6/10/2023 0 Comments Biomutant game reviewA core part of the campaign is unlocking new gadgets, like a mech suit and jetski, which you'll need to take down each of the World Eater Puffs – that are ridiculously named Hoof Puff, Jumbo Puff, Muck Puff, and Porky Puff, which sound more like types of potato chip than big bads. Plus, the four boss battles are particularly memorable. The main narrative is engaging too, with a whimsical cast of characters, excellent set pieces, and bizarre story moments. If you're partial to a little relaxing map mopping as I am, there's lots to keep you busy and that's meant I've spent 30+ hours enjoying Biomutant despite its flaws and oddities. Some areas will be inaccessible until you've found the right gadget or better armor to protect you too, which adds a level of unexpectedness to your travels. It's a game rich with things to discover, from remnants of the old world, to funky weaponry and unusual foes. It's certainly not a graphical marvel – even running on PC on maximum settings – but there's definitely a beauty to it. That's not to say that there isn't plenty to love in Biomutant, especially when it comes to the world it offers up. But, it constantly invades the story, makes little sense, and has seemingly no effect on the ending outcome – to the point where I am still absolutely seething about the game's closing moments. There's also a morality system, with your character capable of moving between dark and light polarities depending on the decisions you make. The combination of ranged and melee weapons, along with Psi Powers can be great fun, though their success does rely on finding the arsenal mix that really works for your play style and class type. Overly subtle button prompts can leave you mashing buttons trying to return the projectiles needed to smash through defenses, and the combo patterns all depend on what you've unlocked and what weapon type you're using. The same can be said of the combat, which regularly flips from feeling clumsy and clunky to brilliantly silly, with comic book-inspired exclaims and descriptions popping up for certain combos and movements that don't ever get used anywhere else – another of Biomutant's odd design decisions. But Biomutant's nested sub-menus and use of different upgrade currencies are scattershot and awkward, especially when plenty of the upgrades can also be achieved using the mountain of gear you'll discover as you explore. Plus, you can upgrade your character in various ways, including enhancing abilities related to the class type you picked, your resistance to different environmental elements like the cold or radiation, and the option to unlock weapon-type specific combos. I am particularly attached to an electric sword I made from an old toilet brush, but it's definitely far from the easiest system to get to grips with. It's part looter shooter grind, with new weapons and armor hidden in old furniture and chests across the world, but there's also an odd and overly complicated crafting system too. Struggle through the very linear opening, and the world folds out before you, only to reveal that Biomutant suffers from having an abundance of systems to get to grips with – none of which are ever particularly well explained. The character creation and story beats are just the beginning though, as this game continues to feel at odds with itself. The Biomutant poster child that we've been seeing for years is far removed from the little fuzzy fighter I ended up with. Big buck teeth, teenie eyes, mismatched body parts, and other oddities were seemingly the only options, with all of that exaggerated by the Biomutant breed you opted for. Despite my best attempts – an almost an hour of tweaking – I couldn't ever settle on a character that I was drawn to or found even vaguely adorable. It doesn't help that the character creation is quite off-putting. The childish language constantly butts heads with the old-world commentary, failing to strike the sort of tone you might expect from a game with such bright and inviting visuals, and the fuzziest of casts. For example, a piano is a 'string plonk', a guitar is a 'twing-twang', and your mother is your Mooma, which is said with such drawn-out vowels it's almost impossible to take seriously. Like Horizon Zero Dawn, the characters have developed their own names for various human elements, which only adds to the fact the narrative can feel like a children's storybook. It's so slow that I found myself skipping the gibberish to get to the narration, only to accidentally skip over both, losing crucial slices of information or quest objectives. Characters will speak to you in gibberish, then after a pause, a narrator tells you what they've said. Well, it's undercut by the fact the narrative is delivered in the most painful of ways.
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