Biomutant – Review (PC)

By Phil Neyman Last updated May 23, 2021

It’s been nearly four years since Biomutant was first revealed back in the summer of 2017 and there’s been seemingly little other news on the game outside of a final release date. This has caused quite a stir in the world of video games as everyone inside and outside of the industry have spent this time speculating over what this could mean for the game when it finally releases. After what feels like an eternity, our questions have finally been answered and one thing is certain – there is a lot more going on here than any of us realized.

The world here is vibrant and alive even though the end days are upon us. Your character is the child of a great leader that once united all the clans until a great tragedy came to the world. It’s up to you to reunite the clans and destroy this evil in an attempt to save the world from extinction. Remnants of what the world once was litter the land. You’ll find plenty of lore throughout the map so make sure that you explore every inch of it. The Tree of Life is dying and it’s up to you to heal it and stop the world from ending.

First and foremost, Biomutant is a full-blown RPG. You’ll start the game in a thorough character creator that not only allows you to choose a species for your character but class as well. Choosing a class is really just a place that your character starts their journey, and nothing is off limits to you as you progress through the game regardless of your class or species. This makes it a lot easier for you to choose a class that interests you more without being handcuffed as you move throughout the story. Combat is very heavily influenced by action RPGs and mixes magic, melee, and ranged attacks together as you defeat your foes. The move list here (like everything else in the game) is very extensive and goes way beyond just a run of the mil hack n slash. You’ll need to perfect all of these in order to survive as you deeper you get into the game.

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Another RPG element that you can spend a lot of time with, if you aren’t careful, is the weapon crafting system. They have stated that there are literally millions of different crafting combinations that you can use throughout the game. Every time you pick up some scrap, you’ll find yourself thinking about what you can add to this to form the perfect weapon. Landing a blow to your enemies with a newly crafted design is absolutely rewarding and we recommend crafting constantly to find weapons that fit your fighting style the best. Sometimes you’ll have parts that you think look cool and wish they were more powerful so that you could use them and, well, you’re in luck. Scattered throughout the world are upgrade benches that you can use in order to upgrade your weapons in order to create the perfect weapon that kicks as much ass as it looks like it should.

It’s remarkable how big this game actually is. Comparisons to Horizon Zero Dawn come to mind as you traverse a post-apocalyptic world that really comes to life regardless of the time of day. The weather and a day/night cycle help to make areas you’ve previously explored feel different each time you pass through.

One thing that makes Biomutant stand out is the light/dark system that will make your Aura favor one or the other based on decisions that you make. Your Aura can change based on your answers during a conversation or through your actions throughout the game. Capture an innocent creature and choose to pet and keep it rather than kill it and your light will increase, but choose to imprison a clan that you have defeated instead of letting them join you and you’ll add to your darkness. This adds a level of replayability to the game reminiscent of Infamous Second Son.

What is evident as you play Biomutant is that the developers love video games. They took the best parts of multiple games and put them into their world in a way that pays homage to those that came before and expands on them in a way that makes sense in this world.

Though the game starts in a linear way to teach you the ropes, it unfolds into an open world within the first hour. How you play the game is entirely up to you. Every area that you discover is alive and full of characters to talk to. Sometimes you’ll just exchange pleasantries, but more often than not they will send you on a side quest or tell you of a secret area that they find worthy of exploration. The more villagers that you talk to the more the game opens up to you. Like any RPG you’ll want to level up before taking on some of the later main quest missions and the side quests help you do just that. Taking on a World Eater before you’re ready will be frustrating and unrewarding, so make sure you are ready before heading into the difficult boss fights. There are multiple difficulty settings that you can pick from, but these are tough regardless of setting if you aren’t prepared.

Though it feels like the last gen game that it is, Biomutant is still a really good looking game. The colors are brilliant, and the world really comes alive. A photo mode was added so that you can really take advantage of how dynamic the game looks at times. It’s hard to believe this is not a AAA studio but a team of 20 that really showed us what a smaller developer can create. There are some camera issues at times and occasional clunky movement, especially when jumping, but overall, the game looks and plays great. The dialogue is fascinating, and you’ll love listening to it even though you can’t understand what they are saying. The narrator will interpret as will the subtitles, but we enjoyed the latter more as the game progressed. The narrator can be a bit long-winded and knowing this they gave you an option to limit how much he gets involved.

Throughout the game characters remind us that it’s alright to remember the past but the past is just that, the past. We need to focus on the future while using the past as a guide. The team at Experiment 101 have done just that with Biomutant. They created a game that uses elements from games that we’ve loved in the past, while simultaneously moving these elements forward and blending them together to show us that video games can be so much more than we ever imagined they could be.

Biomutant is available May 25th on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.