‘Biomutant’ is a charming science fiction action RPG with a nice narrative twist to it which was originally released on Xbox One PlayStation 4 and PC back in 2021. It comes from Swedish developers ‘Experiment 101’ and published by ‘THQ Nordic’.
Biomutant went under my radar back then but it has now found a new lease of life on the Nintendo Switch.
So let’s see how this intriguing tale holds up on Nintendo’s hardware.
Taking place after a cataclysmic disaster that caused an apocalypse at the hands of the corporate juggernaut ‘Toxanol’, you play a mutant animal (I’m guessing a fox from my character) in the new world.
However even though this new world is full of lush green landscapes with nature having reclaimed the land, the world around you is on the brink of collapse with the Tree of Life at risk of being destroyed. It’s up to you to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Now I’m not going to lie, I didn’t play ‘Biomutant’ when it originally came out so I was going in fresh and not knowing what to expect. And I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting a gritty open-world action RPG by looking at the front cover, but what you get is a fun action RPG with heart and humor with narrative at the center of it. Yes, it is an open-world game with a big map to explore, outposts to take control of and side quests to complete, but it feels like the old style of gaming from the 360 era where games were actually fun to play.
Many open-world games now are just too big with too much to do making it a very overwhelming experience, but in ‘Biomutant’s’ case, the world and characters are that charming and interesting to explore that it makes it less of a chore the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ games of recent years and more like the fun of the past.
Gameplay you have two types of combat styles, swordplay or guns. Both are unique in their own right, but it’s the ability to craft your own wacky-looking weapons and upgrade them and your gear to how you want them that makes the combat fun and fluid to play. You can be hacking at an enemy with a sword then backflipping away to avoid an attack to finish them off with your pistols from a safe distance.
Along with this style of combat are your abilities. While progressing through Biomutant you obtain Upgrade points, Bio points and PSI points. These allow you to build the character and play the style you want. Bio points allow you to upgrade the biogenetic powers that you can use during combat, like Mud Punch which raises the ground in front of you sending enemies up
into the air which you can then attack with your sword or pistols. Bio points also allow you to upgrade your resistance to different environmental conditions like cold, heat and radiation. PSI points grant you access to different psionic powers that give you that edge in combat, like the ability to teleport your way around an enemy or levitation.
Finally, upgrade points let you upgrade your Wung-fu which is your different combat abilities and it also lets you upgrade your perks that come in handy outside of combat like the charmer perk that lets you have the chance to use persuasion in dialogue.
As I mentioned before you have your main set of missions to progress the story and your character but you also have side quests and tribe missions to keep you busy. For example, to help your tribe get a foothold against the rival tribe you can attack and claim outposts giving your tribe more territory.
The interface is also worth noting to point out
Your HUD when playing is simple and not intrusive allowing you to be immersed in the gameplay. But it’s the pause menu that I love the most. Set against a lovely shot of the landscape, you have everything you need accessible to you via this menu. Your map to the top of the page, all the system options are to the right, gear inventory and crafting are to the bottom and all your character perks and abilities are to the left. It’s sleek, well designed and pleasant to look at.
Graphics and performance wise I was blown away by how well Biomutant runs.
In handheld mode, Biomutant runs at 30fps in 720p with dynamic resolution and in docked mode, it runs at 30fps in 1080p with dynamic resolution. And to be fair it runs fantastic in both modes. I’ve only encountered a few frame rate drops in built-up areas which is to be expected along with the slight blur to the character models that you come to expect now with Switch ports. But with the ageing hardware of the Switch, Biomutant runs fantastically well. It’s up there with the ‘Witcher 3’, ‘Vampyr’ and ‘Alien: Isolation’ ports.
I did however encounter a few glitches but nothing too game-breaking. Biomutant did crash at one point when I was heading to a built-up area on the map. And then the camera decided to have a mind of its own when I was trying to attack an outpost. I also noticed some pixelation at the bottom of the screen after removing the Switch from docked mode and back into handheld, but nothing a restart couldn’t fix.
Voice acting wise there is very little in the way of character dialogue in Biomutant. Every character doesn’t really speak English (what would you expect from mutated animals) however the story is carried along by the brilliant narration of David Shaw Parker (who signs strikingly similar to Kevin Brighting from ‘The Stanley Parable’) the other voice acted roles are light Aura and Dark Conscience which reflects your inner balance and are determined via your choices through Biomutant.
I did find however the dialogue for both light and dark would abruptly cut out before the end of the sentence leaving the subtitles to pick up the rest. A slight audio glitch here, unfortunately.
Overall ‘Biomutant’ is a thoroughly enjoyable and charming experience that took me by surprise. It’s made me fall back in love with open world games again. That’s to its intriguing world and story.
Though it may have some technical glitches here and there it’s nothing a day one patch can’t fix. ‘Biomutant’ gets a 9/10 for its great performance for a ported game on the Nintendo Switch.
Biomutant Gameplay Trailer
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