Biomutant - Before You Buy

and we're back with another episode of before you buy that show where we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing as usual it's me jake and today we're talking about biomutin oh boy this is a thq nordic published game developed by a small swedish development studio experiment 101 and it has been in the works for a long time like many many years and we've been really looking forward to it just because of the concept itself on paper it's an open world kung fu sci-fi post-apocalyptic rpg adventure where you make your own little rock and raccoon type character and you tear it up and customize stuff ride vehicles and basically do anything and kill stuff i've been playing it for about a week now and while the game does cram all those elements in here it's not all cohesive or successful some of it is wondrous and charming and lets you disappear into it and other aspects of the game are just not fulfilling at all it's not a complete disaster i'm just mixed on it so i want to be completely upfront with you guys i don't hate this game but it does seem like some other colleagues on youtube and the internet feel differently at first reactions for this game are all over the place so i definitely recommend listening to more than just our video because i can see where some of the bigger complaints are coming from but of course uh this is a before you buy where i give you some pros and some cons and some personal opinion and i usually say that at the end of the videos but uh yeah i'm saying it now uh so anyway let's just dive in and lay some stuff out for you uh also just so you know this footage is spoiler free and captured on pc with a controller so right at the start you're dropped into the character creator where you make your own critter you're like an anthropomorphic squirrel marsupial critter raccoon cat mutant type of thing sometimes kind of bat like uh and you pick between a few different races with some visual variations from more cutesy stuff to more gross looking dudes each has differences in some of the stats like vitality strength intellect agility charisma resistances stuff like that but these stat points are then adjustable thanks to a cool little slider where you can choose which to prioritize so like there are visual differences like move towards strength and you get bulkier give yourself a bigger head because you have higher intellect skills so i guess you have a bigger brain move towards agility and you're more skinny and obviously agile but the way that you start doesn't really matter too much because you can just level up whatever skill you want later without really looking different you will also be able to choose a starting resistance like resistance to heat or cold or certain contaminated areas so certain areas will give you less of a penalty then you also of course choose your class and there's like an all-around class gun's a melee an agility focus class a heavier class a magic class a bit of a technical class and a mercenary class that's like a locked pre-order bonus which we've said this in another video but we're not really a fan of them doing that but these classes are all fairly nice and varied so there's value in trying out a few because each of them has a specific thing only it can pull off but with there being enough flexibility that you can try a little bit of everything throughout your journey your first playthrough uh roll with the psionic type class which acts as kind of the mage but you could still use a gun and vice versa maybe you're the all-around class but you can still unlock and try out some magic powers it's nice because there's a lot of fun character building you know like any action rpg it's about building up damage numbers and buffs and stuff sure yeah but what's cool about biomutant is that you're fairly consistently getting new actual things like perks or weird strange cool down abilities that can shake things up a little bit like think like an area effect ice blast that then makes the floor all slippery uh you could turn into a bouncy bubble and bounce around and mess up dudes around you that was kind of my favorite one just weird experimental stuff that is interesting to pursue and try out as you map them to an ability button prompt and that leads to the actual combat itself here it can be pretty fun you can dodge you can parry you can aerial juggle jump slice slash bash punch kick and use your guns and magic and also nail three special attacks in a row and you can access kind of like an overpowered status where you go into kung fu overdrive which is even cooler it's a lot and the game seems to maneuver through most of it at least fairly well enemies are your size or much larger and some of the big guys if you stun them you can mount them and then hit them with extra damage with a cool animation using guns is pretty fun because they're fast and chaotic and you can go into various like cartwheels and sideways dives max payne style and like flips while you're shooting to make it all even more chaotic and fun there are some fairly good combos with some good combo execution feel for a little bit of extra depth too the game does have a habit of having some weird animation locks though where like sometimes you might trigger something by mistake and then the character kicks into this crazy weird animation sometimes there isn't even an enemy in front of you so it can feel a little bit jacked up here and there same goes for the fact that most of your hits don't even make enemies flinch and they just kind of power through your hits with no interrupts which is weird that's not all the time though and when the combat does get into a groove it can be pretty fun it's not as tight as something guns and swords like devil may cry or bayonetta but it's not just a rigid old rpg either it's like a dash of arkham a dash of devil may cry but like it's really its own thing especially with the emphasis on some martial arts and maneuvers and stuff especially more impressive with the amount of different weapons and move sets from like a heavy sword to dual wielding to one-handed swords or maybe a hand to hand or maybe a staff or a boomerang they all have their own animations and a little bit of a different feel and it's really cool to experiment every time you pick something up on-screen chaos can get pretty nuts and occasionally the camera can screw you over but otherwise it's impressive to see it all unfold especially with comic book design cues and stuff some people may wish the game has like a hard lock-on system but the lack of it didn't really bother me too much personally really long story short combat's alright it can be pretty fun at times but it's certainly not perfect it's gonna come down to player preference exploration via either unlocked mounts boats or other vehicles a hang glider or just on foot is fun mostly because it's just a good strange-looking world it's absolutely beautiful in spots and and feels genuinely vast you're always gonna see something off in the distance to go check out so you're constantly getting strung along you can easily get sidetracked from the main quest which uh i mean all right let's talk about the questing this is where for me the game falls short things get pretty repetitive and borderline dull and boring a little bit after a while the main stuff just boils down to meeting up with some characters chatting them up finding them special parts to fix a vehicle or just a thing to activate something to just to help you fight the area's boss it's like the tree of life and it has different roots and at each root because because you have to save the tree you have to kill these big gross things but it all kind of goes down in a similar fashion each time it's kind of like a rinse and