There’s something very Saturday morning about Biomutant that has always really appealed to me. Where other open-world games can be grim, this is exuberantly colourful; where other games can be bogged down in grit, this is light and full of energy.
It looks like a child’s imagination exploded all over the screen. Mutated animals tear about, kung-fuing gigantic monsters with three heads, which are also adorable, and there are outlandish contraptions, DIY guns and vehicles to use. There’s one vehicle that looks like a hand and moves around like Thing from The Addams Family, and finger-guns enemies dead. There are others that fly through the air or speed across the water, as you whizz around over-saturated and kaleidoscopically vibrant worlds.
That’s not to say I ever thought Biomutant would change the world. I never really thought of it as a blockbuster. But does everything have to be? They can be so timid. This feels reckless, charming, and it abounds with a kind of breeziness I am totally here for in 2021, with all this going on, gestures at everything.