Biomutant
Can’t see the forest fur the trees?
Lassoing and yanking the fangs out of the jaws of a giant furry monster is a unique way to uncover a weak spot. Its toothy smile gone, you’re free to blast away at the creature’s gums. There are certainly moments in this open-world RPG that surprise.
Set on an Earth-like planet centuries after an environmental disaster has wiped out its precursor civilisation, the emergent furry ‘people’ have formed into tribes. Each group has a unique outlook on life that fits into standard ideologies – communism, fascism, anarchism, ecolism, and more. The six factions are at war, and you’re tasked with uniting them against the four Worldeaters, massive monsters chewing the roots of the World Tree, causing a cataclysm.
Biomutant’s setup is an excuse to scamper around a lively world performing tasks to bring the tribes together and find a way to defeat each Worldeater. A dark/light moral system underpins everything you do, leading to a variety of game endings. It’s possible to leave one tribe for another at any point; switching allegiances affects the story’s outcome. You can even choose not to unite the tribes and ignore the Worldeaters altogether and let them get on with their task - one particular tribe is big on nihilism.
This game is not shy of ideas. Much of what you do in Biomutant is founded on the belief you can
INFO
Performance or graphics mode; adjustable audio and narration; custom HUD options play, explore, and affect the world how you wish. From tinkering with your character’s DNA to unlock abilities, mutations, and powers to crafting outfits and weapons from trash scavenged in the world, a sense of freedom is essential to everything you do.
The world is a dense and varied place crammed with bunkers to uncover, creatures to battle, and hidden loot to collect. A ramshackle tower cresting the horizon gets you going; a mech, jet ski, and, erm, clockwork hand-tank will get you there. Biomutant loves to pack in the content.
THE KITTEN SINK
The down side is that much of what you do is repetition over invention. Every mission in the game is a fetch quest. Each Worldeater boss is built around the need to find allies and ferret out items for them; in return they’ll build the tools you need to defeat the next fluffy titan. This structure trickles down from here, feeding into the systems of the entire game. Gathering ‘stuff’ to whittle down a variety of objectives soon becomes the norm. There are puzzles to solve and areas to access using found tools but the reason for doing so is to gather more items, fuel for crafting.
It doesn’t help that the story is a mess of overwritten dialogue spewed by characters you rarely feel a connection towards. ‘Dialogue’ is a loose catch-all, as everything is
Everything is narrated by a man who sounds like wellmannered 1970s’ TV presenter.