Do You Hate Biomutant, Or Are You Just Done With Open-World Games?
Calling Biomutant’s world “empty” is just flat out wrong, and makes me wonder if it’s time for some folks to step away from open-world games.
You Are Reading :Do You Hate Biomutant Or Are You Just Done With OpenWorld Games
Biomutant was one of May’s most hotly anticipated games. Previews and gameplay footage all looked promising, screenshots of the world looked incredible, and after almost four years of development, expectations were high. Not Cyberpunk 2077-levels of high, but y’know, reasonably high.
Then Biomutant released to mostly tepid reviews, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. There was some fair criticism–for example, our own review noted that Biomutant’s melee combat failed to live up to the trailers. Fair enough; it didn’t. But many Steam user reviews seem extremely unkind. For a while, Biomutant had a “negative” review score on Steam before finally bouncing up to its current “mixed” status a few days after release.
Reading some of those reviews, a question comes to my mind. Is Biomutant really that bad, or are some of us just done with open-world games?
I ask the question because a lot of the criticism you see on Steam seems less directed at Biomutant and more at the open-world genre.
For example, fetch quests are the bread and butter of any open-world game. They’re the easiest, most straightforward way of getting a player to travel from point A to point B and back again, ensuring that they explore more of the open world that the developers have put so much work into. Every open-world game has more than its fair share, so saying something like “Biomutant has too many fetch quests” is tantamount to saying “Biomutant is too much like an open-world game.”
And yet so many of the negative Steam reviews point to fetch quests as if it were a bad thing. What other excuse do you need to explore a gorgeous new world? What difference does it make whether it’s an NPC sending you to fetch a whozawhatsit or a different NPC asking you to save their cousin from dysentery? The point of any of these quests, regardless of their goal, is to simply get the player moving.
Biomutant certainly isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it is traveling along a well-worn path when it comes to its open-world and quest designs. You’ll find the same things in Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim, and various other open-world games stretching back all the way back to Ocarina of Time.
Another common complaint: “Biomutant’s world feels empty.” On its face, a false statement, as Biomutant’s world is full of interesting flora and fauna to look at, not to mention towns, villages, random store vendors on the side of an ancient railway, battlegrounds between rival tribes, important NPCs that you’ll either stumble across or be directed to from one of the aforementioned fetch quests, ancient ruins leaking radioactive waste but also hiding old-world treasures, as well as giant fluffy monsters that are trying to end the world.
The density of things in Biomutant feels to be no different than any other open-world game. Sure, there are stretches of open plains and beautiful vistas to break things up, but that’s no different from Assassins Creed Valhalla, Horizon Zero Dawn, or even planet Earth.
But maybe the issue lies in the word “feel.” If Biomutant’s world is full of stuff but doesn’t “feel” full, then perhaps the issue is that the stuff Biomutant is full of isn’t all that interesting to the reviewer. That’s fair enough, although given the bounty of gameplay footage showcasing Biomutant’s open world, one wonders what drew such players to Biomutant in the first place.
Honestly, these criticisms seem to be thinly veiled explanations for hating the world Biomutant presents, which is ultimately the star of any open-world game. If you don’t like being a little furry critter exploring a gorgeous post-apocalyptic world full of other furry critters, you’re just not going to like Biomutant regardless of any other factor.
And if you don’t like Biomutant’s open-world, then maybe it’s time to take a step back from open-world games in general.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/do-you-hate-biomutant-open-world/