ANNO: Mutationem

Hard to recommend at full price, but can't say this game is bad either. Combat is decently competent if not that complicated. Difficulty is largely tame, even on higher setting, though some rare bosses tended to two-tap. Visual style is fairly solid and probably one of the stronger points of the game. The more problematic part is story. It's not badly written, but neither is it handled exceptionally well. To give a few examples - some characters ([spoiler]Alan, protagonist's foster father, Absalom and C[/spoiler] aren't that well utilized in the story it feels, for the level of presence they have. There isn't enough "payoff" for their buildup as characters, which is handled somewhat well. A lot of later story bits are dropped through cutscenes/video recordings of characters talking to each other. Not the worst way to do it, but somewhat uninspired and taking player out of the experience. Since there isn't a particular reason character would watch an exchange that is neither likely to get recorded nor to "randomly" gain access to it on some terminal for no reason and at no agency to find it. The better way to handle this is through more indirect story-telling I feel. It both allows to make presentation more obtuse and more open to interpretation (not watching a scene, but reading/hearing comments about what happened from individuals, for example). And would make for more organic story-telling through the personal experience of the protagonist, rather than disembodied "viewer" that abruptly gains omnipresence to experience them. Some character reactions also felt a tad off and not as well informed as they should. For example, protagonist's [spoiler]very belated realization of her nature[/spoiler], despite at this point (through side-content and dialogue) being fairly likely to realize the truth long ago. Another problematic moment it feels is the [spoiler]protagonist's brother Ryan's[/spoiler] role in the story. While decently good hook for the beginning of the story, it feels like this specific element is overused as a constant driver throughout the game. Whereas it would be better for the story to partially resolve their branch of story and evolve protagonist's goals as the game slowly expands and moves forward. Tl;dr is that game is decently competent, but has quite a few flaws as well. I'm interested in further games from the developer, but I'm hopeful to see improvements too through experience. It's hard to recommend game at full price (despite decent ~15-20 hour size) when there are simply more polished indie experiences out there.

Шикарный пиксель арт, интересный сюжет, крутая атмосфера киберпанка. К сожалению, бродить по городам немного интересней, чем по сюжету зачищать «кишки» лабораторий/заводов/канализаций, но, в целом, игра хорошая.

스토리에 더 몰입하고 싶었는데, 한국어랑 영어 번역이 개판인 느낌을 많이 받아서 집중을 할 수 없었습니다. 그리고 전투도 저에게는 매력적으로 느껴지지 않은 느낌입니다.

