The action role-playing game splits the players on Steam into two camps. While some love the open world, others yawn with boredom.
Who would have thought that cuddly raccoon pandas could drive such a wedge between players? That’s exactly what Biomutant is creating right now. Steam users simply can’t agree on whether the action role-playing game is great or terrible. We give both sides a voice.
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What Steam users are saying about Biomutant
So far (26 May), around 2,700 German and English user reviews have been submitted to Steam. The overview shows that Biomutant splits the players almost exactly into two equal camps: 56 percent of the players recommend it, 44 percent give it a red thumbs down. This results, quite logically, in an overall “mixed” rating.
Biomutant gets a somewhat friendlier reception on GOG, where it achieves 4 out of 5 stars – albeit with a manageable 13 reviews.
Therefore, we focus on the reviews on Steam. Depending on whether we turn on the positive or negative filter, you might think we’re reading reviews of two different games.
Camp 1: Biomutant is really fun
The positive voices praise especially the beautiful open world, fun fights and the interesting story (remember these points when you read the critical opinions). Furthermore, almost everyone agrees that Biomutant shows how much love was put into its development.
The most upvotes were collected by Nightmare Hunter, who received the game for free and has already played it for over 30 hours:
“Verdict: Biomutant is one of the most rewarding games when it comes to exploration and loot and although it needs more work in some areas, this game is definitely worth your time and money. 7.5/10. “
User wolfleader rustwind.net also joins in the praises after 8 hours of play:
“This game is great, I don’t know why people leave such bad reviews, it has met all my expectations so far. The story is excellent, the gameplay is excellent, the weapon feel is excellent, the melee combat is excellent and the graphics are just hot!”.
But even among the positive reviews, there are mixed opinions. Calesti wishes there was an option for neutral reviews:
“Once again, I wish I could give a neutral rating. Is it good? Yes. Does the melee combat feel heave-less and are there soft-locks for targets so that aiming in ranged combat is hardly rewarded? Yes. Is that a problem? Not really, it’s still fun. (…) Perhaps my only major complaint about Biomutant is that the open world is pretty empty away from the missions. “
Camp 2: Biomutant fails across the board
And then there’s the other side, which is sorely disappointed with the game. Negative reviews mainly criticise the empty open world, boring battles and the irrelevant story. As you can see, this is a complete contradiction to what other players celebrate about Biomutant. These split opinions are apparently also causing confusion at the publisher THQ Nordic:
Biomutant reviews are in! The scores are all over the map, so there's only one thing left for you to do – play the game and see for yourself. #Biomutant will be out later today and we can't wait to hear your thoughts! ❤️
— Biomutant (@Biomutant) May 25, 2021
Also on the negative side, the user with the most upvotes has received the game for free and has already played it for 42 hours. The Beard With The Pyro has this to say:
“Biomutant has clearly put effort into combat and crafting, and it looks and feels good visually. This kept us playing for more than 30 hours and made us overlook short frame drops that occurred regardless of graphics settings. There’s a lot to do if you want to, but the repetitive quest mechanics destroy motivation while the story and characters make it hard to be invested.”
Lrrr of Omicron has refunded Biomutant according to Steam and writes:
“It’s a game they threw everything they thought was cool into. But then everything was half-baked to fit every other half-inspired idea.”
And T3tsuya would have loved the game, but still feels compelled to write a negative review.
“It really breaks my heart to leave a negative review for Biomutant. It had so much promise and now at release it feels like every part of the game is in a pre-alpha stage and needs another year or two in the oven. “
What the players agree on
There are two statements that are made in almost every review, whether positive or negative:
There is clearly a lot of love and effort put into Biomutant by the developers.
Steam should allow neutral reviews, like Metacritic.
But that’s about as far as the consensus goes.
