In summer 2017, THQ Nordic and new developer Experiment 101 revealed their open-world action-RPG Biomutant. Since then, it has dipped in and out of the public consciousness, suffering a couple sizable delays. However, just last month, THQ finally nailed down May 25th as Biomutant's firm release date.
Biomutant has existed for so long that most aren’t likely to remember all the promotion it has already received. Over the past four years, Biomutant had four sizzle trailers and four gameplay trailers. There were also trailers for the Atomic Edition and Collector’s Edition in 2019, but both have been taken down, likely to be updated for the game’s final release. Indeed, many Biomutant trailers were removed from THQ Nordic's YouTube channel, but they were fortunately preserved elsewhere. For those who haven’t been able to keep track of the many developments over the years, here is a roundup of every trailer released for Biomutant.
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Following a leak right before Gamescom 2017, THQ Nordic and Experiment 101 officially announced Biomutant, a post-apocalyptic open-world action RPG for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It was set to launch in 2018, a plan that quickly fell away. The initial trailer teased the variety of augmentations the mutant characters could receive, ranging from cybernetics to outright mutations and species changes. It also teased the mixture of gunplay and melee combat, and demonstrated a world that had been reclaimed by nature.
Shortly after that, THQ came out with a sizzle reel for Gamescom 2017. Combat is showcased with a wide variety of gunplay, martial arts, and mutant abilities being shown. Many different environments and vehicles, including a boat, an airship, a mech, and a giant mechanical hand equipped with a finger gun, are demonstrated in action.
In February 2018, THQ Nordic released a minute-long gameplay teaser for Biomutant that, while similar to the sizzle reel at the end of the last trailer, featured surprisingly little reused footage. Of note was the player character floating a foot off the ground while meditating, riding on the back of a giant squid through an underwater environment, and dealing with multiple giant monsters.
THQ began its Gamescom 2018 Biomutant offering with another short sizzle trailer. While there is a bit of repeat footage concerning NPCs, most of the footage is new and builds off of what is shown in previous sizzle trailers. More traversal, mounts, abilities, and enemies are shown off, including a large rocket-holding foe that dies if his rocket is triggered. It’s not inaccurate to say that Biomutant was spinning its wheels at this point, but fortunately, THQ also brought something more substantial.
Alongside the sizzle trailer came two long gameplay videos, the first a twelve-minute long walkthrough of a character navigating an abandoned urban area blanketed by toxic gas. This trailer begins by previewing part of Biomutant's character creation process, then goes on to demonstrate the interactive narration that will follow players through the game. A little bit of everything is shown off, from the player’s airship getting dragged down and destroyed, a miniboss participating in a three-way battle between thugs and the player, platforming using giant soap bubbles, navigating a dead zone with low oxygen, and earning a mech from an NPC. The mech is piloted into battle against an enormous monster, climaxing in the wounded beast chomping down on it — leading to a sequence that takes place in its stomach.
Meanwhile, the other trailer is a whopping sixteen minutes long, though with good reason. It begins with a different player character getting dragged to the ground in a desert region — but it won’t take long for observant viewers to realize that this is the same urban region as the previous trailer, afflicted with extreme heat instead of poison gas. This Biomutant player character fights quite differently compared to the other one, and the miniboss encountered in the second room is fire-themed instead of poison. The heat gives way soon, and much of the rest of the trailer is the same as the last. However, this time viewers are shown the true ending of the climactic area boss. These trailers give the impression of a vast, dynamic game with tons of replay value, and it will be interesting to see if the final game can deliver.
In December of 2018, THQ Nordic released a tone piece trailer that shows a variety of locales and denizens in the Biomutant world. Not many new details are shown, but some of the masters players can learn fighting styles from are seen, along with the Tree of Life being beset by some dark force. This trailer was released after it was delayed to summer 2019, and Biomutant would quietly be delayed again.
In June 2020, Biomutant made a surprise return. This most recent Biomutant trailer is formatted like a sizzle reel, but is nine minutes in length. After showing a little more of the game, the trailer ends with a statement that the game would release when the devs are happy with it, and since a release date has now manifested, hopefully Biomutant will finally be able to set players loose in its massive world.
Biomutant is set to release on May 25th, 2021, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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