Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden – PS4 Version, Reviewed on PS4 Pro – Strategy, Stealth, Turn-Based
Set in a strange dystopian future with talking mutated animals, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden gives the player a great environment and a decent story combined with excellent turn-based strategy.
Story:
The Red Plague hit the world, and wars followed. Cities were destroyed and most humans died out. What was left was irradiated land and mutation of all living beings. Almost no one has memory of the lost age, and this new world holds large and capable talking animals, armed with guns and waring armor, as well as shambling former humans now called Ghouls.
The last bits of civilization formed a city called the Ark, and ‘Stallers’ are sent out into the wasteland for supplies. These Stalkers are just tough mutated animals or humans that are ready to help make a difference and find supplies. Here we join Bormin and Dux, mutated animals with more humanlike arms and legs. They set off into the radiation zones looking for a missing stalker named Hammon. As they follow the clues, they will run into new characters, both allies and threats.
Gameplay:
This game has a fun mix of gameplay types, but all combat is turn based. Before combat begins however, the player is free to explore large map areas. These areas contain story moments, bad guys to fight and give the player reasons to explore. The players move freely during all exploration, as turn-based mode only kicks in during combat.
Combat is a challenge however, as the enemies are usually tough. That being said, the game gives some characters ‘silenced’ weapons which allow for some stealth elements. If you move around and surveil the enemy positions, there are often enemies to be picked off. Any enemy that can have their health fully depleted in one turn, and without noise, won’t trigger combat.
This makes the game a fun combination of both stealth strategies, and turn-based combat strategies. Sneaking all over to find ins or ways to eliminate foes silently makes the battles much easier when they are triggered. Patrols can be used in ones favor also, as environmental hazards also can deliver damage.
Your characters also don’t all have to move together, and since you can make a party of three allies, this allows for positional battlefield strategies also. Combat can be avoided at many opportunities; however, you also do want experience points.
Leveling up your abilities and guns allows for continued strategy improvement, testing and tweaking. Eventually finding more ways to do silent damage gives you all sorts of options before combat begins. As exploring reveals new items and paths, if you have learned how to utilize the elements of this game, you should be ready for most anything.
Battles themselves are a combination of getting the right position to increase your chance of landing shots, and taking cover to avoid being hit by enemies. Certain objects provide either half or full cover, and depending on where your characters are you can sometimes stay hidden to do big damage to unsuspecting enemies, however that also draws you into the combat turn order also. Mostly this is standard turn-based combat at this point, but it does it very well, especially considering the level ups and environmental hazards to utilize.
Graphics:
The top-down presentation works well for this game, and the camera can be adjusted a bit. This is similar to the XCOM series in some presentation and combat elements, but really is its own beast with core mechanics and obviously story. There is no reason that a fan of one wouldn’t enjoy the other. Additionally, this company went on to make Miasma Chronicles, which is a very similar game with a new story, world and characters.
Graphics didn’t need to be incredible for a game like this, but they are honestly very nice and detailed in the right ways. Environments look really good, and vary enough, and character models are nice. Effects and combat look solid and it’s all shiny enough to compete still with most things out there and not look thaaat bad.
Fun-level:
This will depend on your turn-based tolerance. For me, I love it, and the stealth tweaks and level ups for the characters add tons of options for the player’s strategy. I thought the story was fine, the characters were okay, but the gameplay was great. I definitely liked it all around, and looked for the studios next game, Miasma Chronicles. I am not really sure if that needs a separate review despite being a fully different story and world, as it is similar in gameplay.
Downloadable Content (DLC) Review:
There is a DLC called Seed of Evil which adds additional zones to explore and story. In general, it’s a worthy addition and no reason not to play it if you enjoyed the normal game. It fits seamlessly into the experience. I got a Deluxe Edition of the game when I got it, so DLC was included.
Final Score: 8.0
DLC Score: 8.0