Ever since Rockstar Games came along and revolutionized 3-D open-world play with the Grand Theft Auto series, nearly every other game has been an open-world game. The credit cannot only be shouldered by GTA. Role-playing games like the original Legend of Zelda have been giving players a sandbox to explore and play in without forcing them to follow a linear path.
Much like the Legend of Zelda series, Biomutant is a pre-teen friendly open-world game whose gameplay is quite similar to games like Devil May Cry and the first Darksiders. The gameplay isn’t the only connection that Biomutant shares with Darksiders.
They both have the same publisher, THQ Nordic. Therefore, it is really no surprise that they would have similar gameplay and aesthetics, despite being developed by two different studios. We hope that it can cleanse the palate of the bad taste that Darksiders III left in many gamers’ mouths.
We’ve been feverishly waiting for this game since the establishment of Experiment 101 (the developer) in 2015. So, in this guide, we’ll explore and discuss when the game will be released, its history, gameplay, story and much, much more.
July Update
On June 25, 2020, THQ Nordic dropped a new nine-minute Biomutant gameplay trailer. First of all, we are really happy to see that they’ve updated the graphics and visuals.
In the opening seconds of the trailer, you see an anthropomorphic character riding a blue moose, then the video cuts to what may be the same character practicing martial arts in front of a full moon.
Next, we get shots of Biomutant’s world, replete with vivid greens and blues. We shoot back to what seems like dusk or dawn where our character is now on horseback. This essentially tells us that we’ll have a number of different steeds and animals at our disposal to help us traverse the world.
Once again, we can’t leave this scene without commenting on how lovely the visuals are. It seems that the devs have really overhauled the graphics. We hope that they have tweaked and modernized the gameplay too. While what we saw from initial demos and screenings was promising, the combat felt outdated and uninspired.
The rest of the trailer takes us through more environments, character customizations, and enemy and boss battles. The visuals and character models look more alive than they have ever been. The backdrops look artistically done. There are details and minute visual nuances that weren’t there before.
For instance, lighting difference, fur reacting to the wind, and the greenery has a more Zelda Breath of The Wild-like feel. As a matter of fact, it’s not hard to see that Biomutant took a large chunk of its inspiration from that game.
From what we can see in this trailer, we can confirm that Biomutant will be set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans have gone extinct. However, what we don’t learn from the trailer is when the game will actually come out.
The trailer ends with the Biomutant label scrawled over the word “Coming” which then turns into “When we’re happy with it”. Below that, you see the studio and publisher logos and the platforms the game will be released on.
We’re not too mad at THQ Nordic’s “when we’re happy with it” approach. It gives us PTSD flashbacks of George R.R. Martin’s empty promises but the game is quite ambitious and we believe it will need time for refinement. Rather wait, than under-deliver a buggy mess.
It looks like we’ll have to wait a while but this gameplay trailer definitely wets our mouths.
Biomutant Development History
The development studio (Experiment 101) behind the game was established in Sweden, mainly by ex-Avalanche developers. THQ Nordic then acquired it in 2017. That very same year in August, gamers caught a whiff of Biomutant’s existence from an advertisement in GamesMarkt, a German gaming magazine.
Before Experiment 101, the developer’s most noteworthy contribution to gaming is the Just Cause series. When they left Avalanche, they felt like working on something a little more wholesome.
We all know how the Just Cause series, especially the 3rd and 4th games, are an orgy of Michael Bay-isms. The gameplay is fun but shallow. Biomutant became Experiment 101’s chance to redeem and reinvent themselves.
It was a chance to work on something truly meaningful. On paper, Biomutant feels like a mix between Kung-Fu Panda and the Ratchet and Clank games. You get a world of anthropomorphic characters in what seems to be a post-apocalyptic sandbox. It is sure to tantalize any furry fans.
As you can tell from the gameplay footage, the game looked to be promising, with some very bright and creative concepts. Fusing modern hack and slash with exploration and deep storytelling. While the game features fighting, it’s not gory.
