Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a new tactical adventure game developed by ‘The Bearded Ladies’ (we are not making this up) but published by ‘Funcom‘. It is coming out the 4th of December on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. This game will capture the interest of gamers just from sight alone. Let’s take a look.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a strange game set pretty much in a strange world. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden has been described as a tactical adventure, turn based with real time stealth. Straight away  you sort of get how this game will play like. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden does remind us of XCOM 2 in a way. Basically the story is that the world has ended (strange since the world is still there). There has been global economic issues, old and new superpowers are against each other, off course extreme climate change  and nuclear weapons which form mushroom clouds and other issues.   

Now nature has taken over… Well nature and some mutants (where did they come through). There are n humans left, they are all gone and the only things in the zone now are the mutants, animals and deformed humanoid. Players control a group who must venture of the zone in order to survive. Your destination is the Eden which suppose to be a haven and where the truth is according to legend. This sounds like quite the adventure. 

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is suppose to be a deep tactical strategy game. They have said it has been inspired by XCOM which means it should be good. Players can explore ruined destroyed looking areas like damaged highways, clearly abandoned cities. Off course each mission needs a plan and supplies which is why you will return frequently to a place called the Ark where you can get body armour like police vests, powerful rifles and even something like a top hat for style.

The members of your team are strange. There is a four foot duck (Dux) who has an attitude problem, a boar (Borwin) who clearly has anger issues and Selma who seems like a deformed humanoid and leader. There are multiple other characters in this world and they have their own distinct personalities and behaviour also. 

Even though Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is definitely a lot of combat and fire fights, stealth has been emphasised and encouraged. You have shadows to use to your advantage, floodlights will expose you, line of sight is a mechanic here too, fully destructible environment like walls to get the drop on enemies and much more. This is real time stealth so players have full control on their approach and how you want to do it.

There are upgrades and new abilities called mutations. For example that duck (Dix) can learn an ability to sneak into a base full of enemies completely undetected and unnoticed even though he is a walking duck who is armed with weapons. Don’t ask questions, just go with it. The boar (Borwin) can learn to charge enemies which makes sense. Selma can learn a mutation called stone skin which literally makes her skin stone, we guess that means she takes reduced damage or maybe temporary immunity to damage. Off course there are more mutations to unlock.

There isn’t a lot of information on the kind of enemies you will face. We do know there are monsters called ghouls and that enemies will have levels, like a level 7 ghoul for example. We also know they will be other mutants like weird creatures with swollen mushroom bumpy heads. Hopefully more information will be given as the enemies do add or take away from a game.

We checked out some gameplay and we like the full control stealthy parts of the game where you can decide where to go to and how you plan to do something. The duck can get a mutation that allows him to fly granting elevation advantage and more mobility. There are ladders to climb, hit percentage, critical hits, weaknesses, advantages and even sniping capabilities. Just make sure to scavenge and find all sorts of useful supplies, parts and things that can really help out.

Overall Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden looks like it’s going to be a serious game. It’s unique, got some good mechanics, inspired by an excellent game, graphics look good and the levels look very good. There is some mystery like the elder who knows a lot and his story will be unfolded. we just hope that the enemies are awesome and off a side variety since it’s suppose to be mutants which means anything can be formed. We expect creativity from this. The developers ‘The Bearded Ladies’ (we hate this name) did a very good job with this game. We at X35 Earthwalker are looking forward to seeing what Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden has for gamers. Now Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden may be a ruined world but one thing that’s not ruined is… the ‘Earth Walk!’