Clever title

Game review: Biomutant

If I had to describe this game in one sentence, I would call it an ambitious blend of Watership Down, Fallout, and Jade Empire. There is a lot of creativity in this game and I really like the overall concept. However, there are some problems with execution that hurt this game a little.

Character creation and the design in general were really great to me. I always enjoy playing around with character creators and seeing what my options are. There are a decent number of character models shared between enemies and NPCs. The soundtrack has a very light touch, but it's good when it's playing.

Exploring the overworld was very fun. There are different biomes to explore, with forests, deserts, swamps, etc. There are also a lot of fun little quests to do, such as turning on all the washing machines in the land (which gives a really nice weapon I liked). Each area introduces a new mount with unique abilities. There are plenty of collection quests to customize your mounts, weapons, and armor. There are also some fun questlines to affect the state of the world. One of the weak elements of exploration is the puzzles. The puzzles are not too difficult, and are all some variation on lining up two different colors. If you have higher intelligence you get more moves to complete them before getting locked out. However, nothing is stopping you from trying again until you get it right as long as you have the bare minimum moves to solve it.

Combat was the biggest problem for me: it simply wasn't very fun. It has a pretty standard setup of light/heavy attack, with a few combos. Spells and ranged weapons are also an option. I focused on melee during my playthrough, and to be honest I was disappointed. In terms of raw damage output, my melee attacks did a nice amount of damage. However, the unlimited ammo meant that it was often easier and safer to just strafe around enemies and unload. If that was effective for a melee class, I can only imagine it is better for the ranged class options. Combat is also on the floaty side, for lack of a better word.

Overall I thought this was a pretty fun game. The weak gameplay made me consider dropping the title, but I was enjoying the rest of it enough to stick with it to the end. I am glad I waited a while to buy it on discount.

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