It feels like the exact antithesis of the Just Cause games. In initial screenings, the game seemed to lack punch and polish. There are bugs in the graphics and sound. The combat seemed to be a little repetitive and fights often felt hollow. There was no real weight behind the hits.
The game was built using the Unreal Engine 4. If nothing else, you can expect it to look pretty.
Biomutant Release Date
This game has had so many false release dates, you’d think it was written by George RR Martin. It was initially expected to be released in 2018, and then it was pushed to 2019. 2019 arrived and left with no mention of a concrete release date from THQ Nordic.
It’s 2020 now and neither the developer or publisher has released a formal statement on when gamers can expect the game. According to Experiment 101’s director, Stefan Ljungqvist, the game’s content was complete.
He said this back in 2017. Three years later and there still isn’t a release date. Nevertheless, gamers can pre-order the game from Amazon. They have it available for the Windows PC, PS4 and Xbox One. You have your choice of the Standard, Collectors or Atomic edition.
According to the product page, the game will come out on New Year’s Eve. Of course, this is just a soft release date. Amazon doesn’t really know either.
Biomutant Story and Gameplay
Similarly, to the Fable series and a bulk of other RPGs, Biomutant has a branching storyline where your decisions have real-time consequences of how the narrative goes. But from what we’ve heard and seen from Experiment 101, their ambition is to craft a game where your decisions have a deeper influence on the story than most games.
So not only will you be able to customize and create your own character but you’ll have full authority on how they progress through the game and where it takes you. It’s safe to say that Experiment 101 wants to give you a game that isn’t only fluid in its combat and gameplay, but fluid in its storytelling too.
Biomutant Plot and Setting
Biomutant is set in a place called the New World. What holds the New World together is the Tree of Life which stands at its center.
In the game, a natural disaster occurs where oil pollutes and poisons the Tree of Life. This obviously has dire consequences on the new world, transforming it into a pre-apocalyptic setting. The corruption of the Tree of Life brings about Bio-Creeps who now infest and cause chaos in major parts of the New World.
The Tree of Life has five roots, which extend to the entire New World, nourishing it and giving it life. For those who have played the Legacy of Kain games, you’ll notice how this is similar to the Pillars of Nosgoth. As with the corruption of the Pillars, the corruption of the Tree of Life has some very terrible effects on the New World.
Another similarity to the series is that players get to choose if they want to save the Tree of Life or let it rot completely. To save the Tree of Life, the player will need to travel to the end of each root, where you can cleanse the tree of its corruption. You’ll also meet a creature gnawing on the root.
These Bio-Creeps serve mostly as boss fights. To fully liberate each root, you’ll have to defeat these creatures.
To help you along with your journey, there are six different tribes scattered around the New World. Three of them are committed to healing the Tree of Life, while the other three are either indifferent or have their own goals in mind. Your decisions can either unite them or destroy them altogether. Exciting stuff.
Karma System
The game utilizes a Karma system, which determines how tribes and NPCs will interact with you. It also affects the quest-lines and missions you’ll get. It will also inform your dialog options.
As you progress on your journey, you’ll be accompanied by your Automaton. This is basically a sidekick, quite (possibly) similar to a dog in Fable. Not much is known about the Automaton yet. We suspect you’ll be able to upgrade it like everything else in the game.
Depending on your Karma, you can choose to ally with a tribe and destroy other tribes. This will give the tribe you’ve allied with greater power and strength in the world. Ultimately, you’ll be able to eliminate other tribes and forcefully emulate its members into one large tribe.
You can also recruit members of a tribe to assist you in certain missions and quests. Players can choose to forego and skip this part of the game.
You can simply go it alone and focus on the fate of the Tree of Life with as little Tribe interaction as possible. This gives it the feel of a quality sandbox game where your decisions carry some actual weight.
The games Karma system will have a great impact on how the story unfolds and how NPCs will treat you. Karma is measured through a Yin-Yang symbol. The more you interact with certain characters, the more is unveiled about certain areas in the game.
Building and Customizing Your Character
As we’ve previously mentioned, the player’s first agenda is to create and customize their character. You can choose its gender/sex, height, body mass and shape, fur, fangs, etc. However, unlike most games, how you customize your character has an actual influence on how you’ll play the game.
