Jason Kilar isn't planning on leaving WarnerMedia anytime soon, according to a new report from Deadline. The New York Times previously reported that Kilar was negotiating his exit last week.

“My plan and my focus is to remain here in my CEO role at WarnerMedia," Kilar told staff in a town hall, as reported by Deadline. "I am not thinking right now about post-merger. There will be a time to consider that topic in 2022.”

His announcement that he's not leaving comes on the heels of WarnerMedia merging with Discovery to create a new venture. As part of the deal, Discovery CEO David Zaslav will take over the new company as CEO. WarnerMedia’s CEO joined the company in May 2020, just ahead of HBO Max's launch.

To say that Kilar’s time at WarnerMedia has been tumultuous in the industry would be quite the understatement. Just one year into the job, Kilar turned Hollywood on its head by announcing that Warner Bros. 2021 movies will hit HBO Max the same day they were released in theaters. Sitting in the middle of a pandemic with no clear sign as to when things would return to normal, Kilar took the opportunity to lean into the unprecedented. The goal was to scale HBO Max as quickly as possible in 2021, and then return to more normal distribution methods in 2022.

Risky! The move reportedly cost WarnerMedia an additional $200 million in smoothing over talent relations with backend deals. Directors like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, both who have long relationships with Warner Bros., publicly condemned the move. Theater exhibitors like AMC and Regal admonished the decision. Kilar put everything on the table at a time that allowed for it, and did it with a consumer-first thesis. If people wanted new movies, and they couldn’t necessarily get to a theater, why not make it available for them at home?

It seems to be working. HBO Max saw big subscriber jumps with the release of Wonder Woman 1984, and engagement seemed to increase with every new high profile film, including Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Godzilla vs Kong. The latter film had the “largest domestic box office of any other movie in the last year while also having the largest viewing audience of any other film or show on HBO Max since launched,” according to AT&T’s chief financial officer, Pascal Desroches.

As Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw put it, “Love him or hate him, Kilar had a strategy and a vision. He started to map it out.”

For WarnerMedia, a company in the middle of a less than amicable restructure under AT&T ownership, Kilar is either a breath of fresh air or precisely the issue. Coming from Hulu when it first started, a company smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, Kilar brought a move fast, break things approach to WarnerMedia. The theatrical release model was just the latest thing to break.

Ironically, since then, every major studio has started reworking what a normal theatrical release will look like. Disney is moving films to Disney+ or debuting them simultaneously in theater and on Disney+. Sony has signed a new deal with Netflix. Paramount is working to get its films on Paramount+ faster. Searchlight and 20th Century Studios are making more films directly for Hulu.

Kilar, the prodigal executive brought in to try and fix WarnerMedia’s messy HBO Max strategy, has arguably done what he was hired to do.

Whether or not Kilar stays on board beyond 2022, post-sale and when Zaslav takes over, is the question looming over WarnerMedia.

Amazon is buying iconic film studio and the company behind James Bond, MGM, in a deal worth $8.45 billion, the company announced today. The Information first reported the negotiations.

Amazon noted in its announcement that it will "preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films" with the acquisition.

MGM is the latest, smaller film company to be acquired by a much bigger company. The studio reportedly started looking for a buyer in December 2020, as first reported by Variety. Apple supposedly passed on acquiring the studio for around $6 billion last year, giving Amazon a clear runway to go full steam ahead.

One of the biggest questions people may have about the purchase is why Amazon would want to own MGM. Aside from the obvious value in sharing parts of the Bond franchise (with Eon Productions, which has control over how Bond movies are distributed meaning it's not like Bond is going to premiere on Amazon Prime Video just yet), two of the biggest advantages are Epix and a deep catalog of films.

Epix is a cable channel that’s available to 85 million cable customers around the country. Amazon likely doesn’t care about that aspect. Cable is losing customers every single quarter, and Amazon, a company built on the back of Prime subscribers, isn’t suddenly trying to compete with companies like NBCUniversal or WarnerMedia. That’s especially true this week following news that WarnerMedia and Discovery are merging to create a new super company that will dominate the world of cable and, potentially, streaming.

What Epix does have, however, is a lucrative Pay-1 deal with companies like Paramount. Pay-1 is a fancy term that basically means Epix gets exclusive rights to a Paramount movie after it hits theaters. While part of the deal has changed (Epix and ViacomCBS signed a new deal in February that will allow some Paramount films to hit Paramount+ for a period of time before heading to Epix) it means that Amazon would get access to films like Mission Impossible 7 and A Quiet Place II.

