Publisher: Funcom
Developer: The Bearded Ladies
Platform: Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Switch
Genre: Turn-based Strategy

XCOM style turn-based games are a pretty big niche, especially with this adaptation of a classic boardgame. Mutant Year Zero is a not-so-subliminal take on society woos with technology and mass weapons of destructions. Then what happens when people experiment with mother nature. (Hence the poster you're seeing)

As the not-so-subliminal take on the origins story of mutant stalkers, this game brings allure and homage to the XCOM series while taking a different spin by combining stealth with turn-based gameplay. All the while maintaining some semblance of nostalgia with its music, dialogue conversation, and video cutscenes of the late 90's.

Interesting tidbit here is, this game was developed by ex-IO Interactive employees and spearheaded by the creator of PayDay. So it'll be an interesting thing to see how they brought their experience to this title.

Story

In the prologue, you're introduced to Dux and Bormin; the titular anthropomorphic duck and boar. In their first mission afterwards, they're asked to find Hammond, leader of another group of stalkers who's been missing. As you progress, you'll find and meet various different characters throughout the game either human or human-animal. They're all known as Mutants since they carry abilities based on genetic modifications.

As the subtitle under the name reads itself, your journey later crosses path with Hammond's quest to find Eden. A mythical paradise in the current landscape of the post-apocalyptic zones that hold the key to humanity's salvation or their doom.

The plot leads itself pretty straightforward as you go from one main goal to another while exploring different areas. Unfortunately, from most of the time spent, there wasn't a lot uncovered. It's broader than a brush stroke, not to mention it undermines itself once you've reached the finale which reeks of being a cliffhanger.

Plus if you have a basic knowledge of how Sci-Fi works, you won't be surprised by much of it. Doesn't even build eerie suspense even though its premise was well set up.

Gameplay

XCOM 2 was strictly not a stealth game, that part was a simple implementation that either lets you get spotted in a level or not. Mutant, however, made a different spin to that and instead have you freely controlling your squad as long as you stay undetected. Even then, eliminating a group of your enemies as long as they are further away from one another still gets you the advantage to be hidden and use extra means to do it once more. That's the main essence, by killing them all silently you manage to gain the upper hand against bigger baddies. Though how you maintain that wasn't made clear since there weren't any proper tutorials to guide you throughout the rest of playthrough. Then again, this isn't a vastly complex game to understand if you've played video games before.

Combat is rigid, yet you find enough weapons and upgrade your crew further enough, things then go to interesting places. Amassing a great arsenal mostly requires you to scavenge loots for scrap and weapon parts, antiquities, and rare weapons. Though improvising won't always work in your favor as some unknown factor gets in the way like my character is still on fire and I couldn't get them to fly high enough to flank enemy covers. (Yes, flying is a mutation thing) So while that provides little variety, the monotony is still around after the 15hr mark. Stealth aspect is drawn out further within the game more than you would get comfortable with, as you do in time manage to beef up your arsenals making fights easier, you still have to be wary about ambushing them or engage after being spotted. If you feel like a glutton for punishment, you have the difficulty settings to get you there drawing away the monotony; just not much for casual playthroughs.

Your upgrade path has you unlocking major, minor and passive mutations. Of which from all of these, you have only one of each type to use during combat. This constrictive method makes a delicate situation more dire as sometimes by mistake you use the non-proper setup for certain situations, it would backfire. Nonetheless, this was a neat touch albeit an easy design mechanic overall.

Lastly I would like to point out the font style is very similar to an earlier game I've reviewd like Phantom Doctrine. No relations with this game from that either. Besides that, this title doesn't seem to be very long, also doesn't provide any particular modes besides the story which would last from 15-20hrs.

Graphics/Technical

When it comes to looks, it's a post-apocalyptic treat. Unfortunately not quite for the Xbox One version, of which I played. Everything looks grainy and dull. While the effects are greats because of UE4, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Never the less, you play this on PC, it looks decent enough even though the requirements are steep.

Game has bugs alright, which game doesn't. For a low budget title such as this, it is close to being proficient on quality level but I have encountered few bugs and one of them left my character flapping his wings after a battle. Which eventually fixed itself after a cutscene. There were performance hiccups though like my game would get stuck for only half a second.

Sound/Music

I don't know why but almost every sample of sound I hear sounds the same as Phantom Doctrine. Besides that, it's a good sound design. Though I don't like it whenever some of the guns just click-clack, the treble from that gets to the ears. But the game is loud with a boisterous presence. That makes up a lot for the aforementioned problems.

Music is something nostalgic to late 90's strategy games with the main course being electronica alongside dish of synthwave.

Summation

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is well stylized and cleverly designed for a tactics based game that uses isometric stealth mechanics alongside it. Though be good as it may, it falls short on some areas all the while not delivering consistency on others.

I do wish the developers well, hopefully the sequel gets to be much better. I have a feeling with this title's fame, it might.

Score: 7.5