For instance, a character with more mass sacrifices movement for power and durability. While slimmer characters have more agility. Giving your character a big head will increase its intelligence.
Don’t let my very limited description fool you, this is a game with some very deep customization. The only true limitation you have is that you have to choose a raccoon-like character.
Combat
Again, like the Devil May Cry and Darksiders games, you’ll be able to mix with short-range sword attacks with long-range shooting. The difference is Biomutant has more creative weapon choices that most of these games.
This is because you have to basically craft your own weapons from the parts you find and purchase all over the New World. Each part will affect how the weapon performs. You can craft pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles, throwing stars, shurikens, daggers knives and all forms of large swords.
You can also add a bunch of attachments to your weapons. These can inflict electrical, cold/freeze and fire damage. Some enemies are more sensitive to certain elemental attacks than others are. You can cycle through your weapons during combat, which allows you to build a dynamic strategy.
Not all attachments and modifications are elemental. For instance, you’ll be able to add chainsaw modules to your swords as well as corkscrews.
You’ll obviously be facing more creatures than one in each battle, so you’ll need to mix up your attacks and combat strategies, switching fluidly from melee to long-range attacks.
The combat is based on various martial arts. If you’ve got a keen eye you’ll be able to see the influences from practices and styles such as Gun-fu, Wushu, Chicken-Fu, etc. Some of these styles and abilities can be unlocked and learned by interacting with certain important characters all over the New World.
It’s uncertain if these characters will be formal senseis but we suspect that they will be.
That’s not the only way you’ll be able to upgrade your character and its skills. The game also allows players to modify their abilities and change their appearances through the use of mutations and bio-mechanical parts.
Mutations can be applied using Bio-points in areas with Bio-contamination. Bio-points are gathered from defeating Bio-creeps and other mutated creatures in the New World. Players can also use bio-points in radioactive bunkers to apply special psionic abilities. For instance, levitation and telekinesis.
With biomechanical modifications, you’ll be able to attach robotic ligaments like a robot arm that’s quite reminiscent of Modo’s from Biker Mice from Mars. In a way, not only will you be able to craft and modify your weapons but you can also craft or build your character as your journey progresses through Biomutant.
Through the use of Bio-points in contaminated zones, you will be able to grow wings, sharper claws, barbed tails and a bunch of other cool modifications that will influence battle and exploration.
World Traversal
Biomutant’s world offers shifting and dynamic vistas and areas. There are snowy passes in arctic areas, arid desert-like areas, a seedy underworld, grassy fields, and jungles.
One of the most exciting areas in the game is called Spot-Spot. It’s an open mountain area that’s replete with gorgeous panoramas and explorable sub-areas.
To make it easier for you to get around the New World, you’ll need a combination of special clothing, mutations, and vehicles. For instance, you’ll need gas masks and oxygen tanks to travel deeply into areas with high poisonous fumes or air pollution.
Biomutant has a large selection of vehicles. Hopefully, the developers learned from their Just Cause mistakes and each vehicle has better handling. Players will be able to use air balloons, mech suits, jet packs and aircraft to reach certain areas.
The developers have aimed to make Biomutant a deep systematic game. It has a sophisticated dynamic weather system and a day-night cycle, which will affect enemy behavior and other gameplay elements. Every area will also experience changes in temperature as well as the weather.
Missions and Quests
One thing that was interesting to hear from the director is how hates fetch quests. The game will be mission-based but none of these missions will be fetch-quests. When Stefan Ljungqvist sat down with Gamereactor, he said:
‘“I’m not a huge fan of collect/fetch quests, I don’t think we have any of those. So what we try to do is to have what we call secret discoveries, or exploration, where actually find something interesting in the world and that will give you a small personal questline that will give you some form of reward. I’m trying to avoid some really particular examples but maybe I should give one.”
Outside of the missions and tasks, you’ll get from interacting with certain characters, the game will also allow you to uncover secret puzzles and items. If you want to uncover more the New World and its secrets, you’ll have to explore and venture through it on your own.