These are the types of movies that, historically, convince people to sign up for a streaming service or prevent them from canceling. At Amazon, it’s a little different. Some people may sign up for Amazon Prime because of shows like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but it’s more likely that people sign up for Prime on the retail side. If, however, Prime Video keeps them actively engaged on the website, or does prevent someone from canceling, Amazon Prime’s churn rate decreases and the company’s main revenue point continues to grow.

Amazon wants to be a necessity for customers across the board. They want people to get all their groceries, electronics, and books from the website. Amazon Prime Video is arguably not a necessity — it just so happens to come with the bigger Prime offering. Having a library as deep as MGM’s could change that, though.

As Indiewire points out, MGM’s library “includes 4,000 films and 17,000 hours of television, including titles like ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Rocky.’” Amazon Prime Video has a decent library already, but the company is now competing with deep wells from competitors at NBCUniversal, Disney (which now includes Fox), ViacomCBS, and the aforementioned new offering from WarnerMedia and Discovery.

Bond may be MGM’s biggest franchise (even with confusing distribution rules), but there are enough recognizable titles in the company’s vault to keep subscribers happy and engaged, Amazon hopes. It all comes back to an ouroboros strategy. If people are more engaged with Prime Video, they may use the retail website to buy more household items. If they spend more time on Amazon’s main website, they could decide to read a comic on Comixology they saw an ad for in the corner of the website. They might go from there to Twitch, and then back to Prime Video. Amazon wants to keep as many people in the ecosystem as possible.

And, hey, $9 billion is a lot — but it’s still chump change for a company whose market value is $1.76 trillion.

So, for $9 billion, Amazon is going to own James Bond and you’ll notice a bunch of new movies available to stream exclusively (I imagine) on Prime Video. The only real question left is whether Jeff Bezos gets to play a Bond villain in the future.

Amazon is buying iconic film studio and the company behind James Bond, MGM, in a deal worth $8.45 billion, the company announced today. The Information first reported the negotiations.

Amazon noted in its announcement that it will "preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films" with the acquisition.

MGM is the latest, smaller film company to be acquired by a much bigger company. The studio reportedly started looking for a buyer in December 2020, as first reported by Variety. Apple supposedly passed on acquiring the studio for around $6 billion last year, giving Amazon a clear runway to go full steam ahead.

One of the biggest questions people may have about the purchase is why Amazon would want to own MGM. Aside from the obvious value in sharing parts of the Bond franchise (with Eon Productions, which has control over how Bond movies are distributed meaning it's not like Bond is going to premiere on Amazon Prime Video just yet), two of the biggest advantages are Epix and a deep catalog of films.

Epix is a cable channel that’s available to 85 million cable customers around the country. Amazon likely doesn’t care about that aspect. Cable is losing customers every single quarter, and Amazon, a company built on the back of Prime subscribers, isn’t suddenly trying to compete with companies like NBCUniversal or WarnerMedia. That’s especially true this week following news that WarnerMedia and Discovery are merging to create a new super company that will dominate the world of cable and, potentially, streaming.

What Epix does have, however, is a lucrative Pay-1 deal with companies like Paramount. Pay-1 is a fancy term that basically means Epix gets exclusive rights to a Paramount movie after it hits theaters. While part of the deal has changed (Epix and ViacomCBS signed a new deal in February that will allow some Paramount films to hit Paramount+ for a period of time before heading to Epix) it means that Amazon would get access to films like Mission Impossible 7 and A Quiet Place II.

These are the types of movies that, historically, convince people to sign up for a streaming service or prevent them from canceling. At Amazon, it’s a little different. Some people may sign up for Amazon Prime because of shows like Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but it’s more likely that people sign up for Prime on the retail side. If, however, Prime Video keeps them actively engaged on the website, or does prevent someone from canceling, Amazon Prime’s churn rate decreases and the company’s main revenue point continues to grow.

Amazon wants to be a necessity for customers across the board. They want people to get all their groceries, electronics, and books from the website. Amazon Prime Video is arguably not a necessity — it just so happens to come with the bigger Prime offering. Having a library as deep as MGM’s could change that, though.

