Welcome To Biomutant

Disclaimer: I have actually played Biomutant from beginning to end, clocking in 120+ hours of gameplay. As such, I feel that my review offers a comprehensive and thus relatively balanced view of the game as a whole.

Creatures in the world of Biomutant have two ways to survive: join one of the six tribes, or roam the land alone as a ronin-like figure, fending for one’s self. The main character of this game is one such diminutive and furry fellow who gets by in a hostile world by using his wit and skill with a sword and gun. It’s a dog-like-creature-eat-dog-like-creature world in this post-post-apocalyptic landscape; and as the narrator reminds you each time you boot up the game: Welcome to Biomutant.

A Long Time Coming – Since 2017

Biomutant is an open-world action role-playing game released by Swedish indie studio Experiment 101 and is published by THQ Nordic.  First announced in August 2017 in German gaming magazine ‘GamesMarkt,’ the highly anticipated title took over 4 years to complete.

In a laudable effort, the makers of this game have poured considerable resources into making this a game that appeals to a truly global audience. It features voice acting in ten languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) and subtitles in several more languages, including Arabic.

The World of Biomutant

The world of Biomutant is populated by small anthropomorphic mammals with the ability of speech and complex thought that is completely reminiscent of humans.  These creatures live in fortresses and villages spread across the open world and engage in all human-like activities such as agriculture, trade, commerce, and warfare amongst each other.

The in-game dialogue heavily alludes to the fact that the ancestors of these creatures were once regular mammals that rapidly evolved into their current forms thanks to mutations caused by the excesses and misdeeds of a mysterious and reckless industrial entity called the ‘Toxanol Corporation.’  

In fact, humans in this world have caused their own extinction through their careless degradation of the natural environment, and these anthropomorphic mammals are now living amongst the decaying skeletons of the edifices that represent the long-gone human civilization.  

This world is simultaneously beautiful and dystopian, with stunning natural landscapes that are tragically blighted by horrible pollution caused by chemicals, biological waste, and radioactivity.

The environmental destruction wrought upon the world by humans has also resulted in the creation of massive, destructive creatures called ‘world eaters’ that begin to eat at the roots of the ‘Tree of Life,’ which keeps the entire world alive and functioning.  Your ultimate mission is to save the world by stopping these monsters.

Delving further into the branching storyline progressively reveals many facts about the state of the world and its problems, the personal past of the player character, and the origins of everything in this open world.

The premise of a diminutive, super-powered furry running around with huge swords and guns to destroy massive beasts and save the world sets a tone that can only be described as wacky and tongue-in-cheek.  This is a fun departure from the classic formula of dystopian open-world games that typically attempt to strike an ultra-serious and realistic tone.  

With such pretenses discarded right out of the gate, the makers of Biomutant seem to have had a blast being creative in their game design – absolutely everything has a touch of cheeky humor in it, from the character and weapon designs to even place names.  I guess what I’m trying to say is, I hope you enjoy puns!

Weapons & Customization

The weapons customization is a truly dizzying affair in Biomutant, and can be overwhelming at first.

Soon enough, however, you’ll find yourself consumed by a desire to upgrade the specs of your weapons and armor to meet your combat needs. This is done through a really fun customization process, as all weapons are composed of constituent parts such as the hilt/blade (mêlée), and the stock/grip/base/magazine/top mod/muzzle (ranged) – in addition to ‘add-ons’ which enable further boosting of a weapon’s stats.

These parts typically consist of odd bits of discarded man-made bits (for example, a piece of shoulder armor can be a discarded bicycle seat) and are found through foraging or acquired after finishing missions and defeating enemies. The parts can also be purchased from weapons merchants located throughout the open world, using an in-game currency called ‘green.’

All parts of every weapon are fully customizable, meaning they can be mixed and matched to create some truly unique and whacky (and powerful) tools of destruction. You can additionally arm your character with dual-wield weaponry, such as two smaller meleé or ranged firearms, adding to the high-octane combat scenarios against foes.

Character Upgrades

The character upgrade options are almost as extensive as that of the weapons customization.

