The game I’m playing right now takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where you’re mostly scrounging around for junk and then turning that junk into something useful, like weapons or armor. Occasionally, I’ll wander across an old-world vault and find some primo tech in there that’ll really up my arsenal. There's the occasional puzzle game to break up the action, and there are a whole bunch of factions that I’ll need to either ally with or eventually eliminate.

Sounds like I’m playing a Fallout game, right? Well, I’m not. I’m actually playing what I’ve come to dub “Furry Fallout,” or better known as Biomutant.

Even for those playing the game, it might be easy to overlook the Fallout game loop that pervades Biomutant, since it’s a bit of a kitchen sink game. There are more systems and mechanics in Biomutant than perhaps the game knows what to do with; a common critique amongst reviews is that none of these systems sync up together into a cohesive whole.

But the bedrock of Biomutant, the stuff that everything else is layered on top of, is basically just a good Fallout game.

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We'll start with the post-apocalyptic world. Sure, Biomutant's apocalypse is one of environmental collapse due to rampant pollution rather than a nuclear exchange, but the end result is the same: humanity has mostly died out and the survivors are left picking up the pieces. Only the survivors are mutated squirrels, marsupials and lemurs rather than humans.

Biomutant Whiz Octopod

 

Everywhere that's not a little furry settlement is in utter ruin. There are nuclear plants leaking radiation around a pit of glowing waste, towns that have been reduced to rubble by long-past explosions, and the random detached home that has held up relatively well and sometimes has a functioning piece of old-world gear hidden away in the basement.

The only real difference between Fallout’s world and Biomutant is that there’s actual greenery in between the toxic wreckage of an extinct civilization.

The game loop is the same too. After picking my tribe and finally being unleashed into the meat of Biomutant's open world, I immediately made a beeline towards the nearest rundown building I could find and was rewarded for my efforts with my first piece of old-world gear--an old toque with fox ears on the top. Those ears were a little superfluous given my critter's appearance, but they were still an appreciated element of flair

Related: 10 Hidden Areas In Biomutant Everyone Completely Missed.

In between dumpster dives I was greeted by bandits, rival tribes, and the occasional mutated monster just as I would in Fallout 3, 4, or New Vegas, and I quickly found myself wondering if I could replace Biomutant's vaguely oriental soundtrack with something by Bob Crosby or Betty Hutton.

Biomutant's perk system could easily match Fallout 4's if given a slight visual makeover, perhaps even featuring a version of Pip-Boy with pointed ears. Although Biomutant's puzzles are laughably simplistic, they still come at you in the same way as Fallout's puzzles do and often hide a rare piece of old-world gear.

Biomutant Underground Area
Biomutant Underground Area

And to top it all off, Biomutant has vaults. They don't all have giant circular doors with a spinning handle, but they do have broken down corridors, empty medial beds and equipment, and all the hallmarks of a society desperately trying to survive the end of the world and ultimately failing to do so.

There's even a sidequest where you have to disarm a nuclear bomb. It doesn’t get any more Fallout than that.

What Biomutant does not have is Fallout's storytelling, which generally comes in a more straightforward progression than Biomutant's disjointed flashbacks and rushed exposition. But for all of Biomutant’s faults, it gets Fallout better than any other non-Fallout game I’ve ever played, and that’s something. Especially for those that have always thought that what Fallout really needed was a wet nose, some cat ears, and a tail.

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