[Gamescom 2018] Biomutant - Proven, THQ Nordic's raccoon is angry

In these days the Gamecom, a well-known European videogame fair that is staged in the German city of Cologne. As usual, we in the editorial team also participated in the event, trying out many games coming out this year and the one to follow. One of these was Biomutant di THQ Nordic, famous publisher of the Darksiders saga. The title, already available for testing last year, stars a mutant raccoon in a post apocalyptic universe, which sees man as a distant memory. The entire planet is now dominated by the uncontested nature that has also taken possession of the ancient structures bequeathed by our race. The tree of life, or the plant that allows the development and existence of vegetation, is however dying for unknown causes. The protagonist's task will be to avert the catastrophe, intervening in the first person to stop a hypothetical second apocalypse.

Long and well stretched steps

First we found the editor of our raccoon, fully customizable in terms of size, physique and colors. While last year this functionality was purely aesthetic, in this edition of Gamescom we could see how based on our choices the character's stats varied, ensuring greater strength if we choose a more robust bust, or greater agility if we prefer to choose a smaller bust. After a short tutorial that allowed us to review the basic keys of the game, we were able to get a taste of the extra weapons present in Biomutant, that is, those that go beyond simple swords, hammers and so on: in the build at our disposal it was present a mechanical glove that used rockets to hit the enemy with greater fervor, taking away additional life. The shot could also be loaded, so as to give the shot a sort of additional boost.

It is not clear if Biomutant however, whether it is a real open world or a title that takes advantage of macro areas since the presence of rapid travel is true, but the paths covered last year and this seemed more than the corridors that guided the player towards a very specific goal. Our faithful raccoon could generate real water bubbles in some special areas that submerged him, so as to be able to allow him to perform greater jumps and "absorb" as many enemies as possible, to then release them in an explosion damaging both them and the opponents around. After a few guided phases, our goal was to repair a combat robot to exploit it later in the boss fight, so we faced a collection phase that saw us busy finding the necessary pieces. After repairing the machine, the basic controls have been transformed into something new, making the game a sort of third-person shooter. The robot, in fact, had the possibility of flying for a limited time, firing rockets that once exhausted required a slight reload time and firing cute kittens to distract the monsters from us.

Once the cognitive phase with this new technology has ended, it is time to defeat the boss in a spectacular fight, which has shown all the potential of a title that is not yet well defined from some points of view. The opponent was of high magnitude endowed with a very particular characterization, as we moved to hit it the structures around us collapsed, highlighting a truly realistic destructiveness of the setting.

Jumps and stunts

The gameplay of Biomutant it was the focus of the whole experience. The combat system is mainly characterized by the use of a close main weapon, such as the gauntlet or sword, and a secondary one such as pistols and rifles. The linked combos gave life to a real dance made of jumps and somersaults. To avoid enemy shots, of course, there is a button that manages dodge, but you can also safely jump in any direction to get yourself out of the chaos of battle. The powers, unlike last year, have not been seen, but in any case we believe that they will be introduced anyway, at least as elements to complete environmental puzzles and to diversify the combat system. The attack move set obviously changes according to the equipped item, thus giving variety in the clashes and limiting a repetition that, due to the massive presence of the enemies, could have bored the players. As previously said, once we passed inside the robot we saw a sudden change in both gameplay and rhythm, much less frenetic and more reasoned that required, in some cases, a minimum of strategy to face a certain type of enemies. .

The current state Biomutant it is a really good game that can both entertain and amuse. However, only by testing it with your hand can you understand how much, in any case, it still needs a fair amount of work. From a graphic point of view the title is beautiful but the image did not seem clean in some points, as the camera is not yet perfectly calibrated on some movements. The build was not free from bugs, even if minor and always related to the view that moved inside the large monsters. Even the enemies did not seem particularly diverse, since, in addition to some special ones, they were divided between 5-6 races and no more. From this point of view, however, the development house has reassured, promising a lively, rich and very varied ecosystem.

In conclusion we can say that Biomutant convinced us, but unfortunately up to a certain point. The build was pretty easy in terms of difficulty, and so we couldn't squeeze the combat system all the way through. The excessive linearity has instilled doubts on the nature of the work, initially proposed as an open world, but which at present, based solely on what we have seen, did not seem at all to us. The game was postponed to 2019 recently, a sign that player feedback has convinced the developer to take another year to improve the experience. so as to give users what they expect. Last year the game was characterized by the madness of some phases, now this madness has been softened making everything much more serious but no less valid. We hope to review Biomutant very soon, perhaps with some improvements that can convince us even on those points that have not particularly impressed us.