Tactical turn-based strategy games seem to be popping up constantly lately. From the excellent Shadow Tactics, to the reimagining of Battletech, the reboots of the venerable X-Com series, and now a totally new IP from The Bearded Ladies, Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden, which is available on multiple platforms, but we happen to be looking at the Xbox One version today. Much of the advertising for Mutant Year Zero likened it to X-Com, which is a fair comparison for the basic design. However, there’s a lot more, and a lot less going on here comparatively.
To start things off, Mutant Year Zero is quite story heavy, but doesn’t fill in all the blanks. It kind of tosses you into the action with a fairly minimal tutorial, nice both in that it doesn’t interfere with the storyline as much and because the game doesn’t have an overly complex interface on the Xbox One so you don’t really need a complex tutorial. The story is post-apocalyptic and interesting, as you start out with a mutant pig and a mutant mallard as your main characters. The mallard, appropriately named Dux, reminds me a lot of Howard the Duck, but with even more sass and some guns. Bormin the Boar (yup, onomatopoeia AND alliteration at work!) is the smarter, less impulsive one, and he’s kind of like a good guy version of Bebop from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As you’re introduced to them, you’re also introduced to combat, which is a fairly well-structured turn-based strategy system with a few flaws.
Combat consists of an isometric grid system on a rotating camera. You get one turn per character and then enemies move against you. On the surface, it appears very similar to the X-Com system, with multiple X-axis levels, a selection menu at the bottom of the screen, and some familiar options such as Overwatch (the Mutant Year Zero version of Snap Shot). Things start to vary when you look deeper however. For example, just because an enemy is visible doesn’t mean you can necessarily shoot them. In X-Com, your percentage chance to hit wasn’t shown, but you could take a pot shot at an enemy as long as they were visible. Not so here. If an enemy is out of range, you don’t even have the option to fire. In addition, you can tell right off the bat how much damage each shot is going to do when in range. Sometimes, this is great…and other times, it’s an exercise in frustration. Creep up on and surprise a Shaman for example and sure, you can do some damage to him, but you can tell right off the bat that you can’t kill him in one round. This ensures that he’ll summon reinforcements the moment you fire on him, making your battle exponentially harder.
Ultimately combat works, but it’s a mish-mash of tactics and luck. It gets easier as you gain more mutations and upgrade your weapons and armor, but things are definitely a bit too fast and loose with the tactics. Cranking the difficulty up to Hard made the game almost unplayable for me, and a standard battle was virtually unwinnable, especially in the early levels. Reloading constantly even after knowing enemy placements didn’t help either. Enemy weapons ranges and toughness seems significantly overpowered even on middle difficulty, and sometimes you’ll struggle to survive a battle on Normal. Solution? Go back to the Ark and power up your characters weapons and armor with the junk you have to painstakingly search the map for, artificially extending your game significantly. Luckily you can fast travel there. Unluckily, the game saves but crashes every time you use fast travel due to a programming glitch and you’ll be forced to reload your last save. The Ark is quite a letdown too. A static image where you select from a whopping four locations and talk to the same four people every time. Neat. Also, why the heck doesn’t the bartender know you in the very first encounter with him, if you’re living in what’s purported to be the last city on Earth?
Anyway, you upgrade, you warp back, the game crashes, you reload it and continue forth into the unknown and inevitable combat. One thing that does make Mutant Year Zero stand out is it’s stealth system. Sneak up on a combat area and you can ambush the enemies before even initiating combat. Use silent weapons and wait until they are alone and you can clear up a good percentage of enemies without alerting their fellows, thereby alleviating the dangers of being outnumbered in combat and adding a unique element for an isometric strategy game. There are, of course, a few glitches with this stealth system however.
First, it’s wildly unrealistic, as you can literally hide in plain sight but as long as the system says you are fully concealed, the enemies can walk right into you and not see you. Being able to crouch in an open area and just stand up and shoot a guardsman on patrol with a shotgun from a foot away is silly, especially when the blast…doesn’t kill him! Grrr.
Second, the visual detection range on patrolling enemies is weirdly inconsistent. It’s a circle, but it seems to vary when you’re on its edge, so you can sneak inside the detection range, and if you hit the cover button fast enough, you can crouch inside, switch to another character, and flank them. Unfortunately, if you try to leave cover, you magically get detected immediately, even though you hid while already inside it. This can lead to some frustrating combat situations where you are trying to conceal yourself, get a character stuck inside a confluence of detection grids, and end up making combat significantly more difficult, if not impossible. Heck, one of the modes actually saves after each move, making it impossible to go back and utterly guaranteeing your destruction in every single combat. It’s essentially unplayable at that point.
There are a few key features missing from Mutant Year Zero as well. The one that really stands out is the complete lack of a zoom function in combat. The game is lovingly rendered in excellent detail, but you are completely unable to zoom in on that detail, especially during combat. This really takes away from the excellent backgrounds and artwork of the game. A free roaming unlocked camera with zoom functions was one of the things that made Battletech so fun to play and it would have done wonders for Mutant Year Zero in terms of a more vibrant presentation. The characters are there, you just can’t see them all that well, even when they’re having a lively discussion. It would have been great to be able to see Dux’s sneer as he teased Bormin and such. Sadly, you can’t, not even outside of combat. Overwatch mode is a rough sell too, not missing, but definitely lackluster, as it generally doesn’t work well; a paltry replacement for X-Com’s Snap Shot.
The one thing that Mutant Year Zero does manage to do well however, is the storyline. Dialogue is crisp and interesting, the plot is enough to hold your attention, and the characters are unique and likeable. You’ll find that you want to know what’s going to happen next and that you’ll be looking forward to the increasingly amusing banter between well-written friends. The in-level chitter chatter is sometimes even more entertaining than the story segments too, adding a welcome relief from the inconsistencies of combat.
Mutant Year Zero is a good game. If you can say anything about it, it’s that it’s noticeably inspired by X-Com but falls short of greatness. Adding stealth and ambushes to isometric combat is brilliant, but could have been executed better. Combat is grueling even on Normal, but getting through it rewards you with story and dialogue that are interesting and enjoyable. It’s a scattershot approach that ultimately works more than it doesn’t. It’s just the finishing touches that could have made this one of the best isometric tactical games in a decade or more and with any luck, there will be some updates that make that true. Give it a shot if you have the patience for it. If you love the genre, you won’t regret it! Just make sure you have the time to spare, because you’ll definitely be in front of the screen for a while!
This review was written based on a retail digital copy of Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden for the Xbox One which was provided by the developer. The game was played on an Xbox One X in 1080p on a 55” Sony LED TV. All screen shots are direct screen captures from gameplay. Radiation from the TV did not provide any useful mutations for this reviewer. Also, why does the loading die show every number but three?!? That could drive someone insane!