ANNO: Mutationem is best described by one word: vexatious. This is true in terms of both gameplay and general content. I put off completing and reviewing this game for so long simply because it was quite difficult for me to find the patience. Here's the thing: I really, really wanted to like this game. ANNO: Mutationem has a lot going for it. The idea behind it and the presentation of that idea have a LOT of promise. Unfortunately, this made it all the more disappointing when it failed to deliver on that promise.

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By no means is this game poorly made. It is visually stunning and aesthetically fantastic, with a unique and interesting combination of themes and mechanics. It focuses heavily on metroidvania-style combat and exploration, which it does very well. While sometimes challenging and perhaps not as well-paced as they could have been, the fights felt generally smooth and were enjoyable to complete. My only complaint in this area is that the parry system seemed to be very inconsistent, especially between different enemies. I experienced few bugs, and only one of them was an actual inconvenience (namely the blacked-out minimap in Noctis City). However, I know others have had significant problems with bugs, some of which wholly prevented them from progressing through the story or earning achievements. Where ANNO: Mutationem truly struggles is in the worldbuilding and narrative components. As I stated, there is so much that this game could have done — it just didn't. Buckle your seatbelt or avert your eyes, because we're about to go over a lot. In other words, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

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One of the first things I read while going over other reviews before buying this game was that the story was disjointed and hard to follow. This thought stuck with me through the first few chapters and I can understand why someone would say that. To an extent, I would agree. However, as I got deeper into the story it seemed to become more cohesive and made a bit more sense. After all, it is the story of a secret organization's test subject re-discovering her hidden past, so confusion in the exposition is understandable if not beneficial. Additionally, there are tidbits of lore scattered throughout the game, some of which shed more light on what's going on. That said, this game is far from a narrative masterpiece, for several reasons:

• Some parts of the story are not entirely cleared up by the end (although all the main points are resolved) and if you've payed attention to all the background information you had the chance to pick up, you will be left with many more questions than answers. Because none of this applies to the main story, I consider it a good thing from a creative perspective, though others might disagree.
• In some parts, there is a large amount of irrelevant dialogue, while in others there is a glaring absence of dialogue that could contribute a lot.
• Several important cutscene sequences are interrupted by very short gameplay segments, which detracts from the pacing and cohesion of the story.
• Humor is not well managed. I appreciate wit as much as anyone, but this game doesn't incorporate as well as it could. It seems like some parts of the main story, which involves some pretty dark and nasty themes, are inappropriately bright and silly while most of the side missions, which are much more frivolous, felt needlessly mundane and simple.
• Characters are not used to their full potential. Despite plentiful opportunities, you hardly get to know anything about even the most central characters and their lives. Even the main character Ann seems to have some really interesting stories to which the side quests and collectibles allude but the game never explores them further. Some characters who are present or referenced in the main story seem completely irrelevant to any part of it, including Ann's own sister Helen, who is never memorably discussed in the story but nevertheless makes an appearance in the true ending for no reason other than to tie up a happy ending with a neat little bow. She's so forgettable and meaningless to the story that in said return scene the developers felt the need to have her standing outside the Sicilian Jar with her name plastered in huge letters on her suitcase as though she still needed to be recognized for some reason despite not being relevant enough for any dialogue in the conclusion. The opposite is true as well: characters who are pivotal to the main story at one point are later discarded and ignored, like Dr. Alan Doyle, who seemingly disappears into thin air after his lab is explored and is never mentioned again by any of the characters or collectibles.

Those are all about how the story is constructed, but it also suffers from how the story is presented. Three main problems stood out to me:

1. The most minor and forgivable of these is the use of voice acting. Let me be clear: the English voice acting in ANNO: Mutationem is phenomenal. However, it is inconsistently used between different cutscenes and moments of dialogue. I personally feel as though the game and story would have been more enjoyable if voice acting was more consistent or not present at all, though others may disagree.
2. The game is not very well translated. This is also a minor issue, but worth discussing. As I understand it, it was originally written in Chinese, which is difficult to translate into English, and to the credit of the writers and developers it was translated well enough that almost everything explicit was understandable. However, there were many typos as well as inconsistencies between the written dialogue and the voiceover. I also feel like I probably missed out on quite a bit of subtext that simply did not translate into the English version.
3. The biggest issue was the composition of the cutscenes. They were poorly paced with odd pauses and unusual transitions to other scenes. Additionally, many of them lacked dialogue altogether. This is usually not a problem because games will often replace explicit language with expressions and motions that imply thoughts and emotions taking place. ANNO: Mutationem attempts to do this, but because of the difficulty in showing those things and the inconsistency of speech, it mostly just felt awkward.

Now that I've gone over how the content is directed, I want to take a look at what the content is. This is what broke me and turned me against recommending it. Again, this game looked extremely promising. As far as cyberpunk themes go, ANNO: Mutationem was pretty unique and had the potential to be so much more than it was. Ultimately, it was held back by trying to become something else. Because of the character limit, I explain this in detail here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951854176

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There's a lot more I could cover, but I would end up typing all night long. Long story short, ANNO: Mutationem isn't bad for an indie game, but it could have been so much more if it had been taken in a different direction early on. I enjoyed playing and completing it, but it is not a game I would recommend to most people.

