Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden E3 2018 Preview

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a turn based game similar to the style of XCom. You control a group of wild mutant individuals in this experience that's based on an older pen and paper RPG book. I was able to check out the game while at E3 2018 in a really chilly air conditioned area off in the far corner of the meeting rooms. This was nice as it was a break from the wild noise. The setup was limited and it felt exclusive as I sat down to try out the game on PC. This was a visually pleasing experience and one that felt typical in terms of how turn based games are designed.

There was minimal amounts of the back story given and I jumped into the game to get going. The point of gameplay was during this assault on a frozen over structure. It's a good showcase of what you can do in the game and how the enemy units react to your presence. There was also a display of the banter your team has, I felt there was some good chemistry in the group based off of that. I was able to slightly go off the path to loot items, but mostly kept on point. It seems linear with choice in how combat is tackled. I didn't make it far as this is extremely difficult, but I got a good sense of how everything runs in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Screenshot
As I approached this structured area I had some choices for how to tackle it. This being what I felt was incredibly difficult, I attempted this area many times. Typically for E3 demos gameplay difficulty is toned down so I totally didn't expect the challenge. With this area you could possibly run in guns blazing, take a stealth approach to eliminate enemies or even sneak attack from a good spot. I tried a combination of things to various levels of success. It's actually quite well designed and the enemies are very responsive to what you're doing as you play. Each of your squad has their own strengths and these can be mutated upon, there are even options for what weapons to use in various situations.

It would take time to learn how everyone handles and how they interact together for be stronger against foes. The goal of each turn is to get a good cover spot while firing away and eliminating the enemies. The world is very responsive just like the AI you battle, it can be destroyed and it's great to topple down some second levels with big booms. There are many weapons present as I saw multiple effects being shot at my characters and visually it's impressive. I'm certainly intrigued by Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden and look forward to playing it when it does arrive. I'm really interested to learn more about the narrative and get a deeper dive into this post humanity world that's swarmed by various mutants.

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Gamerheadquarters Reviewer Jason Stettner