Anno Mutationem – Spotlight
We first heard about the “China Hero Project” during one of Sony’s annual fan events a few years back. In order to help Chinese game developers publish their games on the platform, a programme was set up to provide them with the resources they needed. I tried Lost Soul Aside and Boundry, and they were both good. Despite the fact that Anno: Mutationem has yet to be officially announced, it appears to be a very exciting undertaking. It’s finally here, and it’s making a statement for the developer, ThinkingStars, who created it. This novel transports us to a dystopian future, complete with gorey cyberpunk technology and a fairly standard plot. In spite of the difficulties, I’ve continued to play as much as possible despite the setbacks.
The game’s visuals are stunning in a retro-meets-modern kind of way. The main protagonist is shown in neon splendour only found in the cyberpunk genre’s starting menu. To contrast with the higher resolution 3D environments and vehicles, the character models appear to be large sprites with a lot of fine detail. Both 2D and 3D planes are used by the game’s protagonist Ann, and she moves seamlessly between the two. You can move freely in both the x and y axes when not engaged in combat, but only to one side when doing so. Exploring is a lot more fun when you can put the pieces of the world together in this way. They use an extremely unique sprite style, and I’d love to know how they came up with it.
The world-building potential of these cityscapes is fully realised thanks to the wealth of small details. Just by listening to NPCs, reading newspaper clips, and meeting a wide variety of characters, I was able to get a good sense of what was going on in the world. The game’s soundtrack is synth-heavy electronica, and there are a few voice-acted scenes sprinkled throughout. Although I thought the voice acting was adequate, some of the lines were delivered in a flat manner. As a cool person with amnesia, Ann doesn’t come across as cold, but rather monotone. Her companion Ayane, on the other hand, can be anything from a perfect match to a complete pain. Some of the hiccups I alluded to earlier occur here, too. I believe that many of the problems you encountered in the presentation could have been remedied with a little more time and editing. Unfortunately, there are times when the spoken words don’t match up with the subtitles.
Platforming and combat will be a part of your experience as you progress through the story. In terms of combat, it’s a nice mix of simplicity and enjoyment. All you really need is a light attack, a heavy attack, a projectile, a block, and a dodge. There are a few different kinds of weapons, but they’re all just stat boosts. Her enemies include soldiers, street thugs, mechanised creatures and even mutations. The battles with the bosses are a lot of fun, and some of them have unique challenges tied to the plot. Unfortunately, one of the flaws can be seen here. You can generally stand right next to the bigger baddies and wreak havoc on them while remaining safe.
Overall, the game isn’t too difficult. To some extent, the challenge was weakened when I learned that I could approach most of the bosses and avoid their attacks. This wasn’t true for all of the bosses, but for the majority of them it was. Other than that, my only gripe with combat is that you can’t dodge out of attacks and must remain stationary in order to use weapons and other equipment. Standing still can lead to death, so I can live with that. However, those are merely nitpicks. If nothing else, the game’s enemies and set pieces will keep you entertained. In general, the puzzles are also fairly simple to solve, which is a shame because there are so many interesting puzzle possibilities in this setting.
Even with the few nitpicky issues, Anno: Mutationem is a thoroughly enjoyable game experience. This game is well worth picking up, if only for the cool art direction and clever use of the cyberpunk setting. I’d be thrilled if ThinkingStars released a sequel or something along those lines in the future.
