Turn-Based Tactics Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden - now with Seed of Evil expansion

[ArchAngel]

These articles are pretty racist vs pigs. It is all ducks privilege.

 

[Abu Antar]

These articles are pretty racist vs pigs. It is all ducks privilege.

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/120...-to-eden-gameplay-trailer-e3-impressions.html

PCGamesN offers a preview article that doubles as an interview with the game's producer Mark Parker:

At first glance, Mutant Year Zero could be seen through the same lens as Divinity: Original Sin, or the Shadowrun games: the world is explored in real-time, and entering turn-based combat is a seamless transition that lays gridlines over the environment. But while the broad setup is familiar, the intricacies are not. There’s an emphasis on stealth; enemies in the world walk along patrol paths akin to Metal Gear Solid foes, with a radius around them highlighted to warn you of their detection field. Get too close and they’ll initiate battle, calling on their nearby allies to rush in and decimate your tiny team.

To avoid this, you are equipped with silenced weapons, the ability to hide behind corners, and a handy ambush mechanic. Get your team into position, wait for an isolated grunt to walk into your trap, and then a tap of the spacebar will begin combat and allow you the opening moves. With any luck, you’ll be able to quietly elminate them without alerting anyone else, and continue to rinse and repeat the tactic until the zone is clear of foes. There’s a little of Invisible Inc.’s rhythm to this, and that’s no bad thing.

As with all turn-based tactical games, positioning is of paramount importance in Mutant Year Zero, something I quickly discover as Bormin is riddled with bullet holes due to being left in an awkward position at the end of my turn. The Mutant universe offers more options than just rusty guns, though; powers can really help you gain the edge in the battle for prime locations.

“We've got moth wings, stone skin, and one mutation where you can control the trees nearby and wrap their roots around enemy legs,” Parker says. “I really like the super jump. You can jump really far across different areas, up to high points to get a good vantage point.”​

Variety shares their demo impressions along with some background on the tabletop RPG that inspired the game:

“Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden” may have caught North American audiences off guard when it was announced back in March, but for pen-and-paper role-playing gamers who grew up in Sweden, it was likely a different story.

“Mutant” is a pen-and-paper role-playing system and world — similar to “GURPS” or “Cyberpunk 2020” — that originally released in Sweden in 1984 and saw a series of expansions and updates through the ’80s and ’90s and all the way up through 2002. In “Mutant,” the human race is largely extinct; in its place, a ragged collection of animal-derived mutants, robots, and a few human remnants are rebuilding in ways big and small, exploring the ruined world and the mysteries of that now-extinct human society. This was elaborated on in several expansions, but “Mutant” and its myriad offshoots never saw translation into other languages — until, that is, 2014, when a new version of “Mutant” was published, set hundreds of years before the original game, and which received an english translation under the name “Mutant Year Zero.”

That might be a lot to take in, but the point is, “Mutant Year Zero” isn’t coming from nowhere — there’s a rich history and background to the setting, and as importantly, a generation of pen-and-paper fans vested in doing right by it. In speaking with members of developers The Bearded Ladies, there’s a sense of a cult following that they want to do right by in their interpretation of “Mutant,” which is surprisingly a first for the property. There’s never been a video game adaptation of the RPG, even as contemporaries like “Shadowrun” and “White Wolf’s various settings found life on PCs and consoles.
​

PCWorld calls the game unique and clever and appreciates the real-time exploration elements:

But in Mutant Year Zero, I felt like I was supposed to laugh. Panic in combat, sure, but as grim as Mutant Year Zero’s post-apocalypse portends to be, there’s a lot of humor here too. Watching a zombie get sniped by a pistol-wielding duck is inherently hilarious to me, as is a pig wearing biker gang clothes and wielding a shotgun.

Our demo didn’t show off a ton of story, but I imagine it’s also easier for Mutant Year Zero to tell one. As I said, the real-time segments play out a bit like an isometric RPG. That’s not to say there are extensive dialogue trees to sit through or anything (at least not that we saw), but it does open up levels for exploration a bit more, and thus lends itself to environmental storytelling. We were given a sneak peek of another mission for instance, one that took place in an abandoned tunnel. It was a smaller level, with very little combat. Just basically a quick detour for the party.​

And Destructoid appreciates the game's difficulty:

Road to Eden takes place in a post-apocalyptic Sweden, keeping in line with its source material that always sets games in the players' hometown. Many of the developers working on it, including some former Hitman developers transported from IO Interactive, are from the specific region of Sweden it takes place in. There’s no introduction to the demo as I take control of three characters -- Dux, Bormin, and Selma -- attempting to infiltrate a hollowed out building the enemy is patrolling. I don’t know who the enemy is, but I can hear from their dialog that they’re after the girl.

The crunch of the snow beneath my feet is the soundtrack to my journey, and as I search the area looking for scrap (the game’s currency) I come across a pile of body bags with a trench dug nearby. My team converses and comments on their surroundings, ensuring this won’t be some silent, stoic trek through the wildlands. These are three characters with unique personalities who are not above sharing hot takes on what they see.

