BioMutant’s build-up to launch has been a long, winding path. That path has been fraught with mystery and anticipation, an exciting combination for any game. After years of waiting, though,BioMutantis hereand ready to be explored. Unfortunately, despite all of the potential the world offers,BioMutantstruggles to find its footing atop a mountain of seemingly solid gameplay concepts.
Leading up to launch,BioMutantwas pitched as a cross betweenBreath of the WildandShadow of Mordor,two of the defining open-world games from the last decade. It’s easy to see these inspirations while exploringBioMutant’s sizeable map, but it comes across as a diet version of what its contemporaries offer. The world is not as rich, the enemies are not as deep, and the exploration is not open asBreath of the WildorShadow of Mordor.
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It’s not for a lack of trying, though. In fact, the similarities with both games make up the core of everything that players will be doing in theirjourney throughBioMutant.There are four “Poofs” scattered around the world for players to defeat, and in doing so, save the World Tree – something of a trope, but it still looks visually interesting inBioMutant’slandscape. This usually involves completing a set of fetch quests for a character, unlocking a specialized mount, then taking on the Poof in a boss battle.
Boss battles with Poofs aren’t all that exciting, though the standout is the underwater fight against the Murk Poof. The formula is clearly inspired byBreath of the Wild’s Divine Beasts, butBioMutantshirks the puzzle box elements that madeBoTW’s Divine Beasts interesting, instead dropping the player into a fight with a would-be Gannon. Visually, the Poofs aren’t that striking except for their size, and the characters working to take them down alongside the player never feel fleshed-out.
The Tribe War – another one ofBioMutant’smain objectives – suffers from similar issues. Early on in the game, players will pick which faction they want to assist, the first two options being a black-and-white morality decision. It’s possible to change tribes later down the line, butBioMutantdoesn’t really explain the process behind doing so. Plus, players are able to cut the Tribe War incredibly short during the course of the playthrough, advancing the story but skipping a chunk of the game.
As part of the Tribe War, players are tasked with taking over outposts to increase their territory, but taking over outposts is a tedious process. Some require the player to fight through a few waves of enemies, others have them complete a quick objective – collecting an item or flipping a switch, usually – and a few can be resolved with a simple persuasion check. Then, players take down a faction’s fort, which couples a few of those objectives together. Beating a faction will unlock its weapon for players to use, which can shake up combat.
Those shakeups are a godsend, too, because combat is central toeverythingBioMutanthas on offer. Visually, the mechanics are interesting, boasting an action movie flair that few games can replicate coupled with comic book-style “thwacks” when hard hits land. There are a few different weapon types, though many of them share the same combo inputs. There’s a radial menu that allows players to equip different weapons on the fly, so having similar combo inputs does help keep combat from feeling bogged down.
Throughout the entire experience, players never feel all that powerful, despite how they dance around on-screen shooting guns and throwing swords. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Even the minor enemies found inBioMutantcan take a beating, so players will often spend a considerable bit of effort clearing them out of an area. It’s all still workable, butBioMutant’s combat systemwould’ve greatly benefitted from a larger number of weaker enemies.
There’s a nifty crafting system for players to create their own weapons, allowing them to mix and match weapon components to their heart’s content. Weapons are level-gated, so it can take some time before players really have freedom over their creations, but it’s easy to create some cool-looking combos. The distribution of crafting resources is somewhat imbalanced, which can make it frustrating to throw together a good weapon when a player is missing a key resource, but that’s a relatively minor issue.
Perhaps its biggest selling point,BioMutant’s worldreally does pop visually, and it’s wide open for exploration – with a few asterisks. Essentially, a corporation’s disregard for the environment has led to the dilapidated, mutant-ruled world that players now roam. Crumbling buildings and broken down infrastructure dot swathes of the landscape, with other segments marred by toxic fumes and sludge.
It’s here thatBioMutantencounters one of its gravest issues. It presents players with vehicles to explore the overworld, like a mech and a sort of jet ski, but the areas they can be summoned at are extremely limited.BioMutanthands players interesting toys, but rarely lets the player take them out of the box. This is particularly rough for the jet ski mount, asBioMutant’s swimming mechanics are painfully restrictive, only allowing players to go a few seconds before drowning – and slowly at that.
Concerningly, the game does struggle with performance issues, evenrunning on the PS5. While many of the worst issues we experienced appear to have been fixed with the most recent patch – specifically a bug that would turn half the screen black – there are still problems with crashing and frame rate dips. Those dips don’t occur with alarming frequency, but they were still common enough to be an issue.
BioMutantis teeming with potential, but a lot of that potential has been squandered. It’s not a bad game, but it isn’t going to be the standout project THQ Nordic fans were hoping for. Still, even with all of its issues, players may find themself booting up New Game Plus mode once their journey has been finished, despite breathing a sigh of relief when they finally see the credits roll.
BioMutantreleases May 25 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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BioMutant is a large-scale open-world action-adventure RPG that sees players creating their own unique fuzzy avatar and then embarking on a post-apocalyptic-style quest to unite (or destroy) various tribes across the land.
