ANNO: Mutationem

I pushed myself through the main story and I am certain I hate everything about the game. This is the first hack and slash combat style game where I would like to avoid both hacking and slashing for as long as possible. The gameplay is shallow, stale and boring, artstyle choices are lazy and plainly weird looking, the character designs look ok-ish until the game decides to zoom in on 'em during the cutscentes, and there are lots of cutscenes. My favorite ones are the dialogue cutscenes where there's zero movement and the dev leaves a pause of silence after every character's line, and there's no way to skip to the next one, you just need those 3-5 seconds of complete silence to let the line sink. The soundrack is dull and bland. I've played for 7hrs and I can't think of a single melody from the game. I assure you, there is music, but it's such a generic cyberpunk-ish synthwave bullsh*t that you won't ever remember it. The game tries really hard to immitate that 2017 The Last Nigh trailer's vibe and aesthetic, but neither pixelart, nor 3D designs are able to replicate it well. Also the world setting is all over the place, blending cyberpunk with magic, parallel worlds and SCP fanfiction makes no sense. Overall waste of time and storage space.

I unintentionally read some of the reviews of this game before I sat down to write my review, and I think I can say that I'm glad that I bought this game when I did, since I was able to experience endings of the game which at least made sense and seemed to be nice conclusions to the game. I'll leave it at that so as not to spoil some of the specifics to the story or game. I loved the game for its: 1) cyberpunk aesthetic (with some places looking like they came right out of Cyberpunk 2077!); 2) 2.5D graphics and cinematic scenes; 3) variety of interesting characters (even if some of the characters appear to have a decent amount of background, yet very little character arc or established presence in the story); and 4) very interesting premise that seems like it is some weird combination of EXAPUNKS, Half-Life, and SCP. I only had one small problem that affected my enjoyment of the game--too many subplots. Oddly enough, I have noticed this to be a trend among the games I have played that have been developed in part or full by Chinese companies; while the development of the main A plot appears to be complete, there are several other plots or subplots (B, C, D, ...) which seem to be very significant and important to the central A plot that can feel hastily cobbled together at best and serving only to confuse the story points of the central plot at worst. Having said that, though, this game had an interesting story, fun gameplay, wonderful cast of main characters, and had a nice difficulty curve that I expect would suit newcomers to the platforming game genre quite well without subjecting them to any frustratingly difficult fights or puzzles. It can be finished in about ~15-20 hours of gameplay (even if trying to 100% the game) and I highly recommend choosing a higher difficulty (if hell mode is available at start without requiring finishing the game at normal difficulty?) for veteran platforming game players.

Titulazo que tiene de todo un poco con su ambientación cyberpunk y mundo semi abierto pixel, una maravilla Agradezco a mi compi por darme este lujito de juego en mi cumpleaños y poder experimentar la experiencia 💠

It starts off strong with you doing detective work and trying to track down your missing brother, but the game quickly devolves into an average platformer with the occasional boss fight and lengthy cutscenes. Characters are boring and lack personality and depth. I noticed several spelling/grammar issues with subtitles, and even the wrong speaker being shown. The final third is a slog through repetitive areas, in an agency building which is a copy of Remedy's Control. Endless grey corridors, objects behind glass etc. I am not sure how they got away with it. Side quests are a joke - just fetch quests and talking to NPCs, and the crafting/upgrade mechanics are lacking and feel tacked-on. I wouldn't really recommend this game, and definitely not at full price.

一款日系元素满满的中国游戏，中国公司做出来的游戏中国元素之占了内容的百分之一，就只有一个书店和几个进不去的房间，宣传时候的SCP感觉可有可无，整部游戏里充满了EVA的身影，还是去其精华取其糟粕的内容，云里雾里的剧情全是谜语人，简直就是虚假宣传电子诈骗，不应该叫纪元变异，应该叫纪元EVA外传

Loved aesthetic. Combat/story didn’t click.

If you're a fan of the cyberpunk subgenre, you'll definitely like this game. Plus, It has incredible aesthetics and gameplay. Great music as well as voice acting. It's very difficult to find something to complain about in this game.

Игра делает ставку на стиль и динамику, хотя сценарий вызывает вопросы. Главный плюс, визуал. Сочетание пиксельных 2D-спрайтов и детализированного 3D-окружения выглядит очень стильно и удерживает внимание до конца. Геймплей не приедается за счёт смены ритма. Спокойное исследование с секретами и квестами чередуется с 2.5D боями. Прокачка, крафт и улучшения добавляют глубину и позволяют подстроить героиню под свой стиль. А вот сюжет заметно проседает: интригующее начало быстро перегружается терминами и заговорами, а к финалу история спешит, обрывая линии и подавая лор сумбурно. Итог: игру стоит попробовать. Это стильный и увлекательный проект на несколько вечеров, отлично подходящий для Steam Deck, если вы готовы мириться со слабым сюжетом.