As Indiewire points out, MGM’s library “includes 4,000 films and 17,000 hours of television, including titles like ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Rocky.’” Amazon Prime Video has a decent library already, but the company is now competing with deep wells from competitors at NBCUniversal, Disney (which now includes Fox), ViacomCBS, and the aforementioned new offering from WarnerMedia and Discovery.

Bond may be MGM’s biggest franchise (even with confusing distribution rules), but there are enough recognizable titles in the company’s vault to keep subscribers happy and engaged, Amazon hopes. It all comes back to an ouroboros strategy. If people are more engaged with Prime Video, they may use the retail website to buy more household items. If they spend more time on Amazon’s main website, they could decide to read a comic on Comixology they saw an ad for in the corner of the website. They might go from there to Twitch, and then back to Prime Video. Amazon wants to keep as many people in the ecosystem as possible.

And, hey, $9 billion is a lot — but it’s still chump change for a company whose market value is $1.76 trillion.

So, for $9 billion, Amazon is going to own James Bond and you’ll notice a bunch of new movies available to stream exclusively (I imagine) on Prime Video. The only real question left is whether Jeff Bezos gets to play a Bond villain in the future.

It's been a whole console generation since we last saw Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and the rest of the Normandy crew. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remasters BioWare's space opera RPG trilogy for the new generation of consoles, enhancing the visuals, implementing quality of life improvements, and making welcome adjustments to certain content for all three games. In those adjustments, Legendary Edition occasionally draws unwanted attention to parts of the trilogy that haven't aged gracefully, but as a whole, this remaster is a good way to see what all the fuss is about if you missed out on the first three Mass Effect games the first time around, or are just looking for a reason to dive into them again.

The core of Mass Effect is its choice- and consequence-driven narrative. As Commander Shepard, the first human to be given the role of a Spectre (basically a space cop) in the interspecies Milky Way government, you are put into many situations where you have the final say on how things go down. Your choices in the first game can influence how characters perceive you or how events transpire in the second, which then can domino effect into the third. It's up to you to decide whether you wish to be a paragon of virtue or a results-oriented renegade in your mission to defend the entire Milky Way's galactic society from a large number of conflicts, while an even greater threat looms on the horizon.

While this consequence-driven system seems to allow a great deal of agency in how you resolve certain conflicts, it's rigid in its design, basing the entirety of Shepard's morality on a binary system of Paragon and Renegade choices. Its simplicity does make the system fairly approachable, reducing the complexity of every decision to a "morally good" and "morally bad" choice for those looking to play through the trilogy entirely Paragon or Renegade. Additionally, from an accessibility standpoint, splitting Shepard's choices into a rigid binary helps with better understanding the underlying nuance to certain dialogue choices before picking them.

It's been a whole console generation since we last saw Shepard, Tali, Garrus, and the rest of the Normandy crew. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remasters BioWare's space opera RPG trilogy for the new generation of consoles, enhancing the visuals, implementing quality of life improvements, and making welcome adjustments to certain content for all three games. In those adjustments, Legendary Edition occasionally draws unwanted attention to parts of the trilogy that haven't aged gracefully, but as a whole, this remaster is a good way to see what all the fuss is about if you missed out on the first three Mass Effect games the first time around, or are just looking for a reason to dive into them again.

The core of Mass Effect is its choice- and consequence-driven narrative. As Commander Shepard, the first human to be given the role of a Spectre (basically a space cop) in the interspecies Milky Way government, you are put into many situations where you have the final say on how things go down. Your choices in the first game can influence how characters perceive you or how events transpire in the second, which then can domino effect into the third. It's up to you to decide whether you wish to be a paragon of virtue or a results-oriented renegade in your mission to defend the entire Milky Way's galactic society from a large number of conflicts, while an even greater threat looms on the horizon.

While this consequence-driven system seems to allow a great deal of agency in how you resolve certain conflicts, it's rigid in its design, basing the entirety of Shepard's morality on a binary system of Paragon and Renegade choices. Its simplicity does make the system fairly approachable, reducing the complexity of every decision to a "morally good" and "morally bad" choice for those looking to play through the trilogy entirely Paragon or Renegade. Additionally, from an accessibility standpoint, splitting Shepard's choices into a rigid binary helps with better understanding the underlying nuance to certain dialogue choices before picking them.

When you think of a private detective, you might see a tough guy in a felt fedora, cigarette perched above his chiseled jaw, puffing moodily in an office chair with the blinds drawn. If Nintendo has anything to say about it, though, next time you picture a gumshoe it will be a skinny, teenage boy who can't remember his own name.

