Biomutant is an action role-playing game from developer Experiment 101 and published by THQ Nordic.
This is the first game of the 20-man team and a very ambitious project that has been in development for more than 4 years.

Due to the long game development and the high price, my expectations were accordingly the same level of a AAA title, although I did not expect the quality of the latter. It is, after all, a new developer with little to no experience, so practically a 60€ indie title. In the course of the review I will try to explain why the game was a complete failure, despite its potential.

We play a self-created anthropomorphic character in a dystopian world where pollution has wiped out humanity. Due to the dangerous waste deposited in the world, new mutant life has emerged that has adapted to this new environment (us).
At the center is the tree of life that is in danger of decay, and we must decide whether to save it or actively contribute to its demise. If it is saved, the downfall can be prevented, if it is destroyed, it will not.
Actually a good premise for an open world game, but unfortunately poorly implemented . It wouldn't be bad if it was just a tool to give motivations to all the characters in the world and create exciting interactions. However, the characters are as superficial as the plot itself.

It is incredibly frustrating and infuriating to talk to the bizarre looking cast of characters. They are the personification of pseudo wisdom. They constantly try to reveal deep insights to you but always lose sight of the main reason why we interact in the first place. Therefore, there is always a back and forth between quest progress talks and platitudes, which is very confusing. Everything is read out by a narrator's voice after they themselves utter gibberish, which can't be turned off. Which makes them lose even the last hint of a potential personality. The only wisdom I can glean from this is that you can't judge characters by their interesting appearance, because they are as shallow as the next aspects of the game.

The game world is empty with uninspiring interiors and identical buildings over and over again. There are several biomes where you need resistances to stay in them longer. The biomes look great but there are hardly any enemies and the only thing you do is occasionally fight and repeatedly loot disappointing pieces of equipment that you have to craft yourself. The crafting system is one of the strengths, you can assemble multiple parts to create/improve a weapon or armor. Unfortunately, due to the level scaling and the heavy combat system, there is no visual increase in strength. Furthermore you can unlock mounts through exploration or events.
There are 6 tribes to interact with that are at war with each other, but their settlements look exactly like any other. You can join one of these to conquer or subjugate the other tribes. You get as a reward from your tribe the weapon they use for it, and later on, their armor. They also have an alignment, the dark and white aura. There are 3 levels each from very evil to very good but their motivations still remain very flat. Your character itself can also get dark or white "points" through actions and dialogue options, but they have little effect on the world. The only thing the number of dark or white aura does is unlock one of the two endings and four purchasable abilities, and every now and then an ever identitic opinion about your alignment from NPCs.

The character creation is very good, you can morph your appearance while distributing your attributes. There are different races that give you advantages and disadvantages in the attributes but have little effect later on. At the end of the character creation you can choose your class which will unlock certain passive perks that you can assign when you lvl up. For each level up you can also distribute more attributes and specialize in a combat technique. There are many combat types, but unfortunately with few combos, so again rather superficial. On top of that, you can unlock mutations by collecting biohazards, which occasionally bring interesting abilities with them.
For example, a mushroom with which you can jump to higher places or to impair enemies.

The narrator has a pleasant voice and the music is nothing breathtaking but still harmonious.
Technically, the game ran very smoothly and looked nice on high. Was often ugly in many lush areas though.
I didn't encounter any bugs really worth mentioning.
My Specs: Gtx 1060 6GB, i5 9600KF, 16RAM

A monotonous adventure in a world that is lackluster and does almost everything worse than other open world competitors.
Only the character creation, crafting system and narrator stood out positively. Unfortunately, I can't recommend it for 60€, possibly at a discount for 20-30.