repeat type of thing so while it is fun that there's always at least something new like a new customizable mech then a new badass jet ski stuff like that it all manages to still feel like you've seen it all questing an objective wise pretty early on this coupled with some pretty empty feeling areas like like and some copy and pasted areas like interiors and some of the base camps and stuff and the towns gives the game that like a bit of an underwhelming vibe sometimes and that's a shame because some of the foundations of like the crafting stuff is pretty awesome the most rewarding thing from exploring is finding the loot maybe it's like wearable item pieces or weapons or just crafting components meaning pieces of weapons these parts are all unique and interchangeable and have different properties like say blunt weapon long sword blade rifle versus pistol and from that base you can then add other stuff on as long as you have the expendable crafting components to put it all together it kind of feels like fallout's weapon crafting screen but with a bit more to it with more uh you know material qualities and rarity levels and some cool perks that some of them come with it really incentivized me to explore i always wanted to find new gun parts or stuff to tack onto my sword to get more critical hit chances or just like weird stuff to tack onto my armored jacket and of course you're getting stuff for your vehicles along the way too the first of which if you follow the quest path is the mech which is actually frustratingly limited in some of the gameplay scenarios but it is really fun when you use it and it's pretty destructive some there's some destructible environments and stuff and you can get really cool stuff to customize it to your liking it's like a theme along the whole game with everything you have everything gives you a thing and then you can find more loot to make that thing cooler and stronger and thankfully the game is pretty generous with doling out the cool stuff now in this world filled with these marsupial creatures many are warning against each other and need to be united or conquered in order to truly save the world and this tree of life and unfortunately the faction stuff is nowhere near as cool as it could be with all the warring marsupials and you need to pick sides it ends up just being one of the few big decisions you can make in the game that actually seems somewhat meaningful and substantial even though it can still be a bit binary that being said the game does throw lots of interesting dialogue along the way to question your character's purpose every single interaction or conversation is like this big wistful poetic discussion on your meaning in this world right and wrong and whether or not the world will survive or if it's worth saving and how you're gonna save it it's charming at first but it's almost strange how far into it it all goes the entire game is narrated by a pretty charming narrator i really like that he also speaks for all the npcs who just babble in like their native animal language so he's basically translating every other line and it's actually a very bold creative choice i respect but i felt like it slowed things down after a while and also really led to really none of the characters being very memorable which is a shame because that's something you really want in a game like this a game a massive open world you want to do the quests for this guy or that town and there's really no one to latch on to despite some characters being designed and looking downright incredible just narratively the way it plays out and conversationally the way it plays out i couldn't totally get into it the memorable characters just come few and far between and it's hard to attach yourself when you don't hear them speak still again i want to reiterate it was a creative risk that they took here and i appreciate that even if it didn't totally work out for me personally but the morality system was a letdown for me who usually likes this stuff the fact that it kind of just throws these awkward choices on you just didn't really flow right for me so the main quest is pretty simple and has only a few big memorable moments filled with a lot of wandering around and some quests in between and a bit of a controversial ending depending on who you are and how you played but just by first impressions but the main quest ain't all of it because this game world is absolutely massive with a ton of different biome variation and a lot of weird places to explore and that's where i had the most fun learning about this world listening to the music which the music can get a little repetitive sometimes especially the conversation music but i digress just gliding or riding or driving or swimming or whatevering around this world looking for lewd and finding hidden caves was just where i was enjoying the game the most sometimes the lighting or like the sunrise would hit perfectly on a beautiful landscape and reveal a hidden building i missed and then i go in i fight some bad guys stumble upon a basement go deep down solve a puzzle and get a cool new gun that shoots ice bullets that's where biomutant is at its best but the mileage is gonna vary depending on your tolerance for all the other stuff for me this hits well like a flawed but interesting turn off your brain mindless open world game it's kind of relaxing to play and have some quirky fun despite all the problems and really the main meat of the game not feeling quite as cohesive or compelling or as satisfying so while it is repetitive with not many memorable characters and some flawed combat the game world itself is still interesting and impressive for a small team so if you went into this game expecting it to be like grand theft auto fallout but with rocket raccoon you might be a bit disappointed but if you go in with an open and forgiving mine and maybe played some other flawed non-triple-a games from smaller european teams you may be open to this one like i said at the start though opinions are really split on this one i just know i'm on the side that doesn't hate it and i think you should get a bunch of different opinions about it before deciding to throw down full price cash for this because for me it's not the strongest recommendation i could ever make i will say i i think this is a great foundation for a sequel that could really blow things out of the water make character progression and in world choices even crazier amp up the presentation with more memorable characters and moments and tighten up the combat and the writing for the quest and you'd have something much more special but they are onto something here and again if this is something you've been following for a while and you know what you're getting into i'd love to hear what you think this is a before you buy like i said at the start we give you some pros and some cons and some personal opinion so now i want to hear yours down in the comments because guys i am all over the place on this one there's a lot of love there's a lot that i just didn't really jive with so let me know what you're thinking if you're watching this it comes out a day before the game releases so let us know your expectations but also let us know what kind of character you're gonna roll and if you're watching this later if you have been playing so far we'd love to hear your opinion now if this helped you out maybe steered you in the right direction all you got to do is click the like button that really helps us out a ton we would really appreciate that you can also find me and yell at me on twitter and instagram directly at jake baldino but also consider subscribing if you're new because we put out videos all the time guys but thank you for watching we'll see you guys next time [Music] hmm

