay - 4.5/10
Bossfights - 6/10
Characters - 6/10
Atmosphere - 5/10
Subpar
I'm just disappointed with this game.
