Mudborne was provided by Future Friends Games for review. Thank you!
Mudborne is an interesting title, and before we begin, it would be good to set expectations as to what exactly Mudborne is. Mudborne is not a "pet" simulator where you grow and care for and raise frogs. It firmly falls under the "Puzzle" genre of games, where the whole aim of breeding frogs is to create the right genetic "key" in order to unlock various pools around the game world that will open up new areas for you to progress the story.
The game starts with you being awakened by a... Frog god? Who then tasks you with restoring the pond (the world map) to its former beauty. What follows is a pretty lengthy tutorial that runs you through basically all the game mechanics at play, such as gathering the resources needed to breed frogs, and then talking you through the process of breeding frogs and modifying their genetic code.
During the breeding process, you're required to add mushrooms to the mix to alter the genetic sequence of your frogs. Each "pool" in the pond has a certain genetic sequence that must be matched, and so it's up to you to figure out what frogs and mushrooms you need to use in combination with each other to get the correct genetic sequence.
It's a pretty interesting game idea, and while the game imposes no time limits on you, I found it somewhat overwhelming. It can become frustrating to figure it out in your head. There is a tool in the game called a "Predictor" that can help out, but I still found the game difficult to wrap my head around. You might be best off writing down notes to figure it all out if you're struggling to do it in your head.
Because of this puzzle element, I didn't find myself very relaxed playing Mudborne. There is no reason to breed frogs other than to crack the key sequences, and getting it wrong is a pretty big headache. That alone made me feel pretty... empty? I thought there would be more to do in Mudborne than simply trying and retrying to get the correct sequence to progress the story, but that's about all there is to it, and there's no respite from it either. The best part of the game is finding new species of frog and discovering new types of mushrooms, but filling up your encyclopedia only goes so far when you realize that half of the frogs don't really seem to serve any purpose or function. It's just puzzle after puzzle.
Once frogs have been bred, if they don't match the sequence you want, you just release them and forget about them. They're a waste of space and offer no benefit. There's no interaction you can have with them other than petting them and they serve no purpose except as scenery, and that's a real shame.
While I feel like Mudborne is intended to be a relaxing game, I didn't find that to be the case for me. My brain quickly got overloaded with figuring out the correct combinations to get the desired results. As the game progresses, it adds more puzzle mechanics such as "Ancestry," to the mix, requiring you to not only have the correct frog but also to make sure its ancestors came from the correct place.
Mudborne's cute pixel-art graphics have a certain charm to them, and the ambient sounds are peaceful, if a little repetitive. The maps may also be a little too big. I felt like I wanted to sprint so I could get between places quicker, but you instead have to walk everywhere. You don't even hop!
As long as you approach Mudborne with the right attitude, you'll probably find it to be an interesting and engaging time. The game bills itself as a "Frog Management Sim," but I would say it's closer to a puzzle game. It's a Frog Breeding Sim, where the purpose is to breed the specific correct frog to progress. There is no "management" here, and the frogs can be discarded as soon as you have progressed and don't need them anymore.
While Mudborne might not be my cup of tea, I can't deny that it runs great on the Steam Deck. The controller support is great, and the game fills the Steam Deck's display with no black borders. There are also no graphical settings to adjust. The game also has large UI elements, meaning there is nothing difficult to read on the Steam Deck.
I recommend running the game with a 60 FPS Frame Limit and applying a 5W TDP Limit in SteamOS. This kept the game pretty stable at 60 FPS the entire time, and as there are no graphical settings to adjust, this is how I would leave it.
The power draw sticks largely around 7W, and temperatures around 60C or so. Expect about 7-8 hours of battery life on a Steam Deck OLED and around 5 Hours on a Steam Deck LCD.
There are some accessibility options to simplify puzzles, such as showing you the correct mushrooms you'll need to use for that pool, meaning you just need to find the correct frog and amount of mushrooms to use at that point. You can also make the game highlight certain objects more clearly.
Mudborne is a fairly complex puzzle game. If you're after a game that requires plenty of logical thinking and some planning, then you'll probably enjoy your time with this one. But if you're after a relaxing game that lets you settle down on an evening and enjoy some downtime, this probably isn't a game for you.
It does, however, run beautifully on the Steam Deck, requiring no configuration to get working. With a low TDP Limit required for 60 FPS, you can't ask for much more.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Mudborne is a casual, yet complex puzzle game all about breeding the correct genetic sequence of frogs. It wasn't a game for me, but it does run perfectly on Steam Deck.
