Biomutant Game Review
3 Step Game Review
About the Game
Released
May 25, 2021
Developer
Experiment 101
Price
US$ 59.99
(MAY VARY PER LOCATION)
Game Description
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.
A plague is ruining the land and the Tree-of-Life is bleeding death from its roots. The Tribes stand divided. Explore a world in turmoil and define its fate – will you be its saviour or lead it to an even darker destiny?
Step 1: Playing Conditions
Read below the game basic characteristics. If it is something you see yourself playing, move on to Step 2: Graphics & Sound.
Gameplay Overview
Biomuntant is an action adventure game with complete RPG character customization. THE GAME STARTS IN AN EXTREMELY SLOW RHYTHM, the first hours are dedicated to its storytelling and tutorial. After that, you will fight, travel and loot to complete a variety of different quests to save what’s left of the world.
Like most open-world games, there is a bunch of things to do, but what most stand-out about the gameplay is HOW EASY BIOMUTANT IS. Almost every combat can be won by kiting enemies around. Puzzles are so simple that can become repetitive for some players. All bosses can be easily beaten on the first or second try.
THE LACK OF CHALLENGE can influence how deep you go into the RPG portion of the game. As things “run so smoothly” the need to build, optimize and learn how to better play your character becomes secondary.
This doesn’t mean the game can’t be fun to play. Just be sure that you are the kind of player that enjoys exploring, collecting things, and completing lists of objectives.
Step 2: Graphics & Sound
Watch 5 to 10 minutes of any video below. If you like what you see and hear, move on to Step 3: Game Evaluation.
Step 3: Game Evaluation
Build your expectations about the game by learning what it offers and how was The Partisan Spy’s experience.
USER INTERFACE
The first impression is that Biomutant UI is perfect, but as you play the game some BUGS AND FLAWS SHOW UP.
The in-game menu is divided into Character, Gear, Map, and System, all of them with sub-categories. It can be challenging to navigate through all tabs and find where all leveling points go, a lot of “COMING AND GOING” has to be done.
The same goes for the crafting section, it can be hard to understand because of the chosen design and how information is displayed.
Besides that, one of the MOST ANNOYING PROBLEMS is the keybinding mapping system. From hardcoded keybindings to mapping configurations that don’t work, it can affect your gameplay experience.
STORY
The story is the centerpiece of the game and as it progresses new characters are introduced, all of them with a problem to be solved. The spoken language is unknown, so the ENTIRE GAME IS NARRATED by a voice, which also speaks to you in random moments.
You can also hoop between the dark or light aura (good or bad), depending on what tribe you join and the “chat lines” you choose. It seems there are DIFFERENT ENDINGS based on your choices.
Besides the main quests, there are dozens or hundreds of side quests chains to complete. By completing side quests different benefits are unlocked: special gear, attribute points, special items, etc…
COMMUNITY POTENTIAL
Like most PVE games, Biomutant has a SHORT ATTENTION LIFE SPAN in the gaming community.
The content generation is usually limited to tutorials, playthroughs, and completionist guides. The RPG and crafting system and the aura choices are elements that bring a huge variety to game and content to community chat about. Even though the combat is easy, the possibility of fighting in different ways is always attractive.
Also, being an open world game, there is the opportunity to stretch its potential with DLCs or even a future multiplayer or coop version of the game, but there is still no indication of that.
GAMEPLAY MOOD TRACKER
MOOD ANALYSIS
To have fun playing Biomutant, YOU NEED TO GIVE A CHANCE TO GAME. The game starts really slow and the Mood Tracker reflects that. My mood starts picking up on the 4th hour of gameplay and hits CAN’T STOP PLAYING for various hours. The trend changes as I get used to the game, with exceptions to key moments of the game story. My mood ends the 25 hours of gameplay on an average of ENTERTAINED to play.
GRIND FEELING
On any open world game, it is expected to experience grind feeling in the long run. There is a huge variety of missions, but AFTER 15 HOURS OF GAMEPLAY the feeling of repetition was there and the story dialogues helped with that.
The game ends with a TRIVIAL qualifier for grinding, but the possibility of a growing feeling beyond the 25 hours is present and as said before, nothing more than expected based on its genre.
LIKED THE MOST
Even though needs a better tutorial and design thinking the RPG and crafting systems are the highlight of the game.
DISLIKED THE MOST
Keybinding mapping system seems to be unfinished and all bugs related to that harmed overall gameplay QoL.
EVALUATION SUMMARY
US$ 60.00 is the price ceiling established by the gaming industry for a game, which is also known as the AAA titles. In this category, THE PRICE SETS THE EXPECTATIONS, and nothing but a flawless gameplay experience is accepted. That not being enough, every new title is immediately compared to all other successful AAA titles.
Biomutant is a good game and you can surely have fun with it.
There are tons of things to do BUT… combat is super easy.
The story can be inviting BUT… dialogues get a bit repetitive.
The RPG system is complete BUT… remember to use it as the game won’t challenge you to change and adapt.
The crafting system is interesting BUT… you might need to watch an alternative guide to understand it.
How well polished and balanced Biomutant really is? All these hiccups did hurt my gameplay experience and it shows even more when comparing to games the community loves. Biomutant’s BIGGEST MISTAKE was choosing to be in a price category where no mistakes are accepted.
It could have been a perfect US$30.00 game.
Choices & Advice
DON’T BUY IT
IF YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR A GAME THAT CHALLENGES YOU.
WAIT TO BUY
IF YOU WANT TO PLAY A GOOD GAME WITH A PRICE BALANCED TO WHAT ITS OVERALL EXPERIENCE OFFERS.
BUY NOW
IF YOU FEEL LIKE PLAYING A LAYBACK GAME BY COMPLETING A LIST OF OBJECTIVES.
GAME LIFETIME
THE GAME CAN BE FULLY COMPLETED IN 45 TO 55 HOURS.
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