That's because the publisher has resurrected both Famicom Detective Club outings: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. This pair of adventure games debuted on the NES in the late ‘80s and cast players as a kid sleuth solving crimes in rural Japan. These remakes are impressively thorough, eschewing the pixelated graphics of the originals for a striking anime-inspired look and full Japanese voice acting. Mechanically, both titles are still products of their time and, as a result, progressing through the story can sometimes be frustratingly opaque. But, the stories themselves--particularly The Missing Heir's--are compelling enough that I was willing to put up with some outdated design to see them through to their twisty conclusions.

Gallery

In Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir, your 17-year-old protagonist wakes up at the foot of a cliff with no memory of how he got there or who he is. With a little help from the man who found him, he heads back to his job as an assistant sleuth at the Utsugi Detective Agency. The eponymous detective is nowhere to be found so our forgetful friend--who I dubbed Philip Marlowe, after Raymond Chandler's PI--must work to solve a case with his fellow assistant detective, Ayumi Tachibana. The case in question involves the death of Kiku Ayashiro, matriarch of the rich and powerful Ayashiro clan and chairwoman of the corporation that made them rich and powerful in the first place. While the autopsy results suggest that Kiku died of natural causes, the family butler Zenzou suspects foul play. Prior to your amnesia, he had hired you to investigate her death. As you begin again, you have two mysteries to solve: who murdered Kiku, and who were you before you lost your memory.

When you think of a private detective, you might see a tough guy in a felt fedora, cigarette perched above his chiseled jaw, puffing moodily in an office chair with the blinds drawn. If Nintendo has anything to say about it, though, next time you picture a gumshoe it will be a skinny, teenage boy who can't remember his own name.

That's because the publisher has resurrected both Famicom Detective Club outings: The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind. This pair of adventure games debuted on the NES in the late ‘80s and cast players as a kid sleuth solving crimes in rural Japan. These remakes are impressively thorough, eschewing the pixelated graphics of the originals for a striking anime-inspired look and full Japanese voice acting. Mechanically, both titles are still products of their time and, as a result, progressing through the story can sometimes be frustratingly opaque. But, the stories themselves--particularly The Missing Heir's--are compelling enough that I was willing to put up with some outdated design to see them through to their twisty conclusions.

Gallery

In Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir, your 17-year-old protagonist wakes up at the foot of a cliff with no memory of how he got there or who he is. With a little help from the man who found him, he heads back to his job as an assistant sleuth at the Utsugi Detective Agency. The eponymous detective is nowhere to be found so our forgetful friend--who I dubbed Philip Marlowe, after Raymond Chandler's PI--must work to solve a case with his fellow assistant detective, Ayumi Tachibana. The case in question involves the death of Kiku Ayashiro, matriarch of the rich and powerful Ayashiro clan and chairwoman of the corporation that made them rich and powerful in the first place. While the autopsy results suggest that Kiku died of natural causes, the family butler Zenzou suspects foul play. Prior to your amnesia, he had hired you to investigate her death. As you begin again, you have two mysteries to solve: who murdered Kiku, and who were you before you lost your memory.

Update 05/24/2021: People are, once again, confused and upset by the apparent lack of a single moustache in the Uncharted movie.

After Mark Wahlberg seemingly teasingly showed that his take on Sully (the Uncharted games' facially haired father figure) would come rocking a moustache, a new image from the New York Times seems to show the opposite.

The image – which shows Tom Holland's Nathan Drake and Wahlberg's Sully seemingly peering for clues in a church scene – reveals that, at least for this section of the film, Sully wears an entirely naked upper lip. The internet has been scandalised as a result.

"I already had very low expectations but they are somehow even lower now after seeing this...they couldn't even do the bare minimum and let Sully have his mustache," wrote Ericka on Twitter. James Cowan agreed: "The fact they couldn’t even use stick on a moustache for Sully doesn’t really inspire confidence."

Fellow Twitter user Jason summed up the confusion around the disappearing 'tache: "I could've sworn there was a BTS photo Mark posted with the mustache and I'm so confused as to why it isn't there. Sully ALWAYS has his stache. It's literally a part of him and adds so much to his character. This is such a weird choice."

Of course, there's always the chance that the movie covers a timespan long enough for Wahlberg's Sully to either grow a moustache – or maybe even shave it off in a fit of treasure-related despair. As ZacharyMitzel puts it, "I swear to god if they incorporate the mustache into sully’s arc".

