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⬅️ Previous capture (2021-11-30)
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DATE: Mon 14 Jun 2021 15:23 By: HexDSL@Posteo.net
This post was written when I was a few hours into Biomutant. There will be an update soon.
You know all those people who are telling you on steam-reviews and twitter that Biomutant isn't very good? Well those people need to shut the fuck up because it's pretty good and they are all stupid! I know... a strong stance. But honestly, Biomutant is interesting fun and deep. It juxtaposes 'Cute' against the need for survival in a way that is up-beat and earnest without sucking all of the joy out of the game.
This game is about one little squirrel fella (whom you play) who is trying to get shit done in a world where humans have long died out (pollution seems to have killed them) and this new society of little furry fellas is trying to flurish.
This isn't a new state of affairs either, the fluffy dominance seems to be quite well established. With at least a few generations since the fall of man.
Your little fella himself has has a traumatic life and is often haunted by quite annoying flash-backs (in the form of game-play section) He watched his mother die (His mooma, literally the game called her mooma and is fucking adorable!) then his father (poopa if I recall) sacrificed himself for your scrawny little fur covered arse. Now its years later and shit appears to get getting real. With the "wolrd tree" being under attack and the "world eaters" at large. As a player I don't really know what any of that means but Im on-board as fuck for all of it.
This game is visually rich and colourful to the point of lush. All of the things in this world read to us stupid human players as pretty damned cute but within this world, to the inhabitants its real. It's violent and its not at all fucking cute. They are shooting and zapping and stabbing for their lives.
All of the technology the people of this world use is recycled form left over human stuff and often used wrongly but not in a comical way, but in ingenious ways.
The people of this world are usually smaller than humans too, being about three to four feet all at most. Then the monster things that road the world "the World eaters" as they seem to be called are massive, the size of a tiger maybe. Because everything is tiny though and the game does such a good job of framing your it as just normal a tiger sized shark headed cat thing looks like a huge monster! and he structures that are left over by mankind look like vast mountains.
They may talk funny but hey are not stupid. A few hours into the main plot I found myself driving a mech-robot that seemed to be built from old car parts and powered by oil and furry snake looking things. All of that makes perfect sense in this world.
It's not comical but it is cute and interesting and fresh and not at all grim even though it could have been.
A lot has been made of the voice over man. The narrator in this game divides the players.
when you talk to someone in this game you don't get to listen to their dialogue directly, instead a narrator says something like "this is bob, bob trusts you and wants you do do a little job for him" while in the background Bobs little animal sounds are playing.
he idea is great and way better than getting a bunch of voice actors in to voice the whole cast when one narrator can do it all like this.
The actual voice its self seems to be the issue, its a strange performance. Sort of like a children's cartoon voice over. Like something you would expect to be explaining Pingu to you. Its a little overly expressive and singularly toned.
I LOVE IT!
I feel like a any human voice in this world would be out of place so they went with something that feels alien. Is a cheery mellow voice that is detached and interested. It doesn't try and be invested in the world. Its like a wildlife show to the voice. For me it works 100% as well as I would hope.
So you can my shock when I realized that this awesome voice was the voice that everyone in the steam comments was lamenting! WHY! its great! so I assume that I'm one the "voice is good" side of the debate.
Divisive is great though! Divisive means interesting.
The game gets mixed reviews on Steam and other places (I assume, but I only really use steam)
Here is the one I agree with "THE GAME IS TOO EXPENSIVE" yes. It's like £55! That's a lot of kitty litter! But you accept that when you hit "BUY" if you didn't you would not buy it. I assume. So while i agree that its a lot of cash for an indie game. Or for any game really. I can't really complain about it.
Other complains include the world being too empty, the plot being boring and the combat feeling wrong. I don't agree with any of this. none of it. But I respect that I may look for something else in my RPGS. I want a subtle story and a steady progression and interesting places to organically explore. It has all the things that I care about.
Whatever you can say though, "mixed" reviews are always attached to interesting games.
I like this game a lot. I hard recommend it if you think it maybe for you but I wouldn't blame you for waiting for a sale.