Channel: gameranx

Views: 1,290,971

Rating: 4.9384499 out of 5

Keywords: biomutant, before you buy biomutant, Biomutant gameplay, biomutant game review, biomutant 60fps, biomutant before you buy, biomutant pc gameplay, biomutant open world, open world RPG, open world games, biomutant combat, biomutant graphics, Gameranx, Jake Baldino

Id: gd0p46JlXfI

Length: 15min 9sec (909 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Conquistadora15]

I actually liked their review

[u/BrandonD40]

I love jake’s before you buys

[u/VictusFrey]

The reason I know of Biomutant was because of these guys. I wish I didn't get sucked into the hype to be honest. This has been a very long weekend.

[u/Awake00]

This is my favorite gaming channel. I love them both equally.

[u/selikeh]

I love the "before you buy"-series. It's pretty much the only reviews I watch if I'm interested in a game. They highlight both the good and bad stuff in great ways, like not overly negative of the bad stuff.

I think game reviews need to be more like car reviews - just show the features, good and bad. Talk about the good and bad but let the audience decide if the negative stuff is negative to them.

[u/Ressivener]

In the end it's best to form your own opinion on any game. But if I'm ever on the fence about spending money on a game, these guys' opinion are normally the closest to my own and a great way to find out if I should go for it.

Great review, can't wait to play!