Biomutant Review

Review of Biomutant powered by the Slant community. This open world, post-apocalyptic martial arts RPG has a unique combat system that lets you mix mutant powers, melee combat and shooting abilities. The game is narrated by a storyteller, but your actions decide the outcome. Grim fandango remastered trophy guide. It's an action-RPG, but with cats. Cats with swords, and guns, and kung-fu skills. There aren't enough games about badass cats, and I'm glad something is being done about it. Biomutant has been kicking around in various stages for years now, and in 2019 it still looks mighty ambitious.

Pre-orderIn case you ever had the inexplicable desire to take control of a furry rodent in charge of saving a postapocalyptic world full of mutated animals, we have great news for you. Biomutant was perhaps the most surprising and promising reveal at last year's Gamescom, so it only made sense for developer Experiment 101 and publisher THQ Nordic to showcase it just as prominently in 2018. We took a guided tour through a new demo, led by Creative Director Stefan Ljungqvist, and took a look at different biomes, gameplay, items and mutations in the open world of Biomutant.Biomutant is an open-world action RPG set in a destroyed world whose fate is tied to a tree at its center. The tree is dying and pulling our home down with it. The causes for its downfall are varied, but thankfully we, the friendly neighborhood raccoon-like creature, are here to help. If Ljundqvist wanted to make one thing clear from the start, it's that this is truly an open world.

Moral choices are just as important as our general decision about which missions we want to do, how, and in what order. Biomutant isn't story-based, so it doesn't have a classic arc you can play through. With minor differences based on decisions, it's completely character-based. That means that our protagonist meets interesting characters while traversing the world, and they provide quests for us to complete. The quests send us further and further out, so we'll organically stumble on new quest-givers and continuously explore the world map.

Most of the missions are available to anyone who plays the game, with a few being specific to our play style and based on our choices within the game — but let's not get ahead of ourselves.Before we can even think about starting a quest, the demo starts with the creation of our character. As we kneel in front of a biohazard pool, we decide upon our gender and attributes, which in turn determine the physiology of our character. We can always reshuffle our genetic code and slide our attributes into place until we're satisfied with our looks and our skills and then move on to more cosmetic features, such as our fur color, length and pattern until we're good to go. Should we ever be unsatisfied with our decisions in the early game, we can change the settings at a biohazard pool at any point in our journey.The next big component that's immediately apparent is our weapons. Biomutant offers both ranged and close combat with a wide array of craftable materials and weapon types, so theoretically, there are a half-million possible combinations. At the beginning of the demo, our airship is involuntarily grounded in a predefined demo area.

Our weapon set was completely randomized, with a dual-wielding gun combination and dual-wielding blades. While the general level design is the same in every playthrough, the biomes change, and so do the enemies in the area. In our case, we were dropped in a heat-based environment, but ice or biohazard areas are equally possible here. The different biomes require us to be prepared, as they kill us slowly; a percentage counter slowly approaches 100%, which means certain death as we walk and, primarily, fight through this heated region.

The floor turns out to be something akin to lava. Eventually, we hit the jackpot by encountering a dead zone, which is filled with unbreathable air, but more on that later. Combat in Biomutant is incredibly fast-paced and focused on fun and freedom.

We can easily combine close combat, guns, and special items in a fight. If we improve our combos, we can start a Super Wushu, which is an even faster special ability that lets us slice through enemies at lightning speed. Our demo showcased more than one boss fight and one of the previously mentioned quest characters.Biomutant combines several gameplay elements into one crazy package. There is the self-aware and comical aesthetic that is somewhere between and (no wonder, as Ljundqvist was involved in the former), combined with combat that is somewhere between and a fast-paced contextual fighting system, like the games.Then there's crafting, quests and a Metroidvania-style progression system that grants specific weapons or items as soon as you defeat a boss or help one of the six clans in the world. In our case, we stumbled upon a boss fight relatively early and received the Klonk Fist immediately afterward, enabling us to not only kick ass in combat but also to open previously inaccessible doors by punching them to pieces.From a content standpoint, this was already a jam-packed demo that seemed to introduce new elements faster than the actual combat, but it didn't end here.

As a mutated animal, we soon saw a few mutations that granted us additional abilities. The mucus bubble, which is surprisingly more useful than it sounds, enabled us to jump incredibly high and stick enemies to it while jumping on them.

It's certainly not the most obvious choice for a superpower. Soon enough, we meet another character, a mechanic, offers to fix our mech suit if we get some resources, which we eventually do. Our mech is customizable and a much-needed asset for traversal, especially in the previously mentioned deadzone areas that would otherwise kill us.

This is where the gameplay takes the biggest leap and transitions to a shooter-style gameplay that faintly reminds us of old-school mech games. We remove deadly oil pools, which double as fuel, and we can collect little critters in a tank and use them as ammunition. These little beasts are incredibly handy for a variety of tasks, such as to distract enemies — or feed them.The end of our demo leads us to a crucial set piece in Biomutant.

