ANNO: Mutationem has always looked good, with its mix of pixelated characters and 3D environments. The question was, could it deliver an engaging experience to match that style? It sort of does, but it has a few too many rough edges.
The game is a mix of two quite different parts. There's 3D adventure gameplay, in which you control protagonist Ann as she investigates her brother's disappearance throughout various dystopian districts. During these phases, you can freely explore, talk to NPCs, and visit shops to buy and sell gear. The other half swaps to 2D action, where she trades in the ability to traverse a third axis in favour of platforming and fast-paced combat.
The storyline is suitably dark, albeit with quick injections of goofy humour, and the cyberpunk cityscape presented here is an interesting setting to explore. However, we'd say the 3D element of the game detracts from the experience; you'll often get caught on objects or in doorways just trying to get around. Combined with fixed cameras, navigating each location can be rather tedious.
Luckily, the side-scrolling combat segments are better. Some slightly stilted jumping aside, engaging enemies using light and heavy swords, as well as a pistol, is fun and fairly challenging, and gets better with each new ability unlocked from the skill tree.
There's surprising scope in the game ā you can dismantle items to get materials, which you can then combine into new weapon modules. There are side missions and mini-games, like serving cocktails to earn money. It's also kind-of open world, albeit a very small one. While the ambition is admirable, overall we feel the game comes across as quite unfocused. It's an enjoyable experience, and everything here is reasonably good, but the result is a game that doesn't really shine, save for its rainy, neon-infused aesthetic.
Comments 15
Bummer. Game looked really good. And I mean 6 is good, but still expected a bit better. Still gonna pick it up though. The art-style alone does it for me.
I wasn't going to be able to play it anytime soon anyways with all the games coming out recently, but I was still hoping it would have ended up being around an 8.
Still, I'll likely pick it up at some point down the road as it caught my eye a little while back and it still seems to be decent. It's already cheap, but it will probably be even cheaper then too.
A 6 at push square is usually a 7 or 8 for me depending on the game as I'm easy to please. I played the demo for the game on PC and enjoyed what I played, so I will get this game eventually. Probably just won't be a purchase till I can get a good bargain.
I picked this up on pre-order, looking forward to playing it. Checks all my boxes. I got this as something in-between play sessions of more intense & immersive games. 6 is a little disappointing but I think I'll enjoy it plenty.
@GorosBat Their reviews are often a lot lower than I would give a game. Gameinformer had/have great reviews, but the community is totally dead there.
A lot of reviewers are reviewing from a technical sense almost as if they are marking the game down for bad graphics, an unoriginal story, and repetitive gameplay, so I can see how they come to the scores that they do. However, I don't think that many game reviewers consider games that are more than the sum of their parts. Take the Yakuza series, for example. There are so many flaws that I can point to with those games, such as not being fully voiced, often having a lot of bloat, poor tutorials, lack of focus, in some cases, substories that are not making up the numbers, and tedious gameplay (the unskipable random battles, the turn-based combat in Yakuza 7). So for Yakuza 6, which is my favourite game, maybe of all time, I can see why people would give it a 7 or an 8, but to me it is a 9 or 10.
The last game I played was Warriors Allstars. It's a solid 6 or 7, but I'd prefer that to many conventional 8s or 9s. Actually I'm going back into the backcatalogue of Koei Temco to find some games that I can enjoy.
Still sounds like something I'd be into. I think I'll still pick it up at some point. Maybe after Elden Ring as a big open world pallet cleanser.
I've played and enjoyed the demo on steam, I think I'll buy it on pc (steam), I can refund it if I don't like the game.
Buying the game for the art style, graphics, and settings alone seems worth it for me though š
I like the look of this, like others have said PS tends to be harsher with their scores but I'd rather that than just slapping 1's or 10's in everything.
@MightyDemon82 Yeah, PS is harder on indie games, like shantae hgh that only got 7 while for me the game is a solid 9. So I usually add +1 to the PS score for indie games.
Great review, Stephen. I'm really interested in this game and will definitely give it a shot, time pending.
Iām gutted about the overall reviews for this.
I think I may still pick it up as its been on my radar since day 1
They really need to release some new Story DLC for Cyberpunk 2077.
I learned a lot of things and one of them is never read only one review i have seen so many different rates with several games. Thats why they should have more demo's one man 6 is another ones 8.
Iām not too far in, but so far Iām finding it really enjoyable. Exploring is fun and Iām digging the look of the game. The graphics sort of remind me of the Fear Effect games on PSone.
@CthulhuFhtagn I dont know i only meant to say people have a different taste so i never take the word of one reviewer anymore thats my personal opinion. A trailer can be done bad and then you would miss a hidden gem thats why i would love to see more demo's.
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