Release date: May 25th, 2021

Developer: Experiment 101

Platforms: Xbox Series S/X (reviewed), Xbox One, PS4, Steam

Price: $59.99

Biomutant is an interesting action rpg that has a lot to offer. While the game struggles sometimes on what Biomutant’s identity should be, there is plenty to see and do and there is enough content to keep gamers coming back to at least finish the story. The Gamers Lounge has spent a lot of time playing this game and has some good things to say.

Biomutant’s story can be odd sometimes but for the most part it revolves around players trying to figure out where they came from and how the Tree of Life, the centerpiece of the world, fits into everything. Apparently the world has mutated and everything has changed. Players have a lot of options when it comes to customizing their rodent-like character, everything from the stats, appearance, and how gamers want to play. I debated between a melee based rodent, a gunslinger, or something in between. I had heard the magic class could be tough to play. I went with the deadeye class which focuses on long ranged guns.

So where to start, the game is trying to mesh a lot of different elements together. Think this, RPG meets deep world ending story with a huge amount of side quests. The story and narration can be long and drawn out and all the creatures have an animal language. Lucky for those gamers in a hurry there are options to speed up the dialogue and be able to see and hear the translated text instead of waiting for the creatures to finish telling their life story. Overall players are trying to find out their past, this is told via narration and flashbacks and determine what future they want for the world and the Tree of Life.

At least Biomutant has no base building! But there is crafting which can be confusing mostly due to the menu system. As I played the game I thought it was a mix of Fallout New Vegas meets the Witcher 3 due to some of the crazy creatures and combat options. Throw in some strange puzzles involving fixing toilets, phones, and other old tech with world traversal with different vessels, and this sums up a good chunk of the game.

Players can craft weapons and armor or modify what they have. There are weapons a plenty, one handed swords, two handed hammers, giant shotguns, rifles, and pistols. This combat also comes with lots of skills to unlock, many of these are weapon based combo attacks. Players can spend their points they get from leveling on biomutant abilities which includes resistances to the 4 elements (Heat, biohazard, cold and radioactivity), and psi abilities which are the game’s equivalent to magic attacks. The psi attacks include fireballs, blazing trails of fire, turning the enemies into your allies, summoning a swarm of bug, telekinesis, teleportation and icing over the ground, plus several others.

Biomutant has a lot of different options for combat, and this can fit most play styles. I mostly used a combination of all 3 but tried to fight from a distance. I did modify my melee weapons to inflict poison damage and my rifle to have some radioactive damage. The combat is real time and it's fast. Even the boss fights are quick and fast.

Players will spend their time defeating 4 bosses that control part of the Tree of Life while picking a tribe they want to fight for. Once they pick the tribe they have to defeat the other tribe(s) at their bases and capture them. These parts aren't too long and 1/2 way through you can pick to auto defeat the rest which speeds the game up. There are plenty of side quests and places to explore in the giant world. Most of the exploring is to find new areas, and pieces of tech to upgrade weapons and armor. The world is a mesh of jungle, ice, snow, mountains and a water world. Some of the zones are toxic and players will need special armor or to buff their resistance (this is easier). Players will see old technology such as dams and skyscrapers, it's a mutated world with a lot to offer and it looks very pretty doing so. The music and characters players meet can be catchy and entertaining.

While the game does struggle with its identity there are also a few flaws, I started to lose interest in the story about 2/3 of the way through. I also wanted to know more about the past. At one point you briefly spend time under water, I was hoping for more of this. The combat may be one of the easiest and most fun parts of the game, there are generous checkpoints and it's easy to traverse the world with the generous fast travel points. In the end the 20 plus hours I spent with the game I wasn't certain I wanted more right away.

Thanks to the publisher for a review code.

Final score 3.5/5

Pros:

Lots of options for combat

It's a world with mutant animals

Action RPG that is pretty fast paced

Cons:

Can be linear, players may get bored

Needs more guns

Biomutant Review