Review for Biomutant. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 25/05/2021
A world in ruins due to the waste released by a society, a completely changed ecosystem and an imminent - and destructive - danger: the fate of the Earth is among the little paws of a mutant being who, deprived of memories, will have to act as a needle of the balance between destruction and salvation. These are the premises of Biomutant, RPG signed Experiment 101 and distributed by THQ Nordic with arrival scheduled for 25st May su PC and console PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Let's see together in this review if the expectations have been met!
Between homework and memories
The world into which you are catapulted into Biomutant is a mutated universe resulting from a real apocalypse, caused by the reckless practices of the Toxanol Corportation. The latter, eager to exploit the resources offered by the earth and nuclear power, ended up generating tons of radioactive waste, and then groped to dispose of them by creating huge landfills. A similar method showed its shortcomings almost immediately, and led the company to take a crucial decision: to dump the toxic waste in the foam a short distance from the coast, hoping for their disintegration with the passage of time.
Such a reckless plan soon paid off, leading to the birth of a fauna - both underwater and terrestrial - characterized by a modified genetic code, and a completely mutated ecosystem. It was nature itself that attempted to restore balance, but the resulting conflict did nothing but completely shatter the whole world.
In conjunction with this premise, the story of the game's protagonist develops, who, devoid of memories regarding his past, must make his way through a world full of mutated creatures to make the most important decision of all: to regenerate the unique tree of life. capable of returning the spark to a world in ruins, or destroying it and punishing those who created this situation?
To interrupt this basic flow followed by the plot are some interludes which, designed to bring to mind the memories of the main character, also allow us to understand which traumatic events of his past have led to the removal of the latter.
Both narrative strands, carried out in parallel within the adventure, have their roots in a promising ground that, however, quickly loses its charm: a heavy, tedious narrative, too long dialogues and a series of characters absolutely unlikely, in fact, they immediately break the aura of mystery, prompting less patient players to skip conversations.
Fast, perhaps too fast
A fundamental component of the gameplay, especially given the protagonist's need to move freely within a universe enriched by a dangerous - and genetically mutated - fauna, appears to be combat.
Biomutant offers every kind of player the possibility - through the character customization phase that we will address later - to choose their own style, ranging between categories Shooter, Commando, Psycho-madman, Saboteur and Sentinel. Now, beyond the individual characteristics of the latter, certainly appreciable as they are quite varied and capable of adapting to even the most disparate needs, one of the problems of the title itself lies in the clashes.
The latter, present even too often within the RPG Biomutant, in fact have their roots in a set of not immediate combos and, above all, in an excessive speed: both these aspects must also be mixed with the tone of the colors that, too bright also for everything - and we mean literally everything - that surrounds the character, make it almost impossible to understand the actions performed in the game, both by us and by the enemies.
To raise the gameplay / mechanics sector a little is certainly the vastness of the available options, especially as regards the investment of the enhancement points, which can be used both to improve the techniques of hand-to-hand combat and those at a distance. Very interesting in this sense is also the presence of Ki, primordial energy that flows through all things and which brings the thought back to the concept of Force faced in Star Wars, which can be used both to influence combat and in its reflected form, or the aura. .
The excess of the lively
As soon as the RPG adventure has begun, Biomutant immediately shows us its biggest flaw: the title tries to show its richness of detail from the very first moments but, unfortunately, in the worst possible way, that is through extremely bright colors and a sharpness bordering on annoying for the eye. human.
A similar detail makes any object or character with which you can interact within the game world almost irrelevant, as it is impossible to identify. The defect is particularly evident when, at the end of a fight, there are resources left on the ground by the enemy, and which could be exploited to one's advantage: the latter are completely lost in the environment, forcing the player to turn around in the area by paying the maximum attention, in an attempt to identify all the useful.
Alongside this search for detail, however, there is a total absence of it when it comes to characters encountered in the game. In fact, during his journey, both to steal useful information to save the tree of life and to bring to mind the memories of the main character, the latter will have to deal with many secondary NPCs (allies and not). The latter, often represented by beings with animal features, however, appear as simple extrapolations taken from children's books, sometimes even quite ridiculous both due to the aesthetic aspect and their very name ("Bei Tempi" seems a caricature of Fonzie ).
Contributing to the "wasted potential" effect is the aforementioned narrative, which weighs down an already too dense atmosphere with a voice devoid of tone changes and all too relaxing.
A different customization than usual
One of the most appreciable features of Biomutant is the character creation phase. Like any good RPG, in fact, the title places the player, before starting his adventure within the particular game universe, in front of a choice that will influence his entire path.
In this phase it will in fact be possible to choose, first of all, the race of your character, varying between Primal, Dumdon, Rex, Nyla, Fip and Murgel. Each of these has particular advantages and an advantage in hand-to-hand or long-range combat, capable of also affecting the effectiveness of the weapons used.
Once you have chosen the race you will enter the heart of the character creation phase: by moving the cursor in a small circular area you can in fact obtain a combination of characteristics, favoring some at the expense of others including Strength, vitality, agility, charisma and intelligence. This phase, unless you want to opt for the basic values, will require a little more concentration and time, also because the chosen union will change not only the abilities, but also the appearance of the character!
Another value of the RPG lies in the reflection of the Ki, or the aura of the character. In certain situations, such as dialogues, a choice between two options will be required, one brighter and one darker. The choice made will affect, in fact, the aura of the protagonist, making it more inclined to light (and therefore to the salvation of the world and the tree of life) or to darkness (and therefore to the death of the tree of life). The trend obtained will manifest itself during the adventure, also risking to change relations with allies!
Biomutant could be defined as a huge opportunity that has not been exploited to the full. A potentially gripping storyline marred by storytelling, a completely new and fascinating but too lively and detailed game world, underwhelming game characters and non-immediate combos in the fights make life difficult overall for the positive aspects of the title, such as the vast customization possibilities and the interesting mechanics of aura management. The effect obtained is, after an initial amazement at the novelty represented by the background story, that of generating boredom in the player, combined with a certain dissatisfaction - deriving above all from the promising cutscenes shown until a short time before the release - and a frustration often resulting from fighting. In conclusion, the RPG of Experiment 101 and THQ Nordic does not convince, remaining relegated to the confines of an adventure that could have all the credentials to become great, but wanted to stop at an even too early stage.
► Biomutant is an Action-RPG type game developed by Experiment 101 and published by THQ Nordic for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 25/05/2021
