Official Review PlayStation 5 Updated

Biomutant (PlayStation 5)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Biomutant
Item: Biomutant
Rating: 7.2
Author: KiiWii

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): September 6, 2022
Release Date (EU): September 6, 2022
Release Date (JP): September 6, 2022
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Developer: Experiment 101
Genres: Action, Role-play
Also For: Computer, Xbox Series X|S

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Biomutant had questionable framerates and pop-in when it first launched on PC and old gen systems, is this upgrade on new-gen platforms more polished? Let's find out in this review of the PS5 version!

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As free upgrades to nextgen go, there are two distinct categories in my mind. The first is the complete overhaul with everything enhanced with entirely new features unavailable to the previous generation, a true meaty coat of paint over the initial skeleton. The second is the negligible addition of a handful of minor features and upscaled graphics. Biomutant opts for the latter by offering resolutions of 4K, "up to" 60FPS, HDR support and a couple more features thrown into the mix.

When Foxi4 reviewed the initial release of Biomutant back in June, they hit the nail on the head in terms of pros and cons, detailing that the otherwise sparse world had very little NPC interaction, visual pop-in was apparent, and that your actions were relatively inconsequential in the bigger picture. I could not agree more with the overall sentiment of that review and I will not stand here attempting to alter the generosity in giving it an overall critique of decent but disappointing.

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Biomutant is at its heart an enjoyable action RPG that has a robust crafting and upgrade system, and bountiful loot to collect within the relatively straightforward story. There are, sadly, quite a few things that get repetitive very quickly. Almost immediately I found that the otherwise heartwarming narrator completely bulldozes the flow of your enjoyment, chiming in repetitively. Luckily this can be scaled down from 50% intrusion to 0% and that honestly helped me enjoy the game more.

I also noticed that the enemy types didn't truly vary other than small mobs of grunts followed by one super grunt, and the occasional boss fight that injects the game with a bit more tactical strategy. The overall combat feels basic and lacklustre with not much in the way of impactful crescendos following a few minutes of dodge-rolling, reloading, and grinding the big bosses down.

I found that the commando loadout, with ranged weapons, and a focus on upgrading strength and vitality certainly went a long way to making you immediately indestructible. I never needed to upgrade my intellect to solve a single puzzle, nor did I need to hone my skillset towards any particular environmental buffs, because they honestly weren't that critical.

At one point I had zero cold resistance, and no thermally beneficial garments, but I ran into a cold area, hammered the small and large grunts, whilst keeping an eye on my temperature gauge, and scurried back out into the warm to reset the temperature ingress. I then ran back in, beat the large grunts remaining heath bar and collected the loot before returning to the entrance of the cold area once more to seal the victory and get the "Area Cleared" notification.

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Graphically the game looks superb in its own vibrant cartoony way, and the new options serve to bolster the frame rates and visual fidelity by offering a couple of new options. "Performance" mode offers 60FPS at 2K (1440p) resolution, "Quality" mode 4K at 30FPS and "Quality Unlocked" which touts 4K resolution at an unlocked frame rate. The last option baffles me. Why would this not be the default option? If the idea is to allow 40FPS to 60FPS, why would you ever use 4K at 30FPS? Perhaps I am missing something but in my experience, the "Quality Unlocked" mode offered smoother framerates when traversing the scenery at speed compared to the locked 30FPS, and I rarely noticed anything feeling too fast, or inversely, too slow or jittery.

Regardless I am happy to confirm that the flow of the game is incredibly smooth on PS5 and there was very rarely any stutter or visual pop-in whatsoever, any load times have vanished, and transitioning from one area to another is pretty seamless.

The 4K resolution goes a long way to bring you a better visual experience overall, with less muddy textures up close and nicer-looking geometry layered off into the distance. Combined this with vegetation also looking fuller and more abundant, better lighting and High Dynamic Range illuminating and colouring the scenes more realistically in comparison to even the PS4 Pro and you have got yourself a very nice layer of polish across this title, though sometimes the lighting goes a little haywire and things like light-bloom is way too much.

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(This is the level of "bloom" I was frequently met with whilst motoring around looking for my objective marker. Realistic?)

