No matter where games originate from, whether small teams or massive ones, there are going to be titles that have lofty ambitions but then aren’t able to fully realize them. These are always tough to review, since first it isn’t unusual for it to take time to see the cracks emerge, but also because you can feel the passion put into the aspects that do work, despite the ones that don’t. Biomutant absolutely seems to fall into being that sort of experience, as right off the bat you can feel its ambitions just through selecting everything about your character, including an impressive number of class specialties and vital stats to play with. It’s just from that point on where you’ll slowly begin to see aspects that feel like they’re in various stages of completion, but not quite as fleshed out as they could or should have been.

As you start out into the game’s pretty impressive open world there’s absolutely a sense of wonder. Even having seen so many post-Apocalyptic titles over the years, the blend of destroyed buildings and infrastructure overgrown with vegetation helps sell the setting, and in many ways the hybrid animal-driven story. I do wish that all of it looked a bit better, as there’s no question that some serious compromises had to be made to get what was a visually-impressive game on other platforms running reasonably well on Switch… but even among other downconverted games I’ve seen it can be rough in places. 

I think the elements of the experience that struggle the most are in its characters and story, and in certain aspects of the combat. While in terms of being creative, and trying to make the most of the game’s fascination with genetically-altered creatures, Biomutant delivers quite a surprising amount of visual variety. The shame is some of the very odd choices made that may give some characters personality but not necessarily a good one, and then the use of a narrator that sounds like they were pulled from a British nature documentary, who speaks over most everything in a way that makes the story feel soulless and drab. Throw in combat that is absolutely engaging and has plenty of variety, letting you play with both melee and ranged attacks with plenty of room for creative combos, but then also has weaknesses and it can be aggravating. No matter how good some of the fighting mechanics may work and feel, a lack of help in being able to reliably work between multiple enemies at once, as well as difficulty aiming well when shooting, and it just doesn’t feel quite polished to be its best.

The result is one of those experiences that will likely see a great deal of variety in opinions. People who appreciate obvious ambition, and teams that have pushed themselves, may decide to be more lenient on pointing out its shortcomings. Those who aren’t so reluctant just to see the problems as they are, will likely have some valid criticisms instead. What I think all parties could likely agree to would be that among the ways you could choose to play the game the Switch would either be extremely low, or perhaps dead last, on the list since the visuals the developers were shooting for are ambitious. I can appreciate the quality and effort put into the attempt, but the results are still uneven at best all around.