Biomutant

I really am sorry.

Biomutant is the latest in a string of games over the last few years to divide the gaming community almost right down the center. Larger review sites bagged on it, smaller sites hailed it, and fans went to war and scorched the comments sections. Although I do agree with a lot of the criticisms and herald a lot of the standout features, I am able to overlook the former while focusing on the latter. In fact, Biomutant has quickly become a solid midyear contender for game of the year.

Come at me. But please, don’t, like, really come at me. We’re talking games here, people. I may have a strong distaste for Halo, Pokémon, Call of Duty and countless other games; hell, entire genres, for crying in my soup! But it’s games we’re talking here folks; it’s not like I’m calling your firstborn child an abomination. Although, if your firstborn child is one of these little racist tyrants in voice chat, then I guess I am calling them an abomination. But that’s on you.

But I digress.

Biomutant is exactly what I had hoped it would be, more or less — but far more than less. It’s cute; it’s fun; it’s just challenging enough that I feel like my skills are improving without getting the urge to rip out what little of my hair remains.

And sure, it’s irritating in some of its design choices. I could gripe about the implementation of lore or the basic structure of the story, or I could rant about my handful of controller nitpicks. But I could do that with pretty much any game. It just seems to me that the general consensus of the gaming community at large seems solidified by the first batch of reviews. IGN gives a game a 6/10? Time to cancel your preorders! No need to ask questions or form your own opinion when gaming review sites can do that for you.

But then again, my own opinions don’t always go down so smoothly. I thought The Last of Us Part II was a huge letdown that failed to iterate on the original game in any meaningful or intelligent way. So, burn me at the stake.

No, don’t really burn me at the stake. Look, we’ve been over this…

Biomutant

Anyway, Biomutant has such a calming, Zenlike aesthetic that I’d put it up there with last year’s Ghost of Tsushima. Despite all of the violence and general suffering of the denizens of both game worlds, there is an underlying peaceful nature, one that makes running around in fields of grass feel fulfilling. And that’s saying nothing of the joy of petting foxes.

Oh, and can you believe Ghost of Tsushima isn’t even a year old yet?

I guess my point is that people have different opinions. For me, I like Biomutant a whole lot. When I consider all of the games I have played so far this year, and look at what’s still on the horizon for the second half of 2021, Biomutant is currently the only thing I would consider as a game of the year contender.

I don’t quite see that changing all that much, but only time will tell.

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