Reviews: Biomutant
Spoiler free review of the game Biomutant played on the steam deck OLED.
About the game
BIOMUTANT® is an open-world, post-apocalyptic Kung-Fu fable RPG, with a unique martial arts styled combat system allowing you to mix melee, shooting and mutant ability action.
Margot’s stats
Device: Steam Deck Oled
Difficulty: Story (easy - if I remember correctly)
Completed: yes - main story
Time: ~18 hours
Summary: An initially fun game that ended up being rather repetitive in its puzzles and story. While repetitive, I will still recommend this game because I enjoyed the commentary (I know controversial) and it did grab me with fun vibes to begin with. Just maybe know you won't finish it.
Score: 6.5/10
I was drawn to this game due to the apocalyptic setting, and the fact that animals took over. Why not!?
I was hooked straight away. The character movement was smooth and the combat was fun. This was one of the first 3D games I played on the steam deck and it just looked great. Elements that other reviews called out, such as the narration, I found like it added something to the game and I played several hours straight in one sitting. But then things changed and fun turned into boredom.
The general story telling is done via a little translator robot / bug / grasshopper. The voice acting is exquisite but he can be get quite disruptive and I have seen this be one of the complaints people have with the game. I think this narrator type is a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it. A lot of negative reviews do not seem to like the voice acting and humour but I really liked it. Maybe because it is a British voice (I think).
But there is the option to reduce to amount the narrator talks nowadays. I did not change that and I wonder if that was something they added later on.
The world has its own language so, there really is only one person doing voice acting, as the other NPCs speak in other sounds. Some of our usual words for things have been changed and made up, which creates a certain sense of humour that maybe not everyone likes. There is definitely a silliness with words that I did appreciate, but I can see how it could be a type of humour that doesn’t sit well and could get annoying.
The overall storyline is simplistic - world was destroyed and poisoned hence the creation of animals like yourself - a Biomutant. Another evil animal (or 4) is destroying the tree of life, you need to stop this but also you are finding yourself and where you came from, which adds a more fun element in my mind.
There is also a little bit of choice in the game, where you can decide to follow a dark or light path and this vaguely changes the mood of the dialogue here and there and if some NPCs will be a friend to you or not.
This sort of works in the moment but the path you don’t choose is so obvious that I don’t think it adds any replay-ability to see how it all turns out if you choose the light or dark path.
Looking through some other reviews, I was interesting to see that more recently people either loved this game and played 20-40 hours or hated it and had it refunded after 1 hour game play. A real chalk and cheese reaction.
Gameplay
There are a lot of different mechanics, which can be overwhelming initially, while the tutorials are generally good.
You level up your character to gains skills, you can create and modify weapons, clothing and there are also mutations to think about. The general menu layout takes some getting used to and I found it hard to find certain sections after the tutorial.
But the general gameplay was fun to begin with. The character moves smoothly and has Kung Fu style moves and various melee weapons to use / later on build and customise.
While not completely open world, there is a vast map with very different biomes that are fun to see and explore. Having written that, I am now wondering why I don’t think it is open world, I think it is because you can’t really play it out of sync. I didn’t try too hard but it does have very linear elements, and in an almost metroidvania-esque style you unlock certain attributes to be able to go to other areas. So I am not sure if I would really class it as open world per se. It did feel big but not open somehow.
In between the landscape you come across villages or settlements of various sizes, with simple and repetitive puzzles. These are either unlocking collectables or items you can use for crafting or customising your characters and also for levelling up your skills and abilities.
Weapons wise, the guns are way overpowered, meaning that once you get a good one or build one, you will focus at just shooting things, taking away the fun of the initially kung fu moves. This was a real shame as all the little skills and move sequences you pick up get forgotten in bigger enemy fights and it for me it turned into a bit of a button smashing game, rather and trying to remember sequences and timing this accordingly.
The game has been praised for its variety of enemies but I would argue that there are a lot of different looking enemies but there is a distinct set of 5-6 types. Hence I can’t really praise it for its vast enemy design but the first battles are fun for sure.
Things start to get really repetitive after the first of the main 4 bosses. (Technically there is another boss / 2 bosses). Each area follows the same repeated pattern in terms of how to unlock an area or get help from an NPC, making the next steps predictable and also a bit grinding. As you have to follow this, not short, pattern at least 4 times to get to the end of the story, it gets a bit boring. While a lot of the world is themed differently within the biomes, it inherently is the same thing over and over again.
Against this repetition sit the 4-5 main boss fights that are generally different though and you tend to use a helper system, so there is some unique game play mechanic during those boss fights which can add to the general feel of the game, like using an exoskeleton or a different machine. But getting to those battles, generally is very repetitive and felt like grinding.
In a way I’d say that it was a fun game if it was half the size it actually is.
Verdict 6.5/10
On steam I recommend this game, and I do. I think if you like the look and sound of it (the music is actually lovely), it is fun for a few hours but not 20+ hours. It did just get too repetitive for me and I haven’t gone back to do the side quests or unlock some of the more poisoned areas. I did finish the main storyline though, and that story was not bad, I just wish it was told in 2-3 acts instead of 4-5. The narrator is great in my opinion and just to hear that for an hour could be fun for the right price. haha.
Have you played Biomutant? Do you also get drawn to apocalyptic games especially if you can play as a mutant animal? :)
Nice review!
I love post apocalyptic games! Do you?