ANNO: Mutationem Reviews
Punchy, side-scrolling combat and a richly realized, anime-inspired world make Anno: Mutationem a blast, but the script is a bit rusty.
With the game’s ending hinting at a possible sequel, Mutationem stands as a messy first draft. If a follow-up does come, I hope ThinkingStars’ will have the confidence to boldly stand and tell its own unique story rather than remain so shackled to its inspirations.
ANNO: Muatationem tells a strong tale with its core mystery, strengthened by beautiful visuals and satisfying combat. While its inspirations are a little on-the-nose, developer ThinkingStars manages to carve out its own space in the Cyberpunk genre. Some long loads and minor balancing issues take the shine off a little, but it's still an incredibly impressive effort from a small indie team who has created a world that feels as immersive as any £60 AAA RPG.
ANNO: Mutationem is an enjoyable cyberpunk adventure with enough confident swagger to distract from its shortcomings.
ANNO: Mutationem's sublime blending of 2D and 3D visuals is a delight to behold and a joy to experience. Fast-paced combat and competent RPG systems all deliver so, as long as you can accept the incomprehensible plot and naff dialogue, there's a lot to enjoy.
ANNO: Mutationem is an audacious title that successfully merges genres. While the 3D segments aren’t as tight as its 2D counterpart, the originality shines through making this a fresh adventure. The gorgeous environment is full of character and is a joy to inhabit. However, the delivery of the narrative lacks the nuances to fully immerse. With its solid action gameplay and exciting bosses, fans of the genre will have a blast in this futuristic, cyberpunk escapade.
There's surprising scope in the game — 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.
ANNO: Mutationem is an extremely fascinating project, divided between the freedom of its open map structure and the direct simplicity of its 2D action sections.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As it stands, this is a tough one to recommend as long as the bugs persist, but it may be worth checking out after a patch or two to resolve the more blatant issues.
ANNO: Mutationem had a lot of promise, but ended up spread far too thin. Both the exploration and combat lack any sort of depth, the story is nonsensical, and the sprite work looks ugly in motion.
ANNO: Mutationem is a brief-yet-solid cyberpunk adventure game with robust RPG elements.
While Anno: Mutationem sports an interesting art direction, the disjointed story and uneven combat make this game hard to recommend.
I really did want to enjoy Ann’s story, it’s visually beautiful and has some clever little in-game tricks to its aesthetics. It’s just a damn shame the narrative couldn’t quite keep up, leaving ANNO: Mutationem a visually stunning but muddled, confusing game.
With a variety of gameplay, a story with twists and turns, and natural and fluid combat, it presents us with a cyberpunk world that is worth savoring.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
New additions are the various difficulty modes. ANNO: Mutationem could be a pretty spicy action game at times, so less skilled players can enjoy a more casual experience with the new easy mode. The “Hell” mode lives up to its name and returning players will find Ann will have no hope of success. Not the best mode to play on Switch, due to the increased load times.
ANNO: Mutationem is a gorgeous-looking, original indie title that, while bearing issues with the narrative design, is a display of promising potential for developer ThinkingStars.
ANNO: Mutationem is a grave disappointment. The initial premise, stylish ambiance and cool presentation promise a stellar indie action-adventure game. Sadly, it is a hopelessly sloppy game with terrible localization; often on-screen text does not match character dialogue.
I was intrigued by ANNO: Mutationem when it came to other platforms earlier this year, and the Switch version seems to largely offer the same experience but with added portability. Its interesting story and decent challenge, in addition to some compelling world building make a strong case for adding the game to your digital library; a free eShop demo is also available for those who want to dip their toes in first. If you can stomach the miniscule text size and a somewhat flat middle portion of the story, ANNO: Mutationem offers an enjoyable and brisk cyberpunk-flavored adventure.
With extraordinary Cyberpunk world design that sucks you in from the very first moment, unique mixture of 2D and 3D gameplay, gorgeous art style, deep and diverse gameplay and exiting boss fights, ANNO: Mutationem is a true gem that is not appreciated enough, and it will not disappoint if you give it a try.
Review in Persian | Read full review
A nice action/RPG in a cyberpunk background, with a beautiful and unique personality, but with a plot that falls short.