Biomutant is finally releasing tomorrow four years after its initial announcement. THQ Nordic and Experiment 101 have been working on the game for a long time, implementing a lot of cool features in the new IP that stem from inspiration drawn from successful titles like Devil May Cry, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild, and more. Biomutant is a bold project due to all the elements from other franchises that are changed, mixed, and matched in a unique way that makes the game appealing to many fans.
There was and somewhat still is an excruciating lack of official details on the game, and given its premise, many players ended up asking themselves if the upcoming Action RPG will or will not be a multiplayer title. While Biomutant is not a multiplayer game on launch, there is still the possibility that an online mode or local co-op mode will be introduced later on with a massive update. If that proves to be the case, however, how would the addition of such a feature work in a game that is conceived as a single-player experience from the get-go?
Biomutant: Multiplayer, And How Wung-Fu Is An Issue
Biomutant is a game that features many interesting things, including the companions and the Karma system, which players can take advantage of in order to have a semi-multiplayer experience while playing singleplayer. The system itself could bode well for the possibility of future multiplayer content for Biomutant, as it's plausible that the technology is there. However, Biomutant's current gameplay poses another issue with how a multiplayer mode would work, simply because the game is founded on the principle of Wung-Fu and combos, making it very hard to implement a way for gamers to play together.
Biomutant's Wung-Fu sort of 'steals' this feature from Fallout, but basically, chaining a set amount of specific moves into a combo triggers the Super Wung-Fu mode, which allows players to slow down time and hit their enemies with all they've got. While this feature does make the gameplay very interesting, it also means it is going to make it hard for THQ Nordic and Experiment 101 to find a way to make multiplayer a thing without having an impact on Biomutant's regular playstyle. This doesn't necessarily mean that multiplayer will never be added, as another title Fallout 76 set a unique precedent in these regards.
Fallout's VATS And Biomutant's Wung-Fu Could Work Similarly
Fallout as a series always had this same slow motion feature that is at the core of its gameplay, and that's the VATS. In mainline games, VATS allows players to activate it to freeze enemies in place and aim weapons at specific body parts for extra damage. However, Fallout 76 is an online multiplayer game, and it had to retain a familiar element with the VATS, but it couldn't freeze enemy players in place with the nature of online play. The way this works is by having VATS still highlight weak body parts, which could be adapted to Biomutant's Wung-Fu in a different way.
Retaining combos and the Super Wung-Fu could still work in Biomutant's multiplayer, and what could be done is removing the slow motion aspect. The gameplay would change, being slightly less strategic and more action-oriented, but that would allow players to play either in local co-op or online as they please. Quests could be shared in terms of progress if all players are at the same point in the story, and loot could be bound to each players, without them having to divide their spoils of combat. This remains speculation at this point, but there is hope that Biomutant could indeed adopt this system to add the option of playing the game with friends and family.
Biomutant releases May 25 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.