ANNO: Mutationem

actual peak

I enjoyed playing this game. Ultimately, I decided it’s a 6/10, but it has some seriously redeeming and charming characteristics you might not want to sleep on. I definitely recommend picking this title up and playing it for the experience, but you should buy it on sale. Art Style 10/10: The art style is very unique. Having a 2D pixel art character navigating in a 3D world was extremely novel and well executed. This feature is actually quite the wow factor and really bolsters up what would otherwise be a fairly mediocre game. The Cyberpunk themes are visually appealing, and anyone who has played Cyberpunk 2077 is going to get a little nostalgia from going around the world. Music 8/10: The music is also on point. Several times during the play-through I noticed it was surprisingly good. Story 5/10: The story was fairly average. It felt a bit awkward, and cheesy at points. I did like the additional deeper lore found on text documents scattered throughout the game. However, I felt as if the cyberpunk aspects of the game were mostly superficial, and didn't have a big enough impact on the narrative. The actual story could have easily been set in a traditional fantasy setting instead of a cyberpunk one and you wouldn't really be able to tell anything was different, actually it might have fit better. Ideally, there shouldn't be magic in a cyberpunk setting, that is what advanced technology is for. Mechanics 6/10: The mechanics in game were interesting, but somewhat lacking in satisfaction. Certain actions are arbitrarily available at certain points of the game. You basically have 2 systems; one for exploration and one for combat, and which one you are using will involuntarily change frequently. The issue is that each system has limitations. When you are in combat mode you can spam attacks, jump, and dash, but your movement is limited to 2D side-scrolling. When you are in exploration mode you can't attack, jump or dash, but your movement becomes multi-directional and it is easier to interact with the environment. I found myself missing the multidirectional movement when I was in combat mode and missing the dash when I was in exploration mode. Overall the two system gameplay feels a little clunky to me. And it somewhat spoils the surprise as when you enter into combat mode you know you are going to be in a fight shortly. I think it was a good experience for what it was though and while the shortcomings were frustrating, the implementation was refreshingly unique (especially in the beginning when it felt new).