Biomutant Review

I’ve put a lot of hours into this game and did look forward to playing it every day, but I would also grow tired of it quickly during each play session. Design-wise, it feels similar to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a game I absolutely loved. But in Biomutant, everything feels like a step down. The world just isn’t very interesting to explore. The environments all look the same. The camps and abandoned buildings that promise loot seldom deliver anything good. Side quests are repetitive and rely on gimmicky “rotation puzzles” or quick time events. And the combat is a total mess at times. Your character, and the camera, flop around so much during fights that you feel like you don’t have any control. I also hated how you enter “combat mode” anytime an enemy is nearby, thus interrupting your journey to the next waypoint.

Oh man, I didn’t think I was gonna rag on this game so much. The thing is, Biomutant still has moments of goodness. The creature and weapon designs are interesting. Even though the world is rather dry (literally and figuratively), I had fun running around and finding upgrade points. Your magic-like abilities are pretty weak compared to your melee and ranged attacks, but I still enjoyed unlocking and trying them out. Likewise when it came to tracking down the different tribes’ special weapons. And while most side quests feel rather pointless, there are a handful that involve you meeting and helping one of the game’s 23 special characters. These characters usually reward you with special items and can also be invited onto the endgame’s Ark, so there’s some incentive to seek them out.

The story at large, however, is pretty terrible. Well, it’s not so much the story itself that’s bad. Mutant animals surviving the post-apocalypse is a decent setup. It’s the way it’s told that ruins it. The whole game is narrated by one person. Characters speak gibberish, and the narrator translates for you. This takes away any personality these characters might have had. It doesn’t help that the narrator mostly speaks in sentence fragments like, “Thinks you should be careful.” He also refers to every in-game item by an obnoxious, Dr. Seussian name like, “Go to the Cloggy Jingowap and turn on the Lecto Fusenburpin.” Ugh, it’s exhausting to listen to and creates this weird tone where you have silly dialogue mixed with grim stakes. Cleaning up the story’s presentation alone would have made the game’s other shortcomings easier to digest.

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.