I’ve been on the Biomutant fence since the game was first announced back in August of 2017.
At first, I was onboard 100%. After all, this was coming from a new studio comprised of former Avalanche Studios employees, and it offered a seemingly unique world filled with odd inhabitants. But over the years, my excitement admittedly started to wane.
Earlier this year, a release date was finally announced. Biomutant should hit our consoles (and PCs) on May 25, 2021, which is right around the corner. With the launch-date announcement came a barrage of fresh info and gameplay glimpses, but it was the game’s combat trailer, unveiled in March, that started to get my excitement levels up again. Not completely, mind you, but I think it’s safe to say my anticipation was mounting at this point.
Just a week ago, the gaming world was blessed by yet another Biomutant trailer, this one showcasing the game’s world. It’s simply called the World trailer, and I’ll post it below for your viewing pleasure.
I sat through multiple viewings of this one, and that’s when I realized I was fully back on board. The level of charm, whimsy, and intrigue caught my attention, and my interest started growing again.
But there’s also a general sense of calm that I get when I watch the goings on of this world play out, and I can feel a passion for exploration beginning to well up inside me — the wonder of what might be over the next hilltop or around the next bend is something I haven’t felt in a long while.
That exploration seems to be aided by some ridiculous but completely sensible transportation options, from mech suits to mechanical walking hands, from giant bats and odd-looking mules to a mechanical steampunk horse. I tell you, this game has imagination to spare. And that’s saying nothing of the broken-down world itself, perhaps a remnant of our society, reclaimed by nature and herds of mutated mammals and monsters.
There’s a clip near the beginning of the trailer where a catlike character is using some sort of briefcase to glide over a broken wall, then the briefcase folds into a backpack. And man, this is just me all day.
Plus, the implementation of ziplines and tightropes screams Sly Cooper.
However, if I were to really make a comparison soup here, I would say that Biomutant looks like a cross between Beyond Good and Evil, Rage 2, and Horizon Zero Dawn. Although that might be a bit reductive, I think it’s an apt comparison, even if it’s only based on the few bits and glimpses we see in the specific trailer I’ve been talking about
It feels like there has been a long drought in the games industry, one peppered with games-as-service titles that fail to capture the long-term attention of gaming enthusiasts, or filled in by remakes and remasters of various levels of quality. A lot of that, of course, can be at least partially blamed on the pandemic, but it also feels like really good, fresh ideas are just not in great supply right now. Of course, this is just my opinion, and that opinion really only applies to the specific types of games I tend to gravitate toward.
But it looks like the drought could end come May 25. At least I hope it does. Biomutant looks like it has charm for days, and I’m really hoping that’s backed up with solid, engaging gameplay. I guess we’ll see a month from now.
