Biomutant's open-world evokes Zelda, but with mechs and mutants

Previous Biomutant videos have teased combat, vehicles and exploration, but a new video captured by IGN offers up 11 minutes of raw footage, revealing a considerable amount about the upcoming open-world action romp.

Experiment 101 are taking an almost Metroidvania or Zelda-style approach to Biomutant’s open-world. You can go wherever you want, theoretically, but practically you’ll need to overcome challenges to reach new areas with unfriendly biomes.

Take the dead zone, for example. It’s low in oxygen, and oxygen is important to even mutant raccoon-fox-cats. So it’s not exactly a safe place to venture into, but if you find a gas mask or get yourself a mech, you’ll be able to survive the harsh environment.

Mutations will affect how you explore and fight your way through the world too. This begins at character customisation where you’ll not only be able to choose your character’s gender and mutate its cosmetic appearance, you’ll pick its height and weight, changing how fast and strong it is.

Killing creatures lets you mutate your critter even further. You’ll be able to gather biopoints which can then be spent on mutations that can have an impact on everything from traversal to combat. Gain the ability to create mushrooms, for example, and you’ll be able to jump on them to reach new places, or use them to deflect charging enemies.

It looks like the story won’t be linear or overt, and instead you’ll learn about the world by meeting new characters, both good and villainous, and just going out and exploring. There’s a karma system, too, where certain choices will generate righteous or anti-hero points. This will apparently have some bearing on what quests you can undertake, as well as what NPCs think of you.

Every day this week I’ve been getting more interested in Biomutant. It’s a novelty to see a game announced and then properly revealed so quickly, especially one that seems so ambitious. If you want to see more of the game, there’s another video showing off the same demo but with developer commentary.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.