As we explained at the outset, the world tree is dying, and if we want to save our world, we can increase its chances of survival by healing the tree. The tree has five main roots that span out into all directions. At the end of each awaits a mighty boss, or world eater, that we have to take down in order to heal the root, which mathematically increases our chance of saving the world by 20%.Boss fights are multi-staged, and as we fight a mighty beast that looks like the unfortunate crossing between a newt and a, we throw critters into its face until we can eventually grab and damage its tongue.

This triggers an angry act of cable-whipping that decapitates our mech, and then the boss swallows our furry avatar whole. As my grandmother used to say, chew your food well, or you'll get a stomachache. We survive and have to climb out of the very sticky gastric region of our adversary, up to its heart to eventually kill it with a few brutal strokes of our blades. This is the end of our demo that basically teased what the full game would look and feel like. What we're most interested in is how all the game mechanics will overlap in the end and how this very feature-rich gameplay loop will play out. We certainly had a great time during our very short session, and the question is how well the crafting and loot system can keep us engaged. The same goes for the decisions we can make, such as the fact that, according to Ljundqvist, we can choose to end the game and let the world die at any point.The world is truly in our hands, and world survival may be tied to a certain timeline that can be failed.

While I appreciate the freedom to choose to fail, it also raises questions about how the game manages incentives for the player to progress and to keep it fun and varied along the way. While gameplay features are plenty, the missions have to be properly designed to be fun and diverse, and we've only seen this partially thus far.I'm very much looking forward to Biomutant, as it incorporates everything that reminds me of a more careless time of bright, colorful and fun games. I'm optimistic that Experiment 101 can pull this off, but there are many factors that influence the fun factor of a game, and we can't be sure of many of these yet. Biomutant's release date was recently delayed to 2019, so that'll provide the development team with time to add some extra polish to the experience.

There are many kid-appropriate games with furry woodland creatures. Then there’s Biomutant, a game about a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by scarred and angry, yet adorable, critters.Developed by Experiment 101 (a studio owned by THQ and founded by former Avalanche Studios creative director Stefan Ljungqvist), Biomutant is an open-world action RPG that plays like a dream. It all begins with designing your Biomutant by finding a perfect balance of Strength, Agility, Intellect, Charisma, and Vitality.Depending on the DNA cocktail you choose, your avatar’s appearance will change. Each coordinate on the circular stat grid has its own 10-digit code.

Unfortunately, that is strictly cosmetic (at least for now). There’s no way to share your DNA sequence with another player so they can try out your build.You’re not locked in for the entire game at this point. You can spend skill points later to completely rewrite your Biomutant’s DNA and adapt to new situations.There is no shortage of open-world action games, so Biomutant has a hill to climb to stand out.

Experiment 101 hopes to succeed with slick combat. Ranged attacks appear weak (at least at the start) and offer little style.

Melee combat, however, is a far more interesting proposition. Experiment 101/THQ NordicIt feels great to slide through a large enemy’s legs and catch them unaware from behind with a devastating combo. During my demo, I got to try out combat with a sword and a power fist that can be charged for bonus damage. Each weapon has its own play style and a unique “super wushu” attack that can be charged over time. Firearms and melee armaments can be customized with different parts and add-ons to tailor play style, as well.My demo started as I crash landed in a snowy region with extreme cold hazards. I could have just as easily started in a desert biome with extreme heat.

The map layout would have been the same, but Biomutant serves up randomized hazards the first time you enter a dangerous zone. Gear can help mitigate the different conditions you’ll encounter.“It mostly puts you on a timer,” Bolt says. “Some of them will be amplified by weather.

We have a dynamic weather system.”As engaging as the combat is, I was most intrigued by the story and setting. Experiment 101 isn’t revealing too much yet, and we may never know why the world is overrun with mutated forest creatures or if there were ever humanoid creatures in the game’s world.“That’s not something we’re going to talk about,” says programmer Oliver Bolt.

“It’s more about what’s going on right now. The backstory is a bit loose. We’re not defining anything.”The PAX West demo did a solid job of selling Biomutant ’s combat, but the most intriguing part of its promise has only been briefly touched on in demos. Mutations found throughout the world can be used as attacks or for traversal. Spitting moths out of your mouth might be good for distracting foes, but a giant mucus bubble makes it easy to cross gaps and get the bounce on enemies. Experiment 101/THQ NordicThe demo concludes with a battle against a massive world eater, a gigantic beast with a chip on its shoulder. There are five of these monstrosities in the world, tied to the polluted oil rising up through the surface and killing the planet.

Destroying each will heal a root of the Tree of Life, but it’s not necessary to kill all of them to complete the game. You can also decide to join up with the world eaters to usher in a new apocalypse.The battle with the world eater takes place in a mech suit with live ammo (reminiscent of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath’s unique weapon system). After a protracted, multi-stage fight, the battle concludes in the belly of the beast, fighting tides of bile as I tried to cut it apart from the inside.While this could have been gruesome, Experiment 101 has maintained a lighter touch. The creatures are a delicate balance of cute and vicious, evoking the same kinds of feelings I had when I first played Ratchet & Clank.There’s still clearly more work to be done on Biomutant, and the mutation system doesn’t seem to have fully coalesced yet. However, with the tight combat, engaging world, and intriguing randomized elements that will make each playthrough unique, this is certainly one to watch.Biomutant will be out in 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.