Mutant Year Zero - Review @ Game Debate

Game Debate checked out Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden:

Beast of Eden - Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Review

Mutant Year Zero is an utterly absorbing blend of turn-based tactics, real-time adventuring and stealth. It wears its XCOM inspirations on its sleeves in regards to grid movement, two actions per turn, Overwatch, and unique class skills. It differs greatly from XCOM in terms of the package that binds it all together though.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a compact tactical RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Norway. Nearly all humans are extinct thanks to a combination of natural disasters, global warming, and nuclear devastation. A single remote settlement known as the Ark remains, inhabited by a handful of humans and an array of the titular mutants. This includes the player's party, such as the crossbow-wielding Dux the anthropomorphic duck, and Bormin the shotgun-toting boar.

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Hardcore fans of turn-based tactics may be slightly put off by Mutant Year Zero's obvious missteps but that aside, The Bearded Ladies have cooked up a special game here that's got great potential for the future. Road to Eden isn't perfect but it's definitely stood out from the crowd for me in what's been an excellent year.

Score: 8.5/10

More information.

Going to pick this up over the Xmas holidays, great reviews, but not sure if its going to be a bit short for me.

From Steam:
+ Well depicted post-apocalyptic world with great atmosphere.
+ Very good graphics for this genre, featuring spectacular effects, destruction and physics.
+ Solid old-school style turn-based combat system.
+ Rewarding exploration, with many secret items and resources to find.
+ Decent storyline with interesting characters keeping it involving.
+ Good variety of enemies, equipment, upgrades, skills and items.
+ Challenging, tactical fights requiring planning ahead and clever strategies to beat.

Sounds good, but the lack of information seems like it would be frustrating. Probably enough to put me off to be honest.

Daniel.

If you do 100% it will take around 20 hours +/- an hour on hard. I thought it was a lot of fun but it was not as deep as I would have liked. For a short game it was fine and it wasn't that expensive. I equate it to the shadowrun games in production value but I can' tell you if you will like it.

Just picked this up as part of xbox game pass "one month for a pound/dollar" deal. Seemed like a nice Christmas option.

I spent a few hours with the game yesterday, and was fairly impressed. It looks nice, and feels quite RPG-like as you explore the maps for scrap (cash) or chests (items). So far, each map has offered up one or two battles, which (as the reviews say) feels a lot like x-com. That said, they also feel like most other turn-based, cover-based combat systems (so I'd imagine Jagged Alliance would be another reference).

If I was going to complain about anything, so far the maps have been a bit small and un-exciting outside of the fights, and the main hub-city is just a menu, effectively. But these are hardly deal-breakers.

Reviews have commented that it tends to be tough (esp later) so I'm playing on "Normal" which is the lowest skill level (default is "Hard", and there's a "Very Hard"). This may have been a mistake, as it has been pretty simple so far, but I don't normally play x-com etc, so I figured I'd give myself an easier ride (esp coming off a series of crazy-tough bosses in another game).

My guess is that you have just done the tutorial levels. The maps are larger later on - not necessarily that interesting per sey but some of them have interesting terrain that need to be dealt with as you traverse.

Originally Posted by Irien
Just picked this up as part of xbox game pass "one month for a pound/dollar" deal. Seemed like a nice Christmas option.

I spent a few hours with the game yesterday, and was fairly impressed. It looks nice, and feels quite RPG-like as you explore the maps for scrap (cash) or chests (items). So far, each map has offered up one or two battles, which (as the reviews say) feels a lot like x-com. That said, they also feel like most other turn-based, cover-based combat systems (so I'd imagine Jagged Alliance would be another reference).

If I was going to complain about anything, so far the maps have been a bit small and un-exciting outside of the fights, and the main hub-city is just a menu, effectively. But these are hardly deal-breakers.

Reviews have commented that it tends to be tough (esp later) so I'm playing on "Normal" which is the lowest skill level (default is "Hard", and there's a "Very Hard"). This may have been a mistake, as it has been pretty simple so far, but I don't normally play x-com etc, so I figured I'd give myself an easier ride (esp coming off a series of crazy-tough bosses in another game).

Think this game is the one I've enjoyed the most this year.