ANNO: Mutationem is best described by one word: [i]vexatious[/i]. This is true in terms of both gameplay and general content. I put off completing and reviewing this game for so long simply because it was quite difficult for me to find the patience. Here's the thing: I really, really wanted to like this game. ANNO: Mutationem has a lot going for it. The idea behind it and the presentation of that idea have a LOT of promise. Unfortunately, this made it all the more disappointing when it failed to deliver on that promise.[hr][/hr]By no means is this game poorly made. It is visually stunning and aesthetically fantastic, with a unique and interesting combination of themes and mechanics. It focuses heavily on metroidvania-style combat and exploration, which it does very well. While sometimes challenging and perhaps not as well-paced as they could have been, the fights felt generally smooth and were enjoyable to complete. My only complaint in this area is that the parry system seemed to be very inconsistent, especially between different enemies. I experienced few bugs, and only one of them was an actual inconvenience (namely the blacked-out minimap in Noctis City). However, I know others have had significant problems with bugs, some of which wholly prevented them from progressing through the story or earning achievements. Where ANNO: Mutationem truly struggles is in the worldbuilding and narrative components. As I stated, there is [i]so [b]much[/b][/i] that this game could have done — it just didn't. Buckle your seatbelt or avert your eyes, because we're about to go over a lot. In other words, [b]MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD[/b].[hr][/hr]One of the first things I read while going over other reviews before buying this game was that the story was disjointed and hard to follow. This thought stuck with me through the first few chapters and I can understand why someone would say that. To an extent, I would agree. However, as I got deeper into the story it seemed to become more cohesive and made a bit more sense. After all, it is the story of [spoiler]a secret organization's test subject re-discovering her hidden past[/spoiler], so confusion in the exposition is understandable if not beneficial. Additionally, there are tidbits of lore scattered throughout the game, some of which shed more light on what's going on. That said, this game is far from a narrative masterpiece, for several reasons:[list][*]Some parts of the story are not entirely cleared up by the end (although all the main points are resolved) and if you've payed attention to all the background information you had the chance to pick up, you will be left with many more questions than answers. Because none of this applies to the main story, I consider it a good thing from a creative perspective, though others might disagree.[*]In some parts, there is a large amount of irrelevant dialogue, while in others there is a glaring absence of dialogue that could contribute a lot.[*]Several important cutscene sequences are interrupted by very short gameplay segments, which detracts from the pacing and cohesion of the story.[*]Humor is not well managed. I appreciate wit as much as anyone, but this game doesn't incorporate as well as it could. It seems like some parts of the main story, which involves some pretty dark and nasty themes, are inappropriately bright and silly while most of the side missions, which are much more frivolous, felt needlessly mundane and simple.[*]Characters are not used to their full potential. Despite plentiful opportunities, you hardly get to know anything about even the most central characters and their lives. Even the main character Ann seems to have some really interesting stories to which the side quests and collectibles allude but the game never explores them further. Some characters who are present or referenced in the main story seem completely irrelevant to any part of it, including [spoiler]Ann's own sister Helen, who is never memorably discussed in the story but nevertheless makes an appearance in the true ending for no reason other than to tie up a happy ending with a neat little bow. She's so forgettable and meaningless to the story that in said return scene the developers felt the need to have her standing outside the Sicilian Jar with her name plastered in huge letters on her suitcase as though she still needed to be recognized for some reason despite not being relevant enough for any dialogue in the conclusion[/spoiler]. The opposite is true as well: characters who are pivotal to the main story at one point are later discarded and ignored, like [spoiler]Dr. Alan Doyle, who seemingly disappears into thin air after his lab is explored and is never mentioned again by any of the characters or collectibles[/spoiler].[/list]Those are all about how the story is constructed, but it also suffers from how the story is presented. Three main problems stood out to me:[olist][*]The most minor and forgivable of these is the use of voice acting. Let me be clear: the English voice acting in ANNO: Mutationem is phenomenal. However, it is inconsistently used between different cutscenes and moments of dialogue. I personally feel as though the game and story would have been more enjoyable if voice acting was more consistent or not present at all, though others may disagree.[*]The game is not very well translated. This is also a minor issue, but worth discussing. As I understand it, it was originally written in Chinese, which is difficult to translate into English, and to the credit of the writers and developers it was translated well enough that almost everything explicit was understandable. However, there were many typos as well as inconsistencies between the written dialogue and the voiceover. I also feel like I probably missed out on quite a bit of subtext that simply did not translate into the English version.[*]The biggest issue was the composition of the cutscenes. They were poorly paced with odd pauses and unusual transitions to other scenes. Additionally, many of them lacked dialogue altogether. This is usually not a problem because games will often replace explicit language with expressions and motions that imply thoughts and emotions taking place. ANNO: Mutationem attempts to do this, but because of the difficulty in showing those things and the inconsistency of speech, it mostly just felt awkward.[/olist]Now that I've gone over how the content is directed, I want to take a look at what the content is. This is what broke me and turned me against recommending it. Again, this game looked extremely promising. As far as cyberpunk themes go, ANNO: Mutationem was pretty unique and had the potential to be so much more than it was. Ultimately, it was held back by trying to become something else. Because of the character limit, I explain this in detail here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2951854176[hr][/hr]There's a lot more I could cover, but I would end up typing all night long. Long story short, ANNO: Mutationem isn't bad for an indie game, but it could have been so much more if it had been taken in a different direction early on. I enjoyed playing and completing it, but it is not a game I would recommend to most people.