I appreciated the variety of special powers at my disposal such as creating trails of fire or conjuring ice storms. Parrying feels especially unsatisfying, and the loose lock-on system makes staying on target a finnicky pain. Being barred from summoning my boat in one clear body of water but not another puts a damper on the game’s sense of freedom.Ĭombat blends stylish melee with wacky gunplay but lacks the polish it needs, often feeling messy and imprecise. Summoning a mech from the sky feels empowering until you realize some vehicles can only be used in vaguely designated zones. Traveling gets even better thanks to a variety of transportation options, from riding various mounts to stomping around in a mech suit to soaring on a glider.
I enjoyed Biomutant most when I simply explored, stumbling upon hidden bunkers or abandoned villages and clearing them of their precious loot. The anthropomorphic character and monster designs are a charming blend of strange, funny and, sometimes, unsettling. A majestic Tree of Life sits at the world's center and its four gigantic roots snake for miles overhead for a wondrous sight.
Despite its post-apocalyptic premise, the vibrant overworld is packed with color, and I love how that beauty is juxtaposed with ruins of modern civilization. Like many jacks-of-all-trades it winds up being a master of none, and a thick layer of technical jank on top of half-baked ideas makes Biomutant feel like a case of feature creep that needed to be scaled back.Īt its core, Biomutant is a typical open-world game featuring a large map littered with basic objectives, points of interests, and various environmental biomes with bizarre wildlife roaming in between. The game blends elements of open-world design with stylish action, gunplay, crafting, a morality system, and more.
Much like its gene-spliced protagonist, Biomutant is a hodgepodge of ideas stitched together to form what is ultimately a mixed bag.