I see so much potential in you...
I try to be openminded. No really, I do. Whenever I see a an expression of a movie, show or game that's far out of my traditional wheelhouse I absolutely try to give it a chance to disappoint me first before deciding that I don't like it. (Afterall, that's only fair.) Yet even with the huge allowances I permit, there'll be those odd games that I see and just cannot be bothered, you know? The sorts of titles that the second I see them I just know that my noggin won't even go the distance of committing it to memory. It'll be gone the second I blink. And so it was with Biomutant. I literally just saw the old 'cute animals with weapons' and suddenly transposed the memory with one regarding how much I was excited for Beyond Good and Evil 2. (Because this game first entered my radar so long ago that game still wasn't shaping up to be elaborate vaporware. Seriously, what's happening with that, Ubisoft?) But only now, in the year of our lord 2021, am I learning that I was actually a big doofus and completely missed a potential gem.
In my defence, the event of Biomutant's announcement had preceded this trailer with a least two desperate "Please make this an esport so it blows up" style games; including one which had the gall to show off a mock-match with 'Live commentators'. Yes, that happened in the middle of an E3 press conference. (Someone needs to go into these marketing boardrooms and slap half the staff to get the stupid out.) So it's safe to say that I was pretty freakin' emotionally spent by the time Biomutant shoved it's vague/sparse trailer in front of me. I mean, I ignored the game but even then I distinctly remember thinking "What. This another tournament game? Skip." Which, whilst that's partially on the studio and their meh trailer, it's also on the organisers for grouping these trailers together. I mean was someone trying to stitch this game up or what?
Accusations can be serious, but I make them anyway because I seriously hear next to no-one talk about this title ever, and yet every other month some MMO channel publishes a 50 minute case study on why Amazon's upcoming 'New World' is going to tie me shoelaces, make me breakfast and shake for me after I'm done in the toilet. (For the record: I'm highly dubious of anything out of Amazon's Lumberyard. I mean that both literally and metaphorically) So I can only assume that many people made the same assumption I did, thus let me try and set the record straight; Biomutant is not an online tournament shooter, or battle royale or anything like that. In fact, it's a brand new single player action RPG published by THQ Nordic with a weirdly ambitious streak to it. I mean- am I crazy or does that sound right up my alley? Yours too, perhaps?
Described as, and I quote, "an open world, post apocalyptic Kung-Fu fable RPG", Biomutant stands to do that which I've wanted for the longest time and bring martial arts combat back to Role playing games. (I thought Jade Empire's legacy would be but dust.) As far as I can tell, this game takes place in a world, that might not even be our own, but which has been ravaged with, what I can only assume is, nuclear devastation. But even if that is a correction assumption, it happened in the long distant past because in the setting of this game, all we have are the vestiges of that world completely grown over with nature taking her rightful place as leader of all things. And whatsmore, the land is now filled with mutated anthropomorphic animals that look right out of a new Pixar-universe title. And I know I've been saying that quite a bit with animated-styled games of late but this generation has just been a winner in design concept, man, what can I say?
So we have a game that wants to marry science fiction, with mysticism in a cuddly, but not too cuddly, looking society that favours both guns and martial arts. That doesn't sound like a nothing game that isn't worth some attention, does it? There's talk of exploration based on gear and equipment, which sounds like some vaguely Metroidvania philosophies thrown in the mix, a glider system which borrows a concept from Breath of the Wild but at least looks distinct and a tantalisingly unique levelling system which encourages the genetic restructuring of the player in order to give them new abilities. That means, to borrow from the examples the team themselves provide, growing a barbed tail or getting telekinetic abilities. They even got a little cheeky and mentioned the ability to grow Mantis Claws. (Huh, that reminds me of something...) So we're talking about a gear-improvement system that is transferred onto the character themselves and changes their physical appearance? These guys better watch out with all their ambition, it tends to get ol' Brutus angsty. (Is that the second terrible reference this year? Somebody stop me.)
What makes this all the more interesting is the fact that the studio involved, Experiment 101, has literally only worked on this game since founding in 2015. (Or at least, that's what it says on their socials. They may have done some support work on other THQ projects, I'm not discounting that.) And yet, when you look at the gameplay trailer which is out it looks insanely high-quality. Which might raise a few alarms bells, especially after last December's little gaming catastrophe, but the team is made up some old school talent, so you can rest easy there. (Including an executive from Avalanche Studios!) Now that doesn't mean the game is destined to be everything that it looks to be, I'll likely never trust a studio to deliver what they promise again, but I get the feeling that whatever this ends up being it won't be an unmitigated mess like some might presume.
But then, why isn't this game doing the rounds? Especially as it's slated for a 2021 release. (Baring any changes) Well that is because the game has been keeping an abnormally tight lid on things, to the point where we've been practically radio silent for nearly an entire year. And why did they come out in that last interview? Well mostly to let people know that the game wasn't cancelled and was still being worked on. I understand people's concerns, just look at 'Beyond Good and Evil 2'; that's a game which stirred everyone up for a while only to go radio silent and end up being cancelled years later. Now that very game is back with the same name and a completely different concept, and history seems to be repeating itself. (The cancellation word hasn't come down yet but I'm certainly not optimistic right now.) When we aren't hearing things it makes us nervous as gamers, but I'm starting to come around to the idea that silence can be good.
Being quiet doesn't necessarily mean that development is stalling, or even that problems are arising. In fact, it could very much just mean that everything is going so well that there's no real time to take out a month to put together a trailer or a vertical slice. Although THQ could, and should, probably start ramping up on the marketing, honestly I'd prefer to get a game which is as good as it appears to be, rather than be hyped up about a pipe dream which doesn't go all the way when it should have. Besides, the basic details about the game really is enough to sell me hook-line-and-sinker. I will play this game, provided I'm still alive after it launches, that's how much I love the premise; I don't need to see anything more. So perhaps I speak for myself, but pimp on Experiment 101, and above all make yourselves proud, because I'm starting to come around to the old Nintendo ideal that a contented Developer makes better games.
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