Review: Biomorph

A Curiosly Compelling Metroidvania

Biomorph is an excellently crafted metroidvania that places you into an dark post apocalyptic world where you can transform into monstrous enemies to slay foes, solve puzzles and uncover the mystery of your own identity. Despite having some missing features and discrepancies in difficulty Biomorph remains a satisfying and exhilarating game to play through.

The Premise

If you’re looking for an intriguing sci-fi story set in a post apocalyptic world with talking creatures then Biomorph is gonna deliver. It immediately starts by throwing you into the thick of the story full of cutscenes. You play as Harlo, a cat-like ninja character, escaping out of a high-tech dangerous facility filled with experimental baddies. This place is known as the core. Before being given the chance to fully escape, someone named Kleo calls out to Harlo. He recognizes her, but he’s not certain as he’s lost his memory.

Immediately after escaping the core, Harlo realizes he has to break back into the core to not only find out who Kleo really is, but to find the significance of what he was doing there in the first place. Only getting back into the core requires activating the beacons across the surrounding land of Ilios. It may sound like a serious sci-fi adventure, but it balances out by having plenty of lighthearted characters and moments. It’s a solid story told with plenty of lore to discover that which kept me going to find out what’s being hidden in the core.

Hallowknight meets Super Mario Odyssey

The name Biomorph comes from the ability that the game gives you to morph into wandering monsters mimicking their powers. You must defeat the monsters before you are able to morph into them. It’s fascinating how all of the monsters have this menacing yet charming aura to them. I can’t tell you how awesome it is to not only have Harlo as a fun playable character, but to have countless monsters that each have their own unique moveset. You can stay transformed into a monster for as long as you like!

Additionally, once you defeat a certain amount of that same monster you can recall that monster’s transformation at will. The game allows you to save 3 transformations at a time, and these can be changed out at save points throughout the game. Certain transformations will be used to traverse in specific areas or solve mini puzzles. Some transformations will also be used in battle which I felt were the most striking. Not one of their many transformations felt underwhelming. In fact, I had a hard time choosing a favorite.

The Kit

Harlo is not on a solo adventure, he is joined by his companions Zeki (left hand) and Eny (right hand). They provide the basis of Harlo’s kit which can be interchanged as boxing gloves, grenade launchers, blasters, long swords, and other weapons. Harlo has three slots available to equip your favorite combination of weapons. They can also all be upgraded throughout the game to make them more effective. For instance, to improve their damage output or to decrease cool down time.

One issue I had is that all of the weapons have ‘charges’ which will run out after so many uses. To my knowledge there is no way to refill these charges besides going to the save stations. This is annoying to do and made it seem like the boxing glove weapon had to be equipped at all times since those weapons require no charge. I feel like this could have been solved by sprinkling some ammo drops from enemies. Then again I think they did this cause if they gave you unlimited charges then it would have made the play through even easier than it was.

Looking for a challenge?

The game is not walk in the park, but the difficulty doesn’t warrant the ‘soulslike’ title that I have seen some given to this metroidvania. First of all, the game starts off on the easy side which I can give a pass for since it allows you to get used to the mechanics. Then, one of the default abilities Harlo has is a splash dash where he crouches into a puddle lunging forward. The issue I have with it is it makes Harlo invincible in its entirety. There is no limitation on this movement, and there’s no skill in even timing the splash dash. It can be used through projectiles, through enemies, even through bosses! This takes away A LOT of the challenge. Perhaps if there were a limit on uses or if there is a tighter window for invincibility. The most times I died is when I realized I was not splash dashing enough. Although Biomorph wasn’t as difficult as I expected I still had a blast playing through its beautifully detailed environments.

Performance & Visuals

Biomorph presents a beautifully hand drawn art style that is gracefully complimented by competent performance. Harlo is one of the coolest designed heroes and the colors on him pop as he jumps and maneuvers his way through the different biomes. Harlo looks even better as cutscenes play out like a Saturday morning superhero cartoon. There are even a few moments where Harlo is jumping through a large open area and the screen will zoom out to give you a perspective of the surroundings. I love when games give you a sight to see and Biomorph deserves to be seen. As previously mentioned, enemies and bosses are grossly detailed, but remain alluring. They grow on you as you take over their fallen corpses to uncover the map.

There were no issues on the performance side which bodes well for this metroidvania. It runs smoothly and responsively as one should expect. Even if Harlo himself is a little more floaty than I’d like him to be, he has plenty of movement options and transformations to take advantage of to alleviate this feeling of floaty-ness.

The Verdict

Biomorph may not be the soulslike it was perceived to be, but it set itself apart by impressing me with its transformational mechanics, strong customizable kit and riveting sci-fi story. Like the name suggests, you can morph into your enemies gaining a new and unique moveset. It is exponentially satisfying to utilize these monster’s abilities to traverse to new areas and find secrets. The serious tone of the story has tones of lightheartedness and lore that was given the care it deserved. Biomorph is an enjoyable metroidvania with many unique qualities that I wholeheartedly recommend.