Players can upgrade themselves in more conventional ways, such as earning XP and upgrade points to learn unarmed combat techniques (‘Wung-Fu’), ranged gun fighting techniques, mêlée sword fighting techniques, and increasing personal attributes such as HP/life, physical strength, agility, intellect, charisma, and luck.

But what sets Biomutant apart from similar games in the genre is the ability to upgrade or alter the character on a genetic and even ethical level.

Players can acquire and accumulate ‘bio-points’ while foraging, and use them to give the character powerful special psi-abilities such as telekinesis and levitation, and also elemental powers such as the ability to wield fire, ice, and electricity/lightning as weapons. When used skillfully in combination with the weapons upgrades, these abilities enable you to hold your own against impossibly large and brutishly powerful enemies.

Lastly, bio-points can also be used to upgrade the player character to withstand environmental hazards such as radiation, bio-toxins, extreme heat, and extreme cold. Without such resistance/immunity upgrades, the player eventually dies while trying to navigate these hazardous regions of the open world.

Additionally, choosing acts of compassion or cruelty to the NPCs/enemies during gameplay accrues ‘aura points,’ and a tally of these points is kept. This eventually tilts the player character to either the Light or Dark side, and that has implications in both gameplay and character development.

For example, certain psi-powers can only be unlocked when one leans toward either the Light or Dark side.  Certain NPCs are also more likely to take a liking or dislike toward you, depending on their own dispositions to the Light or Dark.  

Your aura even has a direct bearing on the outcome of the main storyline concerning the ‘Tree of Life,’ as you can adhere to a philosophy/gameplay strategy of salvation, either through renewal via destruction, or by conservation.

Biomutant’s Ethereal Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Biomutant is a true standout, in my opinion, with a sweeping, orchestral/string section-driven main theme that has a truly cinematic quality.  I don’t feel it would be a stretch to say that the song wouldn’t be out of place as the main theme in a Hollywood feature film.  It is a whisper of a song at first, and the build-up to the climax sneaks up on you – but in a good way. Without exaggerating, I would find myself humming that part of the song every time I played the game—big ups to the composer and the orchestra that recorded the track, because it’s absolutely stunning.

Hiccups & Misses

No game is perfect, and Biomutant also has its ups and downs.

In my run-through of the game from start to finish, I encountered no less than half a dozen crashes (PS4 Error Code: CE-34878-0). These are problems that the developers at Experiment 101 can hopefully fix with continual updates and patches.

Other niggling complaints include the rendering on certain aspects of the characters, which are less than stellar – in particular the hair and fur on creatures, which have an unusual look and seem to continually flicker and move, even when it wouldn’t be natural to do so (like when a creature is dead).

Lastly, the dialogue throughout Biomutant is distracting.  NPCs continually repeat the same lines, and some patience + finesse is (unnecessarily) required to extricate yourself from conversations that drone on and on with filler dialogue. This quickly gets tedious.  

Adding to this, all NPCs speak a gibberish language that your robot automaton companion (in the shape of a mechanical grasshopper) continually translates for you and speaks to you on behalf of the NPC – in the second person.  This produces dialogue that reads unnaturally until you get used to it, as you have to remember that the automaton is speaking to you on behalf of the NPC.

Compounding this problem further, much of this kind of dialogue from the automaton misses the mark in terms of grammar and use of colloquialisms. But perhaps this can ultimately be overlooked, as this is an international production created by non-native English speakers – besides, I would probably do a much worse job if I was asked to write conversational and colloquial native-level dialogue in Swedish or Mandarin Chinese!

Fortunately, the frequency of the lines spoken by both the NPCs and the Narrator can be reduced in the settings menu (down to zero, if desired), which can be a small mercy from the endless prattling by your automaton.

All in all though, these things ultimately amount to minor missteps that don’t derail the game.

Conclusion

Despite the few aforementioned hiccups, Biomutant is an expansive and thoroughly engaging open-world exploration game that fans of Fallout might recognize and enjoy. The game may have some rough edges, but it is especially impressive for an outing by an indie developer with much less resources and manpower than a major studio. Don’t miss this title!

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: PC, Xbox One, PS4 (reviewed); Publisher: THQ Nordic; Developer: Experiment 101; Players: 1; Released: May 25, 2021; MSRP: $59.99

Editor’s note: A Biomutant review copy was provided by the publisher.