Anno: Mutationem (Switch)

Anno: Mutationem developed by ThinkingStars aims to give the Nintendo Switch a dose of that Cyberpunk life it’s missed out on with a certain title set in 2077, worth a punt or should you do a Blade Runner?.

You’re Ann Flores, a typical futuristic anime protagonist with a confusing past, a seemingly incurable disease and a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Very early into the game you’ll find out your brother Ryan has gone missing and it’s something to do with your disease, this triggers your rooftop hopping, sword swinging, neon soaked adventure through the best and the worst that Skopp City has to offer.

The writing in Anno: Mutationem is fantastic mixing the best of sci-fi anime with some generally thought provoking stuff that will keep you engaged throughout. The characters are a fantastic mix and I especially giggled when I saw Ann’s Dad. 

Anno: Mutationem really nails the Cyberpunk aesthetic not only with some expertly crafted sprite work married to 3D backgrounds and effects but the whole design just oozes “futuristic’, it’s got all the cliches you need such as giant neon billboards, flying cars and robots blending seamlessly into society. 

The game features a mixture of sprite and polygon based graphics and manages to create one of the more unique and beautiful titles around, it really hits how good the game looked mere minutes into the game when you open Ann’s window and see just the sheer scale on offer. 

The city is brilliantly designed with several different areas representing the best and worst the future has to offer, despite the almost 2D side scrolling nature of the game the world has been designed in a way that it feels natural and fun to explore while doubling up as something that could have been a functional city.

The game features some fantastic music ranging from pumping dance tunes while the action kicks off to wonderful ambient sound in the quieter moments, there is also some great voice acting which really brings the characters to life. 

The gameplay ranges from exploration with the usual fetch quest style side quests on offer to platforming and even character action style fighting much in the vein of Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. 

The combat offers a lot of different options both up close with melee and ranged with weapons such as a rifle and grenades you can use to close the gap. As you get further into the mystery you’ll be investing points into a skill tree which unlock further moves and techniques, perfect dodges and the like, if you’ve played any character action game in the last decade you’ll have an idea of what this has to offer. 

The game has various mini-games to mix things up including one based on a popular cyberpunk bartending game that I keep meaning to play but still haven’t gotten around to!. 

Anno: Mutationem runs for around 12 to 15 hours and the pacing of the game is done well enough that between the exploration, combat and mini games you’ll never really find yourself flagging. There are plenty of side quests for you to discover and solve too which help pad the hours somewhat.

I can’t really recommend Anno: Mutationem anymore if I tried, the game is a fantastic cyberpunk/anime fusion that fans of the genre will sink right into and be consumed by until the credits roll. The game ran perfectly outside of some lengthy load screens and some of the story was a little head scratching at times but all in all you’d be a right punk to miss out on this title.