With the Uncharted movie getting steadily closer to its February 18, 2022 release date, we'll likely see more and more of Sully as time goes on. We do at least know that Tom Holland's Drake will eventually sport the character's most familiar clothing, so it may well be that Sully gets to wear his own iconic look by the end. By the looks of social media timelines today, a lot of the internet will definitely be hoping so.

Update 10/25/20: Mark Wahlberg, on his Instagram, may very well have given us our first look at his version of Victor "Sully" Sullivan in the upcoming Uncharted movie that also stars Tom Holland as a younger Nathan Drake, who also gave us a first look at his character earlier this week.

The original story follows.

Few things in life are certain, but one of my unshakeable beliefs was that Sully from Uncharted has had a moustache his whole life – probably since birth. That was until today when set photos from the in-production Uncharted movie possibly revealed that Mark Wahlberg's take on the character is clean-shaven, and now I don't know what to believe anymore. The massed ranks of the Internet were similarly rocked by the revelation.

Shared on Twitter, the images were reportedly taken on-set in Berlin, showing Tom Holland's young Nathan Drake and Wahlberg's Sully, both dressed in suits. But what really stood out to fans is the lack of facial hair on display:

| @TomHolland1996 and Mark Wahlberg shooting #Uncharted in Berlin last night pic.twitter.com/ZfjMQwawf1

— Tom Holland News (@THollandNews) September 15, 2020

In the Uncharted game series, Sully - an "American treasure hunter, fortune seeker and businessman, as well as a friend, mentor and father figure to Drake - is shown as both a younger and older man sporting a moustache. With the Uncharted movie acting as an origin story for Nathan Drake, many expected Wahlberg to sport Sully's younger look from the games, but based on these images, that maybe not be the case.

There are some caveats here. It's not entirely clear if these pictures were taken during active filming - there's the chance that what's seen above is a test shot, and Wahlberg will wear a false moustache for the filming. For the sake of those working on the film, I hope so, because the initial reaction has been a mixture of shock, disbelief and gifs:

I know they are young Nate and Sully but Where is Sully’s moustache ?

— Adriana Bernal (@AdrianaBernal4) September 16, 2020

No mustache, no gray in the hair, no cigar, meh

— Jacob's Quest (@JacobsQuest) September 15, 2020

It’s-

It’s just Mark Wahlberg.

Sully just looks like Mark Wahlberg

— Ben Diamond (@OurFutureDays) September 15, 2020

pic.twitter.com/tqOoJFfNZC

— Hulkbuster | BLM (@hulkbustar) September 15, 2020

Are we looking at the newest moustache-related controversy in popular culture, after Superman's CGI-ed top lip in Justice League? Only time will tell.

Then again, perhaps we should be happy to see any Uncharted movie news at all, given the film has had seven different directors attached at one time or another. Now that production has finally begun, Tom Holland says it's "everything I dreamed it would be".

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Update 05/24/2021: People are, once again, confused and upset by the apparent lack of a single moustache in the Uncharted movie.

After Mark Wahlberg seemingly teasingly showed that his take on Sully (the Uncharted games' facially haired father figure) would come rocking a moustache, a new image from the New York Times seems to show the opposite.

The image – which shows Tom Holland's Nathan Drake and Wahlberg's Sully seemingly peering for clues in a church scene – reveals that, at least for this section of the film, Sully wears an entirely naked upper lip. The internet has been scandalised as a result.

"I already had very low expectations but they are somehow even lower now after seeing this...they couldn't even do the bare minimum and let Sully have his mustache," wrote Ericka on Twitter. James Cowan agreed: "The fact they couldn’t even use stick on a moustache for Sully doesn’t really inspire confidence."

Fellow Twitter user Jason summed up the confusion around the disappearing 'tache: "I could've sworn there was a BTS photo Mark posted with the mustache and I'm so confused as to why it isn't there. Sully ALWAYS has his stache. It's literally a part of him and adds so much to his character. This is such a weird choice."

Of course, there's always the chance that the movie covers a timespan long enough for Wahlberg's Sully to either grow a moustache – or maybe even shave it off in a fit of treasure-related despair. As ZacharyMitzel puts it, "I swear to god if they incorporate the mustache into sully’s arc".

