Nintendo Just Quietly Added A Breezy, Life-Giving RPG
Cute and chill.
Biomutant is out May 14 on Switch after a much delayed port release date. The open-world action role-playing game debuted in 2021 to mixed reviews; Inverse admired its bold strangeness, like the ugly NPCs named "Chu-Chu," while other publications dismissed its story as rote. But you can’t deny it is ambitious. And outside of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the Nintendo Switch has barely any games this big — giving Switch owners a lush new world to dive into.
"Cute" and "chill" is the Switch's bread and butter, and Biomutant delivers just this throughout its bright and detailed world. While a franchise like Ratchet & Clank, the popular alien animal third-person shooter, relies on the invention of its own furry galaxy, its elaborate plot is secondary to its constant onslaught of battle. Biomutant is filled with action, including random, Final Fantasy XVI-style field battles with tiny-eyed beasts, but it is often interrupted by cutscenes and cinematic more suited to casual players or new gamers.
In a further act of hand-holding, Biomutant has a narrator (which you can turn off in settings, if you get tired of David Shaw Parker’s silky British ramblings) who basically functions as a flashing arrow.
In a further act of hand-holding, Biomutant has a narrator (which you can turn off in settings, if you get tired of David Shaw Parker’s silky British ramblings) who basically functions as a flashing arrow. Go up that ladder; talk to that wise old otter. The game's automatically-placed objective markers also make sure that you're never confused. Though, Biomutant’s open-world format also allows for deviation and for you to place your own waypoints on a remarkably beautiful, 2.5D misty map. The world is big, but it’s hardly stressful and easily navigated.
Biomutant’s tragic and absurd story is itself something of a large-scale ecological soap opera: Oil is desecrating the Tree of Life, and it's important that you protect it from the snarling World Eater bosses gnawing on its roots. But there are dark factions you can choose to align yourself with for the opposite goal, to destroy the Tree and assume its omnipresence. In the middle of this push and pull, you interact with childhood flashbacks in an idyllic village with your mother, who taught you before she was murdered. You'll avenge her, too.
Though, Biomutant’s open-world format also allows for deviation and for you to place your own waypoints on a remarkably beautiful, 2.5D misty map.
You, by the way, are a snotty furry mutant you customize at the start of the game. In the character creator, you set your genetic code and class attributes, which affects things like how small your skull is and your resistance to biohazard goo. For my brief time with Biomutant's Switch port,I chose to be an electricity-wielding "Psi-Freak" with a normal head.
This game is full of silly names and titles. I had to laugh at some quest information informing me that "Goop is almost done with the Googlide, a machine able to ride the waves of the surf, all the way out to the Porky Puff." Even abilities like "mucus bubble," which allows you to create a sticky, raccoon-sized ball to catch enemies in, express middle school sensibilities. In this sense, Biomutant reminds me of a less stressful version of Dead Island, which also allowed for a range of creative melee attacks with juvenile payoff. But the game's style — its solemn delivery of silly quests, how seriously it wants you to take your four-legged protagonist — is really more a reflection of something like Ratchet & Clank.
Biomutant’s tragic and absurd story is itself something of a large-scale ecological soap opera.
Ultimately, Biomutant's lush world — which is leafy and palpable on PC and PS5, which both significantly outperform the Switch's graphical power — is diluted by the Switch. The textures are one-note on the now seven-year-old console. But this inevitable performance hit doesn't cause any true problems, aside from some minor latency issues. The game's introductory loading screen is long, while some of the many cutscenes begin jarringly quick after you've concluded kung-fu combat. But these issues don't meaningfully impede gameplay, which is meditatively repetitive (a group of freaky-looking critters show up; you hit them with your infinity guns’ auto-aim). It also aesthetically unites Biomutant with Switch classics like cel-shaded Breath of the Wild, which is also flat but deeply colorful.
The biggest thing Biomutant on Switch has going for it, is that it’s a standout on the platform. It failed to impress on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, which have an endless number of high-performance role-playing games. But it's one of Nintendo's most unique offerings. On the Switch's weakly whirring CPU, it runs as well as possible, and it provides casual players with a wonderfully weird, animal action-adventure experience.
