Biomorph Switch Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Value

Summary: A unique Metroidvania with a charming hand drawn art style and a fun body snatching mechanic.

3.5

No World for Tomorrow

Biomorph is an inventive but occasionally frustrating Metroidvania that nevertheless has a certain charm that’s hard to deny.

Players step into the shapeshifting shoes of Harlo, an amnesiac with a pair of sentient gauntlets who wakes into a barren post-apocalyptic hellscape, twisted by the events of a cataclysm survivors refer to as The Fall.

After waking up in a strange alien craft and making his way to the small settlement of Blightmoor, Harlo learns that there may be a way to reverse The Fall and regain his memory at an ancient temple in the wastes, so Harlo sets off to do just that.

Where Biomorph sets itself apart from other Metroidvanias is in the way Harlo accrues new abilities. Rather than just finding new abilities in pick-ups, Harlo can take on the shape of the vicious flora and fauna he’s vanquished in the wastes. These allow him to smash through barriers, float above deadly spikes, burrow to other parts of the environment, and perform plenty of other useful actions that help you slowly open up the map.

A series of chips augment his shapeshifting abilities, expanding Harlo’s combat and traversal abilities even further. These run the usual gamut of wall jumps, giant fists, and blistering spear attacks.

Also strewn across the map are mementoes that can be equipped to provide you with helpful stat boosts, do more damage to bosses, heal faster, and much more besides.

However, the best thing about Biomorph is how it (mostly) respects your time. There’s still some backtracking, but a slew of quality-of-life improvements make this most irksome Metroidvania trope as pain-free as possible. Harlo is never far from a fast travel point, and cleared rooms have a spiffy gold border around them, so you’re not left wondering whether that ledge you can’t quite reach has something useful on it.

In the wastes, Harlo also comes across townsfolk who need assistance and drifters searching for a new home. Once he has helped these wayward souls they will head to Blightmoor and present you with some plans which can then be turned in at the closest thing the ramshackle settlement has to a council office to build new shops and amenities Harlo can use to buy new chips, upgrade his abilities or delve into the lore of this twisted little world.

It’s a fun little system, and running across a new settler always feels like a reward for digging a little deeper in the wilds, and building up the town gives a palpable sense of life starting to get better for the survivors.

This being a modern Metroidvania, though, the devs made the dubious decision to include some Soulslike elements that do drag the experience down somewhat. Most notably, Harlo drops all of his loot every time he dies, forcing you to stomp back to where you dropped dead before you can get on with exploring another part of the map or powering yourself up back in town before your next run at a boss or a tricky temple run.

The bosses can also be a bit of a drag as they hit hard and often don’t give you any room to heal once they do, as another souls mechanic Biomorph borrows is the trusty Estus flask, in a nice twist though, your flasks refill when you damage an enemy ( and if you find the memento, when you’re struck by one). This would be a great risk vs reward system if it didn’t take so much time to heal. This is compounded during boss battles when the chances of Harlo successfully patching himself up before he’s been belted around the back of the head again and losing even more health are slim.

Which is a shame because the character designs and hand drawn sprite work look lovely in motion and the menagerie of monsters are varied and distinct, while feeling slightly unnerving and otherworldly.
Likewise the villagers you meet on your travels are all charming and fun to interact with. Each with their own stories and problems for you to solve.

Final Thoughts

Biomorph is a fun Metroidvania with a great body swapping and settlement building mechanics and a decent array of quality of life features that mostly make for a mostly smooth experience.

Though the superfluous Soulslike mechanics can be tiresome at times and break the flow of the game a little. On the whole, Biomorph is a fun and unique Metroidvania for those looking for their latest Samus adjacent fix.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Biomorph Switch Review