With the Uncharted movie getting steadily closer to its February 18, 2022 release date, we'll likely see more and more of Sully as time goes on. We do at least know that Tom Holland's Drake will eventually sport the character's most familiar clothing, so it may well be that Sully gets to wear his own iconic look by the end. By the looks of social media timelines today, a lot of the internet will definitely be hoping so.

Update 10/25/20: Mark Wahlberg, on his Instagram, may very well have given us our first look at his version of Victor "Sully" Sullivan in the upcoming Uncharted movie that also stars Tom Holland as a younger Nathan Drake, who also gave us a first look at his character earlier this week.

The original story follows.

Few things in life are certain, but one of my unshakeable beliefs was that Sully from Uncharted has had a moustache his whole life – probably since birth. That was until today when set photos from the in-production Uncharted movie possibly revealed that Mark Wahlberg's take on the character is clean-shaven, and now I don't know what to believe anymore. The massed ranks of the Internet were similarly rocked by the revelation.

Shared on Twitter, the images were reportedly taken on-set in Berlin, showing Tom Holland's young Nathan Drake and Wahlberg's Sully, both dressed in suits. But what really stood out to fans is the lack of facial hair on display:

| @TomHolland1996 and Mark Wahlberg shooting #Uncharted in Berlin last night pic.twitter.com/ZfjMQwawf1

— Tom Holland News (@THollandNews) September 15, 2020

In the Uncharted game series, Sully - an "American treasure hunter, fortune seeker and businessman, as well as a friend, mentor and father figure to Drake - is shown as both a younger and older man sporting a moustache. With the Uncharted movie acting as an origin story for Nathan Drake, many expected Wahlberg to sport Sully's younger look from the games, but based on these images, that maybe not be the case.

There are some caveats here. It's not entirely clear if these pictures were taken during active filming - there's the chance that what's seen above is a test shot, and Wahlberg will wear a false moustache for the filming. For the sake of those working on the film, I hope so, because the initial reaction has been a mixture of shock, disbelief and gifs:

I know they are young Nate and Sully but Where is Sully’s moustache ?

— Adriana Bernal (@AdrianaBernal4) September 16, 2020

No mustache, no gray in the hair, no cigar, meh

— Jacob's Quest (@JacobsQuest) September 15, 2020

It’s-

It’s just Mark Wahlberg.

Sully just looks like Mark Wahlberg

— Ben Diamond (@OurFutureDays) September 15, 2020

pic.twitter.com/tqOoJFfNZC

— Hulkbuster | BLM (@hulkbustar) September 15, 2020

Are we looking at the newest moustache-related controversy in popular culture, after Superman's CGI-ed top lip in Justice League? Only time will tell.

Then again, perhaps we should be happy to see any Uncharted movie news at all, given the film has had seven different directors attached at one time or another. Now that production has finally begun, Tom Holland says it's "everything I dreamed it would be".

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Biomutant's post-apocalyptic open world differs from the norm, even if it's guilty of adhering to a few familiar tropes. The remnants of its neglected towns are still populated by dilapidated buildings and roaming bandits, and its overgrown roadways are littered with the burnt-out husks of abandoned vehicles. But Biomutant also utilizes a vivid color palette that makes its verdant fields and picturesque red mountains pop with the kind of striking vibrancy that's rarely associated with the apocalypse.

Throw in some furry anthropomorphic creatures, and Biomutant's character design and general style is certainly atypical of the genre. Yet it also consists of a mishmash of fairly obvious influences, from a Breath of the Wild-esque structure to combo-driven combat that's similar to Devil May Cry, and other familiar elements from the likes of Fallout, Max Payne, and Borderlands. It's a flavorful petri dish, for sure, and there are plenty of uneven and drab aspects to its overall design and structure. The mixture between old and new ideas doesn't always sit right, but Biomutant also manages to carve out its own identity amid its many inspirations.

This begins with the character creator, as you step into the flocculent skin of one of the aforementioned creatures--an odd hybrid between a squirrel, rat, and any other scurrying critter that comes to mind. Choosing a breed affects your starting stats to a certain degree, and you can pump points into specific attributes if you fancy, say, dealing more melee damage or increasing your chances of bartering with merchants. If this sounds like your typical by-the-numbers RPG progression system, it's because it is. There's some personality to the character creator, as your body shape will change depending on which stats you opt to emphasize--big head for intellect, big biceps for strength. Ultimately, however, your starting attributes aren't especially significant. You're able to put 10 points into a category each time you level up, so it's easy to build a fairly well-rounded character within a few hours.