Disappointingly this is pretty much where the visual upgrades end, as there is no ray tracing so to speak. The water certainly looks liquidy but the reflections are not reflective of the surroundings. It's a general reflection of the base geometry, but not the vegetation which breaks any visual immersion when traversing bodies of water. Don't even get me started on the splash "effects" while you're swimming. What I did like was the water effect hitting your viewport when it started raining. That effect, along with the icy-freezing and toxic-build-up variants were pleasing, aesthetically, and suitably built up the atmosphere.

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(Watery reflections partially reflect what's ahead but are not consistent enough to give any wow factor.)

The shadows that fly around the scenery as the day/night cycle occurs are rather awful, with tree shadows gliding across the scenery but somehow completely disconnected to the land as if the trees were floating in mid-air when they cast a shadow, wherever they may have been. I say this because the area I was standing in, as I observed this "effect", had no trees of that shape surrounding me whatsoever. I also really don't like the stippled fur effect that's been applied to the bigger creatures, it looks too simplistic, jaggy, and far too rigid to stand out as a gorgeous feature in my opinion. It's stiff & horribly layered, and while it reminds me a little of the fur in 2005's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2), it does not fly as a reasonable fur effect here in this game in 2022.

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(Example of fake tree shadows gliding across the geometry, disconnected and impossible)

Haptic and adaptive triggers of the DualSense add a little more immersion by rattling when you fire off rounds or your gun clatters whilst dry-firing, and the feeling of your swords swooshing through the air is enhanced beyond what the PS4 was capable of. The speaker also squeaks and grunts when your character runs or gets struck for example. It's so subtle and infrequent that it isn't particularly noteworthy other than it's a new feature that's been tacked on.

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Biomutant is an enjoyable yet generic game, with a lot of muddled ideas that serve to flesh it out rather than define it. The next-gen update brings about the best iteration of this game to date, and if you haven't played it already it's certainly worth a look now providing you have the latest hardware on which to indulge. The core game is strictly identical but the new visual and tactile improvements smooth down the rough edges of the original review making it somewhat more appealing.

It's fun, doesn't take itself too seriously and provided me with hours of adventure whilst forging my way through the story to see what I could upgrade or unlock next, but it's rather formulaic and seemingly inconsequential. Biomutant is now crying out for a sequel that can build upon these foundations, something that expands on its varied biomes, saturates us with interesting side-quest/post-game content and bring a truly unique direction to define its already promising IP, and give us actual gameplay variety and endings based on our actions. It will be an exciting day if that happens!

Biomutant - Gameplay Footage | PS5 Games

Verdict

What We Liked ...

Visually more noteworthy than on last-gen
Smoother frame rates and better lighting
Haptic triggers add to the immersion

What We Didn't Like ...

No ray tracing or wow factor
Cruddy shadows throughout
Good/bad actions make no notable difference

Gameplay

A wonderful, if formulaic, Action RPG with a lot of ideas that unfortunately don't raise the bar or do much of note beyond its surface layers. The story is generic and the world a little sparse to make it a true top-tier gaming experience.

Presentation

The menu system is well populated, clean & precise, and the environments are varied, vibrant and inviting. Biomutant is miniaturised post-apocalyptic mayhem, but some visual effects could do with further refinement before it can be classed as next-gen polished perfection.

Lasting Appeal

There is a lot to experiment with via the crafting and upgrade menus and trophy hunters will also enjoy the 47 challenges available. However, once you've seen what there is to see there isn't much else hiding out there to do.

7.2

out of 10

Overall

This free upgrade makes it all the better thanks to cross-save support so PS4 owners can pick up where they left off to experience what is without a shadow of a doubt, the best way to play Biomutant.

Reactions: depaul, Xzi, Prans and 1 other person

depaul
Oct 1, 2022

Nice game.

Reactions: KiiWii

1440p is not 2K....

it still baffles me that Playstation games don't use the saves stored on PS servers and instead use the asinine "Save transfer" method all the devs are forced to use...

depaul
Oct 2, 2022

"I guess left can be right sometimes!" (quoted from the game because I liked it).

Reactions: TripleSMoon

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