Gameplay is very straightforward and easy to learn. And the game warns you if the opponents you’re facing are above your level, so you can avoid them for the time being. Silence will save your life, especially in the first half of the game. There are many situations where this is preferable, especially because you can take out opponents without warning the rest, and thus create better odds for your team. But you can also choose to use stealth instead of brute force. Your Mutants have different weapons and abilities and you have to use those to get the best result and survive the encounter. When you are spotted by an enemy, or when you initiate combat yourself, the game goes into tactical mode. The Zone is filled with danger, and this is where the tactical combat comes in. Stalkers go into the Zone to find food, fuel, artifacts and scrap for the Ark. The Ark houses other folks that can help you upgrade your weapons, get special skills or buy the latest hardware. The leader of the Ark is the Elder, and he’s also the one who raised the Mutants. They are Stalkers for the Ark, which is one of the few safe settlements in the Zone aka post-apocalyptic Sweden. The team of Mutants here is a duck called Dux and a boar named Bormin. Take control of a team of Mutants navigating a post-human Earth.” It read like a cross between X-Com and Fallout, and that was music to my ears. Mutant Year Zero is described as “a tactical adventure game combining the turn-based combat of XCOM with story, exploration, stealth, and strategy.

I was aware of this RPG back in the 90’s, and even though I never got to play it back then, the title (and especially the accompanying trailer) immediately grabbed my attention. Mutant Year Zero is based on the tabletop roleplaying game that was first published in 1984, and for which Modiphius Entertainment and Free League Publishing have released a special 30th anniversary edition in 2014. That team is called The Bearded Ladies, and Funcom is the game’s distributor. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is created by a team including former Hitman leads and the designer of Payday: The Heist.

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