THQ Nordic’s Biomutant has been cooking for quite a while, but after the most recent developer update, we know we’ll get to play it this year. Since its initial reveal in 2017, fans were captivated by the game’s anthropomorphic cat/raccoon lead — and with it being an open-world action RPG, it’s easy to see why many are looking forward to it. Up until recently, there wasn’t a lot we knew about Biomutant, but following the game’s release date announcement, there’s a lot to unpack about THQ Nordic’s latest action-adventure, which is being referred to as a “post-apocalyptic Kung-Fu fable RPG” by its developer, Experiment 101.
Below, we’ll go through all the Biomutant news we know about, including its release date, gameplay, story, pre-order information, and more. Here’s everything we know about Biomutant.
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Trailer
The trailer above was released alongside the game’s official announcement during Gamescom 2017. It showed off the game’s tone, visual style, and of course, the main character battling it out against a vicious creature. While it didn’t feature actual gameplay, it gave us a hint at what to expect for the final product.
After that, we received multiple trailers and gameplay demos from various outlets, but in 2020, a lengthy video from THQ Nordic was released, taking a deep dive into Biomutant’s gameplay. We’ll cover more on its gameplay further down, but for now, you can take a look at the trailer above, which shows off the game’s combat, crafting system, and some of its characters.
Developer Experiment 101 is going for a world full of wonder, featuring mutated animals, action combat (both shooting and melee), and a major emphasis on customization — all of which can be seen in the trailer above.
Release date
Biomutant suffered from many delays following its reveal — partly because of the small size of the development team, Experiment 101. This studio is made up of former Avalanche Studios employees and is composed of around 20 staff members as of 2021. Since Biomutant is the company’s first game, a lot is riding on its success, so the team has opted for quality to be its main priority, while also ensuring its staff has a healthy work-life balance.
In a statement to IGN this year, Experiment 101 studio head Stefan Ljungqvist explained the importance of keeping a healthy staff, stating “I mean, the studio, we are 20 people and we can’t afford to have [staff] leave the studio, or be destroyed during development. That would be devastating.”
In addition, Ljungqvist said the past year was devoted solely to bug-squashing. “It’s a big game, a big bite for 20 people to chew off,” said Ljungqvist. “At the end of the project, there’s only a certain amount of bugs that you can physically fix during the course of the day.”
Though, as Ljungqvist explains, quality is of the utmost importance. “Any game is going to ship with [smaller] bugs, but I’m talking about bugs that are truly disruptive to the game experience. We don’t want to ship with that. I think that’s what caused us to just wait until we were ready to do it.”
Biomutant is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 25th, 2021. pic.twitter.com/qVdTMaxxS5
— Biomutant (@Biomutant) January 26, 2021
All of that is to say the studio has received lots of support from THQ Nordic and has granted the team plenty of time and money to realize the full vision. Earlier this year, it was announced that Biomutant would launch for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on May 25, 2021.
Platforms
As noted in the game’s release date reveal, Biomutant will launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. There is no word yet on whether it will launch for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or Nintendo Switch. Though, with it being developed by such a small team, it’s likely a next-gen version will have to wait. After all, the team has been hyper-focused on the previous-generation version for the past five years or so, meaning that is the priority.
We wouldn’t rule out the possibility of it coming to other platforms, though. In the same interview with IGN, Ljungqvist said, “When we developed the game, we lead on the last-gen. And if you look at it from a development perspective, that’s really important because it’s easier to scale up than to scale down.”
“I think for us, as a team, we would like as many as possible to be able to play the game,” he continued. “So, if we just release it for ‘next-gen,’ I think that would not have been a good way forward.”
Suffice to say, the team is finalizing the previous-gen iteration and will likely decide to go forward with making a current-gen build based on sales and other factors.
Gameplay
Biomutant is an open-world action RPG, borrowing many elements from games like Devil May Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and newer Fallout installments. In it, players can create their own anthropomorphic character — that’s right, you aren’t limited to the furry creature shown in all the gameplay footage! You can design the character’s appearance, along with its stats and even size, which has an impact on how it feels to control.
Players control the character from a third-person perspective and are tasked with exploring an open world while defeating enemies using both melee and ranged combat. Based on the gameplay footage shown so far, it looks like the combat will be pretty fast-paced, akin to Ninja Gaiden or something similar — but will also lean more into RPG elements, thanks to its “Mutation” system, which alter your character’s body parts — for better or worse. Think of this like a loot/gear system, much like what you’d see in Destiny. In fact, it’s been confirmed that this loot system will feature weapon rarities, from common to legendary.
As part of an interview with Well Played, Ljungqvist explained how the combat will work, specifically in regards to the balance of gunplay and melee. “From a tactical aspect, it makes sense to master both as there are enemies with ‘weaknesses’ towards one or the other,” Ljungqvist told the publication.
“Melee also builds up to the ‘Super Wushu’ state, enabling you to perform special weapon-based moves and combos. In addition to this, you also have ‘affix’ modules you can modify your weapons with, bestowing cryogenic (frost), incendiary (heat), electric, radioactive, and biohazard effects to the weapon you craft it to.”
Ljungqvist went on to discuss the various melee and ranged weapons, stating that you can choose between slash, crush, or pierce attack types, along with assault rifles, rifles, shotguns, or handguns — with dual-wield as an option, as well.
Players can explore the open world on foot or via various vehicles including a mech (sounds like Game of the Year already). The world itself is said to be 8x8km, with various degrees of verticality, including an underground portion.
There is also a heavy emphasis on player choice, though Experiment 101 has kept most of that under wraps to avoid spoiling it. We do know that players will be able to make choices that will impact the outcome of the game. Ljungqvist explained to Well Played that a morality system is in place to dictate how the world reacts to you, sort of like Fable. “We’ve tried to keep the end game as open and personal as we possibly can,” said Ljungqvist. “Meaning that the way you play will really affect your ending. At the core of this is Yin/Yang (let us simplify by saying Dark/Light and balanced), which will affect not only the end, but also how other characters relate to you.”
Multiplayer
So far, Biomutant has been advertised as a single-player adventure, so we wouldn’t count on it having any multiplayer features. Even if a multiplayer system is planned to be added later on, it will likely be a while before that’s announced, due to the team’s small size. Perhaps if Biomutant does well enough, it’ll spawn a sequel that could contain multiplayer — but for now, it’s single-player only.
DLC
During the previously mentioned interview with Well Played, Ljungqvist mentioned that DLC is possible. Specifically, Ljungqvist said, “Our focus is to finish the main game and realize our vision to the quality we want first and foremost — then we hopefully deserve the right to add more content. One thing we can say about this though — we’ll definitely not have micro-transactions in our game.”
Once again, the studio’s main focus at this time is to get the main game finished. With a small team, focusing on anything else could be detrimental to the core development of the main game, so we shouldn’t count on any major DLC expansions, at least any time soon.
Pre-order
Since Biomutant is so close to release, it is available to pre-order! You can pre-purchase it across all platforms, and it even comes in three forms, which we’ll detail below.
Pre-order Biomutant Standard Edition
Pre-order Biomutant Collector’s Edition
- Copy of Biomutant
- Official soundtrack
- Premium box
- Figurine
- A1 artwork on fabric
Pre-order Biomutant Atomic Edition
- Copy of Biomutant
- Oversized mousepad
- Official soundtrack
- A1 artwork on fabric
- High-detail diorama figure set
- Premium box
- Steelbook
- T-Shirt (L or XL)
