Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a tactical role-playing game with elements of stealth, developed by the Swedish studio The Bearded Ladies and released by the publisher Funcom on personal computers, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in December 2018.
The main features of the game are brutal anthropomorphic animals in the main roles. Boar Bormin, Drax Dax and Fox Farrow are like surviving end of the world characters. Where fashionably draped and dressed in a raincoat squeezes the crossbow and at the same time looks quite a reliable. In addition to Bormin and Dax, there are three more playable characters in Mutant Year Zero: Farrow, the humanoid fox, and Hammon’s stalker colleagues are the people Selma and Magnus.
We get a fairly standard post apocalyptic atmosphere – with the heroes of the new time, trying to survive on the fragments of the former civilization, with the ubiquitous wealth hunters, called here ghouls, with the founders of the new faith and ideological conglomerations. The script itself is absolutely linear and does not offer any forks.
It is more pleasant to travel around the world to stalkers – adventurers who are ready to go to the Zone, to uncharted territories over and over again, to supply their home settlement with resources and equipment. The main characters – just one of those. Initially, the game introduces us to a duck named Dax and a boar Bormin, who, on the instructions of the Elder, went to mine parts for a water pump. This is only the beginning of a long and dangerous journey. Subsequently, the group will go in search of the missing stalker Hammon, discover new truths for himself, meet other characters and prevent many evil plans.
The combat system in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, at first glance, artlessly copies the modern industrial standard that many people know from the XCOM dilogy. Two phases for movement or action; after a shot, the character’s turn ends. However, it should be noted that the percentages of getting here are much more friendly and honest. They vary in five marks: 0, 25, 50, 75, 100. And each number is felt exactly as it should.
Their corrections are made by the fact that the maximum of the fighters in the squad is three. Because of this, during an open confrontation, it is unacceptable to leave someone on the rearguard – everyone should be as helpful as possible. There is much more fun with destructible. The walls and floors are much more willing to crumble into the dust, and Bormin even has a special skill that allows him to carry obstacles in his path.
The system of leveling characters. Among the skills there are still useful. Some mutants sprout wings, others eat corpses to heal, others rush through walls or take control of their enemies. To learn to fly like a butterfly or jump like a frog, you will have to war. Here, I repeat, not an RPG, and murders are the only source of experience. In addition, they also recharge skills. So in the end you have to clear out almost the entire map. For the sake of “exp”, you need to return to the enemies that you used to be too strong, and turn from the storyline a couple of times to optional locations.
One salvation – a clear planning and preparatory operations. The fact is that the world of the game is divided into locations, each of which can be studied in real time. We always notice opponents before they are us. Therefore, the game allows you to ply in the shadows and behind the obstacles, to study the distribution of enemy forces and, most importantly, for the time being, eliminate opponents one by one, without raising the alarm. To do this, you need to podgadat moment, enter the step-by-step mode and joint efforts to hammer the enemy with a silent weapon in one turn.
Thus, the tactics in the game often turn from turn-based to real-time. Is that the corpses do not have to drag: opponents to raise the alarm is absolutely on the drum that is happening around them. Moreover, some locations can be completed completely in such a secretive mode, methodically thinning the ranks of opponents to the bitter end.
However, the further along the plot we are moving, the harder it is to crank this trick. No matter how skillfully a player combines percussion-sharpened perks with critical barrels pumped over and hung with bonuses, it is physically impossible to empty it in just one turn.
After the next fight, you should visit the “Ark” – this is the location, the home of stalkers, where you can “teleport” at any time. It is here that resources need to be found that are collected during attacks. The store sells grenades, first-aid kits and some not very prominent cannons for ordinary scrap metal. Keep in mind that more attractive weapons, as well as armor and hats, containing some passive bonus, wait for their heroes exclusively in the Zone – the game is generally supportive of those who like to “vacuum” the levels in search of loot .
Another resource – the details of the weapon – is used for pumping the parameters of the barrels: damage, range, probability of critical hit. Also in the workshop of the Ark, you can hang a sight or some additional lotion on the right “boom stick”, which will also enhance the characteristics or add a new feature – for example, a chance to set fire to the enemy.
The rarest improvised currency of the Mutant Year Zero universe is artifacts. The legacy of the “ancient”, that is, you and me. All sorts of players, tape recorders, household appliances. Bring such rubbish to the bartender in the Ark – and you will be able to knock out from it some kind of global boost that extends to the whole game: lower prices, increased efficiency of first-aid kits, and so on.
The game has character pumping, the players here translate into a selection of new mutations. There are two branches: one (linear) with a banal increase in health or mobility, and the second (slightly less linear) – with perks. This, for example, is about the local analogue of the ability of Run & Gun from the same XCOM or the ability to grow wings and take off to a higher point on the map. Equipping a fighter can be two active skills, rechargeable after a certain number of murders, and one passive. Unfortunately, only a few techniques are unique and inherent in only one hero from the whole party.
The game is completely devoid of a strategic layer. Instead of building a base – three, in fact, a store with different currencies. Role elements like quests and moral choices are not there either – just not too branchy pumping. Nothing more: stealth, turn-based battles and a bit of micro-management. And, surprisingly, this Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is enough to keep the player’s interest until the very end.