A friend gifted me AM figuring I was an easy mark for stoic warrior women, modern fantasy settings, killer robots and other cuter robots. They were right! Cyberpunk 2D 77 is an enjoyable romp barring some story gripes that I'll spoiler later. It's a charming love letter to cyberpunk anime with a gritty mystery punctuated by good energy blade brawling combat and weird characters to chat with when not rummaging through garbage cans to fund those lightsabers. The Anne Mutationem, or Anne Flores, is a sort of hobby mercenary since working as a bartender would force her to be more social than she's comfortable with. The things introverts will do to avoid talking to people! When her brother goes missing Ann is on the case, assisted by her emotional support lesbian Ayane as mission control/sugar mommy. The best character is in the detailed urban settings that make up Nyaa-ight City. This city glows brightly but hides a dark underbelly where immoral corpos and gangs of anachronistic toughs do contractually obligated neopunk stuff. Wandering around and meeting strange folks who become your quest buddies or town support is a treat and Anne's friends and family help build a nice emotional core. The opening mystery and supernatural elements like being in the aftermath of an aggressive mechanizing plague start things off radically. It's a cool world. Gameplay bounces between 3D roaming to explore sci-fi cities and 2D action brawling/platforming. Gab about town for clues, bask in the excellent atmosphere and compulsively loot the hundreds of trash cans holding Anne's true income. The fighting system is a slick one centered around a generous dodge roll and freeflow combos with weighty weapon impact. Weapon choice and enemy variety keeps things engaging even if you pick your one favorite and beat it against everything like the future caveman I am. One of the best draws of the game are the boss fights, lots of choice sensational battles, some tough but fair patterns and good ideas like my favorite against a power armor quartet where you can dodge around them and use their huge frames as cover against projectiles from the others. The crane arms of death were also quite a treat. Platforming is competent. A few jumping sections are better than others, nothing really offends, you get a nice rhythm of unlocking the double jump and the air dash and so on. Puzzles are rare and tend to be "push box", though environmental hunting for hacking clues is a nice surprise when it happens and some danger rooms and chases in the second half of the game add spice. It's nice platforming without instant kills for falling into pits, no need to pad wordcount about it. Things look good with a passionate amount of high energy 2D sprites occupying a lot of cleverly staged and moodily set 3D areas. I was continually impressed by how cool things look for simple rotations around a 3D model or a loading screen helping sell immersion. Soundtrack's catchy, voice acting is nicely done and although the text translation is rough at times it's no big deal. Aside from a few enemy hitboxes being too big there's no real gameplay problems. An armor/accessories system would be welcome as gear boils down to "how would you like to deal the same damage today?" Combat rewards breaking enemy shields so much(and enemies survive at 0 HP until the last break if you bypass them) that it invalidates damage penetration it seems and I never felt the need to juggle weapon chips for burny, freezy or zappy. Leaves you with +damage or +crit(+damage but I love gambling.) Pacing can also be a bit odd, though that'd probably require rewriting most of the story to address things like the overly large final dungeon. *Spoilers* The biggest letdown is the vague, noncommittal mystery men that suck up all the narrative importance in the second half. Running into a brooding anime man who beats you in a cutscene stinks. Not seeing him again until the finale is a waste of staging that rivalry in the first place. Having characters you don't know be introduced offscreen musing about SHE... HAS FINALLY AWOKEN, IT CAN DO... THE PLOT THING, HMMM, BUT... DO THEY KNOW? sent me on a wild flashback to every bad anime plot I've ever seen as a teenager. It's disappointing as the first half has wonderful world and character building, grudges building with the local crime syndicate and then just hours of smug wankers mumbling about how you know nothing and this is for the greater good draining all enthusiasm. The antagonists are literally SCP except sociopathically stupid. Makes choosing the bad ending more cathartic than the good one just to ice 'em. Maybe combine C and Absalom's roles and have build up to somebody from the Hinterlands working to free Amok instead of saving that for literally the last bosses dying line! AM holds its cards close to a perky chest for too long and most end up being duds. *End Spoilers* Story gripes aside I'd say AM is 90% banger that would've lit up the Playstation 2/3 as an AA cult classic and 10% anime tropes that went rotten since harvest from the 2000s. The rest of the good anime tropes, the solid combat with support from decent platforming and exploration and the lovingly detailed world building let AM swing above its indie weight class and deserve full price at $25, a great value on a 50% off sale. Ayane best girl.

It is a RPG with 3D exploration and 2D metroidvania-type combat. I'm not going to say anything about the story to avoid spoilers but I think the overall plot was alright and (English) voice acting is quite decent. Main story took me about 12h to complete. My only criticism in this area would be the last 15-20% of the game where the overall pacing drops slightly and some repetition creeps-in. While the RPG elements are not particularly deep, the combat is done rather well and you are always rewarded for going off the main track and exploring the map. The game has a lot of charm in its soundtrack and graphics, it has really solid art direction where it blends quite well 3D environments with 2D pixel sprites, ANNO Mutationem also seems to take heavy inspiration from Cyberpunk and SCP-universe in its world design, numerous references and easter eggs. Pretty fun and underrated game.

This game is boring as ass

2d속 3d 화려한 네온 샤인 풍경과 사무소 탐정답게 추리하는 재미까지 주는 서브 퀘스트까진 좋았는데... 진짜 진부하고 답답한 전투 커맨드 및 조작감과 타격감 / 가면 갈 수록 기대한 내용과는 전혀 다른 산으로 가는 스토리.. 조금만 더 신경쓰고 손 봤으면 재밌었다고 생각했을텐데 아쉬울 따름.. 제 값주고 사지 마십쇼