E3 2018: MUTANT YEAR ZERO: RODE TO EDEN Is XCOM with Ducks
It’s XCOM, but with a mutant duck.
Okay, fine, I’m being a bit reductionist, but do you really need anything more? If there were a mod that turned all the XCOM characters into mallards, I’d be on it like a duck on bread. Then a whole game comes along that has that has one of the main features. I couldn’t be more sold.
I didn’t know much about Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden going into E3, mostly because I’m basically terrible at my job. I really should have heard something about it. A hardcore tactics RPG staring a cast of mutant ducks, pigs, robots, etc.? Count me in! You’re talking to a guy who used to play XCOM as a drinking game. Missed with a shotgun at one tile distance, everyone take a shot!
Now luckily, the good people over at The Bearded Ladies Consulting (the developer, not a marketing company comprised of facially scruffy females) and Funcom (the publishers, not a dystopian nightmare company designed to sell mind control devices disguised as children’s toys) invited me to come check it out at E3 2018. And double lucky for you, they have posted a lengthy gameplay trailer! Hurrah, now you won’t have to sit through my blow-by-blow of turn based tactical combat.
What, a 30-minute trailer is too long for you? Well that’s fine, I was going to go over the finer points of the gameplay, anyways. So if you aren’t familiar with XCOM… well, then why did you click on this article? Go read my Resident Evil 2 article or something. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a turn based tactical RPG, which is a fancy way of saying a game for nerds. You’ll lead a squad of mutants with various powers in a number of engagements against foes of various strength and ability. Using the powers of cover, grenades, and magic, hopefully you’ll come out on top.
Which a lot of the time, you will not. Turns out that Mutant Year Zero is that special kind of hard reserved for masochists that think calculus is fun. When sitting down to play, I was warned that only two other journalists had beaten it in all of E3. Now full transparency, part of this was due to the fact that not all the mechanics were super well explained. But even knowing all I do now about the value of grenades and sneak attacks, Mutant Year Zero is no joke.
real serious business
Now in my experience, there are three distinct phases to Mutant Year Zero‘s gameplay: exploration, preparation, and combat. Dropping into a level, you’re free to run around and look for stuff. Poking your nose in every nook and cranny will reveal caches of crafting resources, medkits, grenades, weapons, and other useful items. It’s tempting to just run into combat, but even in my limited demo my scavenging yielded a few medkits and a fancy new shotgun.
Now it shouldn’t be shocking to learn that you can walk around and look for stuff in a video game. What really makes it noteable is how it interacts with the combat. Between finding the grenades and lobbing them at your enemies, you’ll have to be smart about picking your battles. Most tactics games have the preparation phase as its own thing, having you place your units in set spawn points and loading them out as you please. In Mutant Year Zero, this is integrated into your exploration. Where your dudes are standing at the start of the fight is where they are in the fight, meaning you’ll have to use stealth to your advantage if you want an optimal engagement. All enemies have a certain sight radius, forcing you to dodge patrols and be clever if you want to get into position. Furthermore, using silenced weapons can take an enemy out entirely before the fighting even starts. This all sounds pretty basic, but it’s a solid fundamental base that many similar tactics games (cough cough XCOM) lack.
Another way that Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden sets itself apart from the pack is the combat. I’ve been struggling for a gentler way to say this, but it really is just less bullshit. You have a shotgun shoved halfway down their throat? Bam, 100% hit chance. None of this wishy washy 85% nonsense. Even without extensive testing, calculations were pretty easy to figure out. You have your garden variety light/heavy cover bonuses, and range dictates your overall chance to hit. Sniper rifles have longer range than shotguns, pretty basic stuff. There’s some complexity to bonuses for high ground, but overall it was pretty clear when I was flanking someone. There are also a number of mutant powers, such as a charge attack, move and shoot, a lockdown rooting spell thing, and a temporary flight for easy high ground. The demo had the garden variety taunt, move and shoot, jump to a new location, and a lockdown spell. Grenades mostly serve to change the dynamic of the battlefield, with frag grenades, molotovs, and smoke grenades all serving different purposes.
Now each of these individual combat elements aren’t really anything new. Any experienced tactics game player should be well versed in cycling cooldowns and managing consumable supplies. As an avid mega-nerd gamer, I can’t stress enough how the de-bullshit-ification of the dice rolls improved my experience. When I charged in with my pig guy to close range, it was relieving to know that I wouldn’t be randomly left with my pants down 5% of the time. Setting up a shot at an enemy behind a low wall, the 75% hit chance immediately made sense. Moving to flank, it was clear to me why the chance popped up to 100. Combat systems like this are inherently full of variables, and streamlining the variables in a simple and immediately understandable way is crucial to my enjoyment. It sounds basic, but this solid fundamental is often missed.
I didn’t get a chance to really see the story elements of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, so I can’t speak on how that element of the RPG formula will work out. There were only three characters in the demo, but I’ve been told the final number will be much higher than this. Expect there to be some kind of witty team banter and character dialogue.
Fans of tactical RPGs are a ravenous lot, starved between sparse releases of their favorite franchises. If you’re itching for a new XCOM, then Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden will scratch that and then some. Plus, one of the character is a sniper duck. With bat wings. Why not duck wings? Because he uses those for shooting, duh.
Do you even mutant sniper duck?
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