Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden - PS4

Also known as: Mutant Year Zero', 'Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden: Deluxe Edition

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Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (PS4)
Also for: PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC
Viewed: 3D Third-person, floating camera Genre:
Adventure
Strategy: Combat
Media: Download (also on Blu-Ray) Arcade origin:No
Soft. Co.: Funcom
Publishers: Funcom (GB)
Released: 4 Dec 2018 (GB)

Summary

In Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden the world we know has long-since ended and given way to a savage wasteland of mutants making the best they can of the remnants of human civilization. Into this bleak world heroically stride... a pig and a duck.

A humanoid pig and duck, but still...

There's nothing cute about Mutant Year Zero, though. It might be beautiful in places, but the X-Com style turn-based combat is tough going and will take some surviving if you want to win out in this world. And you might find it funny that your two protagonists look like farmyard animals, but they sure don't. They're sad, lonely and broken. But, yes, there are a lot of jokes about how much the word 'duck' sounds like something altogether more rude.

One of the things that sets Mutant Year Zero apart is the way you approach a fight. It's not like Final Fantasy, in which you run at a problem until you're shoved into an arbitrarily determined set-up. Rather, where you are when you initiate combat really matters. If you're high up with good cover, that's where you'll play out the battle from (and you've chosen well). If you've just blundered into a fight with no thought to positioning, you might be in trouble. Another key difference to other turn-based strategy games is that if you take out an enemy from a well enough hidden spot with a silent weapon, their chums won't automatically start attacking them. You have a real chance of maneuvering around and taking out foes stealthily, which is unusual in turn-based combat.

One of the key elements of MYZ's design is its restraint. Yes, there are things to see and do, but you won't be grinding and leveling up your characters to godlike status. The result is that the only way to go into an encounter with the odds particularly stacked in your favour is by positioning yourself well before the shooting starts, and even then you really need to play your advantage well to come out on top. This is a game that relishes making things hard for you. Strategy fans are in for a whale of a time.