Alright, early impressions since I'm not sure I'll keep going with it for much longer. I've played like, 8-ish hours. (edit: I don't think I ever picked it back up, lol)
What Works:
1. The world and characters look incredible. Everything is lush and colorful, the environmental art in particular is really stellar.
2. Weapon customization/crafting is all visually represented. When you make a weapon or put attachments on your armor, it's very satisfying to see the things you made on your character's back.
3. The character creator is pretty unique and fun to mess around in.
4. There are a lot of upgrades and skills, and you're collecting skill points pretty quickly, so the pacing of your character's growth feels steady as far in as I am.
What Doesn't Work:
1. I don't think the narrator does a bad job with what he's given, but I think his casting is an odd choice, and I really hate the implementation of the narrator in this game. I know you can adjust the frequency of his random dialogue, but that doesn't solve the issue that the critters speak in gibberish which is then translated/narrated in a stylistically inconsistent manner, which also has the effect of doubling the length of every line of dialogue since you're hearing it twice.
2. The combat is disappointing, and this is coming from someone who thinks NieR: Automata's flowy smooth combat is good and fun. There's little indication of when you're being peppered with bullets, the "parry this" indicators are unhelpful and the attacks aren't telegraphed enough to rely on the animations (you're usually fighting in grass as tall as your short critter anyway). You can either rush in and get hit a bunch for seemingly random amounts of damage while you chip away at enemy health, or you can kite and shoot. You can't cancel an attack animation with a parry, so I guess you're supposed to stand there and wait for an attack that might be parry-able or might require you to dodge ineffectively. I've spent enough time discussing this, but in summary: For a game that wants to be a kung-fu (excuse me, "wung-fu") fable, the combat is a complete mess.
3. The writing is really stupid. It's full of cutesy made up words, like bullets are "pew pew" and poop is "brown bobs" or something. It's like Clockwork Orange but aimed at the Harold And The Purple Crayon reading level demographic.
4. A devil and an angel on your shoulder argue with each other in the most annoying possible voices through dumb exchanges that are supposed to be comedic. It doesn't work, but it sure does happen literally every time you do something because this game has an Infamous-style morality system that affects which powers are available to you.
I think ultimately the issue with this game is that it has a lot of the same problems Ghost of Tsushima has. Repetitive, no real innovation, a beautiful world that is ultimately empty... This one is much more loot-oriented, and Ghost of Tsushima had an engaging story/characters even if it was rehashing classic stories. I think if I cared about Biomutant's world and characters, and if it had much of a story at all, I'd be able to put up with the combat and the formulaic emptiness. There's nothing drawing me back in.
What Works:
1. The world and characters look incredible. Everything is lush and colorful, the environmental art in particular is really stellar.
2. Weapon customization/crafting is all visually represented. When you make a weapon or put attachments on your armor, it's very satisfying to see the things you made on your character's back.
3. The character creator is pretty unique and fun to mess around in.
4. There are a lot of upgrades and skills, and you're collecting skill points pretty quickly, so the pacing of your character's growth feels steady as far in as I am.
What Doesn't Work:
1. I don't think the narrator does a bad job with what he's given, but I think his casting is an odd choice, and I really hate the implementation of the narrator in this game. I know you can adjust the frequency of his random dialogue, but that doesn't solve the issue that the critters speak in gibberish which is then translated/narrated in a stylistically inconsistent manner, which also has the effect of doubling the length of every line of dialogue since you're hearing it twice.
2. The combat is disappointing, and this is coming from someone who thinks NieR: Automata's flowy smooth combat is good and fun. There's little indication of when you're being peppered with bullets, the "parry this" indicators are unhelpful and the attacks aren't telegraphed enough to rely on the animations (you're usually fighting in grass as tall as your short critter anyway). You can either rush in and get hit a bunch for seemingly random amounts of damage while you chip away at enemy health, or you can kite and shoot. You can't cancel an attack animation with a parry, so I guess you're supposed to stand there and wait for an attack that might be parry-able or might require you to dodge ineffectively. I've spent enough time discussing this, but in summary: For a game that wants to be a kung-fu (excuse me, "wung-fu") fable, the combat is a complete mess.
3. The writing is really stupid. It's full of cutesy made up words, like bullets are "pew pew" and poop is "brown bobs" or something. It's like Clockwork Orange but aimed at the Harold And The Purple Crayon reading level demographic.
4. A devil and an angel on your shoulder argue with each other in the most annoying possible voices through dumb exchanges that are supposed to be comedic. It doesn't work, but it sure does happen literally every time you do something because this game has an Infamous-style morality system that affects which powers are available to you.
I think ultimately the issue with this game is that it has a lot of the same problems Ghost of Tsushima has. Repetitive, no real innovation, a beautiful world that is ultimately empty... This one is much more loot-oriented, and Ghost of Tsushima had an engaging story/characters even if it was rehashing classic stories. I think if I cared about Biomutant's world and characters, and if it had much of a story at all, I'd be able to put up with the combat and the formulaic emptiness. There's nothing drawing me back in.
2 Comments
totally, I tried that for a while, but then there's so much narration that happens outside of conversations that the whole game felt even emptier than it already is
Androu1
2 years ago