Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

The turn-based strategy and tactical games that were extremely popular in the late 90s and early 00s seem to be less interesting lately. Despite the fact that technology, graphics and artificial intelligence are constantly evolving, the gameplay itself is gradually becoming obsolete. Turn-based strategies have a relatively low pace of play, minimal variability and therefore relatively little fun.

Of course, the mastodons of the genre don't go anywhere. And the Heroes of Might and Magic series is regularly updated with new projects, albeit now with a change in name; and King's Bounty also comes out periodically; yes even XCOM from time to time tries to develop the history of human contact with alien races. But, unfortunately, almost all of these projects have a critical flaw - they do not bring anything new.

And in this regard, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden looks like a breath of fresh air. A new setting, unusual gameplay mechanics, an unusual world - all this will delight both novice players and those who have eaten more than a dozen hellhounds on turn-based strategic-tactical projects.

He's not Duffy Duck

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is set in a not too distant and bright future. First, the familiar world was seized by a pandemic of an unknown disease, which was nicknamed the Red Plague, and then - a global nuclear war. As a result, the few survivors lost the last remnants of humanity and became mutants.

Decades have passed. The survivors - intelligent humanoid mutants - live in a fortified settlement called the Ark. It is controlled by the Elder - the last person who remembers the events of the pandemic and nuclear war. The Ark constantly needs resources, so special mutant "stalkers" are periodically sent to the outside world in order to profit from something useful there.

The outside world, called the "Zone" by the inhabitants of the Ark, is extremely unfriendly to stalkers. It's not just about radiation and virus residues. It is inhabited by Ghouls - feral, mutated, and practically deranged people who also survived a chain of cataclysms. These creatures themselves also retained remnants of the memory of civilization. Only she turned into something mythical in their minds, and ordinary people - into the so-called "Ancient".

The inhabitants of the Ark will have to fight with them. There is just one important detail. It is not for nothing that the name of the Ark is so called, here is represented "a pair of each creature", and the main characters are two mutants: a humanoid pig and a duck. Sometimes the quite humanoid Selma joins them. Each of them has their own favorite weapon. Selma is an explosives specialist, Dax the duck is armed with a crossbow, and the boar Bormin prefers to wield shotguns. And this wonderful team will have to walk around the world around, collect various material values, fight with the unfriendly inhabitants of the Zone and look for a place for a new, calm life.

Tactical Battles in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

A key feature of the combat system in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is that opponents are always many times stronger than the main characters. Because of this, real-time map explorations require the active use of a stealth mechanic. The main characters will have to use shelters, tall grass, landscape elements and other surroundings in order to avoid being caught by the enemy, to go behind him and from there to deal with the enemy with one or two spectacular shots.

As soon as the main characters encounter an enemy, the mode switches from real-time exploration to turn-based tactical battles. The mechanics are quite similar to those used in the new generation of XCOM games, so many fans of the genre won't even have to relearn.

The game constantly pushes the gamer to use special mechanics. Characters feel better in cover than in open spaces; Dax deals damage with a crossbow much higher than any other types of weapons; stuns and silent attacks will help to cope even with large and extremely dangerous animals.