However, Biomutant does have a guiding hand in the form of a narrator. It gives the game a feel that of a live-story or a pop-up book. The voice can be annoying at times but it looks like you’ll be able to limit it by muting it or turning it down.
However, the voice of the narrator seems to be useful when the player feels lost or has some trouble with a puzzle or exploration. It will also help you tutor you in the gameplay and controls.
Enemies
We don’t have much information on all the game’s enemies. From the trailers and gameplay video, we can see that you’ll be battling out with large ogre-like creatures, small mutated creatures as well as martial artists from other tribes.
One of the game’s enemies that you’re likely to face is a Mork. Morks are types of Bio-creeps that resemble giant mutated pray-mantis. They look like the stuff of nightmares.
Multiplayer
No multiplayer has been announced for this game yet. It looks to be exclusively single-player which is perfect for anti-social gamers like myself. Once again, I’ll remind you that you’ll be able to play along with friendly AI.
Age Rating
To reiterate, Experiment 101 wanted to present gamers to a wholesome experience. Not quite as light-hearted as the Ratchet and Clank series. Currently, the provisional rating for Biomutant is 12 and up. So it’s suitable for pre-teens and adults.
Biomutant Trailers
The announcement trailer for Biomutant was released on the 21st of August 2017, right around the time when players could demo it at Gamescom in Germany.
Along with the announcement trailer, a gameplay trailer was also released:
While the announcement trailer was enough to inspire some excitement, the gameplay trailer was where the real magic is. From the gameplay trailer, you can see all the various environments you’ll be able to traverse through as the character.
It was also a great showcase of the various weapons and vehicles you’d be able to use. It also showed some of the interactions you’d have with NPCs as well as the combat. What I found to be particularly awesome is the changing weather system.
It seems like you’ll be able to travel through snowy mountain passes and dry desert areas.
Once again players who visited Germany’s Gamescon in 2018 had the special privilege of getting their hands on the game. This time, there were noticeable changes in some of the animation and gameplay. It was more polished but still not perfect.
What we can see from the trailer is new enemies and more NPCs. You can also see the very creative and charming character design. We’re also introduced to new ways of traversing and traveling through Biomutant’s world.
It’s very reminiscent of the complete freedom you feel while you’re flying around and zipping through Just Cause’s various vistas. You can see that Experiment 101 took what they learned from developing Just Cause and injected it into Biomutant.
Again, near the beginning of Gamescom 2019, THQ released trailers for both the Collector’s edition and the Atomic edition of the game.
The Atomic edition features a physical copy of the game packaged in a premium metal box. In addition to this players will get swag and other accessories which includes:
- High detailed diorama – 60cm/23″ long, 25cm/10″ width, 30cm/12″ height
- Steelbook
- L/XL T-Shirt
- Mousepad 80cm/31″ x 35cm/14″
- Artwork printed on A1 sized Fabric
- Soundtrack
By the looks of it, the Atomic edition could be one of the best gifts for gamers, especially in the holiday season.
On the same day that THQ Nordic announced the Atomic edition, they also announced the collector’s edition.
In addition to a physical copy of the game, the Collector’s edition comes with:
- Game hero figurine
- Artwork printed on A1 sized Fabric
- Soundtrack
- Premium Box
It’s also slightly less expensive than the Atomic edition. Once again, all versions of the game can be pre-ordered from Amazon.
Since the announcement of Biomutant’s special editions, THQ Nordic has been tight-lipped on when we can expect the final release of the game. There have been a few videos of some of the gameplay but still no actual concrete date.
Final Words
Don’t you hate it when game developers keep teasing you? Tease someone long enough and they’re bound to lose interest. We hope that Biomutant can at least come out before the PlayStation 5. Compared to some of the games being released this year, Biomutant is already starting to look aged. Nevertheless, if you consider the systematic gameplay and all the nuances in the game, you can understand why it’s taken so long to finalize the release date.
In addition to this, it’s a cross-platform game. We’d rather have the developers take their time while working on this game, instead of releasing a buggy mess. Either way, we hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this article and we hope it’s enough to help you maintain some hope for its release. Thank you for reading and happy gaming.