They’re also unique in their playstyle. Bormin is equipped with two powerful, but loud, guns while Dux and Selma both have silenced weapons in their arsenal. Keeping quiet is the key to victory in Road to Eden, as one of three phases of gameplay lets me snipe enemies before they have a chance to alert the others. I fail miserably at this as I’ll explain in a little bit.​

​

 

[Spectacle]

That ambush mechanic sounds like it could get repetitive. I envision a lot of clicking to get your mutants into the obvious best positions, then more clicking to execute the ambush where the only thing that can go wrong is that you're fucked over completely by the RNG.

 

[Alienman]

These articles are pretty racist vs pigs. It is all ducks privilege.

 

[toro]

 

[LESS T_T]

Release in December 4th:



http://pr.funcom.com/pressreleases/...ate-for-mutant-year-zero-road-to-eden-2647272

Funcom and The Bearded Ladies’ announces December 4th 2018 release date for Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

– The tactical adventure game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden finally mutates into release on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on December 4th 2018, fusing together turn-based tactical combat with real-time exploration, story, stealth and strategy –

– Release date announcement trailer now available: FTP download, YouTube link –

OSLO, Norway – August 21st, 2018 – Publisher Funcom and developer The Bearded Ladies are excited to finally announce the release date for Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, the tactical adventure game that combines XCOM-like turn-based tactical combat with real-time stealth and exploration. Launching on December 4th 2018, the game will be available on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 simultaneously.

Announced earlier this year, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden rustled quite a few feathers when it introduced a crossbow-wielding, bipedal, and unusually sassy duck to the otherwise bleak apocalypse genre in its unique and surprisingreveal CGI. During this year’s E3 in Los Angeles, Funcom and The Bearded Ladies provided press with the first-ever hands-on demo and received several “Best of E3” awards and nominations, and this week, Funcom and The Bearded Ladies are present at GamesCom giving another updated gameplay demo to press in the business area of the show.

Now available for PC pre-order on buy.mutantyearzero.com, the game will be available in a Standard Edition ($34.99) and a Deluxe Edition ($54.99). The Deluxe Edition includes a desktop wallpaper, digital artbook, digital soundtrack, and a digital copy of the Mutant Year Zero pen-and-paper RPG book. Pre-ordering the Standard Edition will give you a three-day head start at launch while pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition gives you the samehead start as well as access to a Beta version of the game before launch.

To celebrate the release date announcement, Funcom and The Bearded Ladies will be running a special promotion during GamesCom where pre-orders on both the Standard Edition and the Deluxe Edition are 15% off. All you need to do is enter the code GAMESCOM2018 at checkout.

The game is based on the classic Mutant IP that has spawned several popular pen and paper role-playing games since the 1980s, including the current Mutant: Year Zero from Free League and Modiphius Entertainment.For more videos, screenshots, and information please visit the official website at www.mutantyearzero.com.

 

[tindrli]

fuck. i was hoping of september the first

 

[Infinitron]

 

[tindrli]

visibility still sucks

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/mutant-year-zero-is-so-tough-that-only-one-badass-has-beaten-its-demo-me/

Mutant Year Zero is so tough that only one badass has beaten its demo (me)
Hands-on with this XCOM/stealth hybrid.

I've been referring to Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden as 'Duck XCOM' since Wes first covered it back in March. Today, I played a solid 45-minute demo of the game, which is based on a Swedish pen-and-paper RPG that was particularly huge in the '80s, and combines turn-based combat with a light stealth system that lets you get the drop on enemies ahead of battle.

It's also pretty tough, and I know this because as of about 4 PM on Wednesday August 22nd, I'm the only one (presumably except the developers) who has beaten its Gamescom demo. Here's proof, and an awkward picture of the back of my head:



I've been referring to Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden as 'Duck XCOM' since Wes first covered it back in March. Today, I played a solid 45-minute demo of the game, which is based on a Swedish pen-and-paper RPG that was particularly huge in the '80s, and combines turn-based combat with a light stealth system that lets you get the drop on enemies ahead of battle.

It's also pretty tough, and I know this because as of about 4 PM on Wednesday August 22nd, I'm the only one (presumably except the developers) who has beaten its Gamescom demo. Here's proof, and an awkward picture of the back of my head:

Animal kingdom
You move around the world of Mutant Year Zero in real time, and when you come across a group of enemies while exploring, you're shown red detection circles that you have to avoid. You can lower the detection space significantly by crouching. The idea is that you can plan ahead on an attack: conceal one or two party members in cover, then have another start the fight by ambushing.

My party consists of Dux, the duck, who carries a crossbow, but who I equip with a rifle that's obviously better in a shootout. He can also use his wings to fly out of target range of some enemies, with the right upgrade. There's also pig man Bormin, who seems like a heavy party member, and has a handy ability that lets him charge an enemy and stop them from performing actions for a whole turn. Finally, Selma carries a silenced pistol in this demo, and has a power where she can get plant life to hold enemies still.

The characters chatter as they wander through the environment, dropping little bits of world building. Dux comments on the lack of duck bodies around the place versus the high numbers of human corpses, and as a setting, this overgrown zone of a 'post-human' locale is spooky and intriguing. It feels like exploration is a pretty important part of the game, and I'm excited to unravel this offbeat backdrop, even knowing little about the source material.

The stealth system works well, too. You might decide to begin an ambush by throwing a grenade, and picking the right moment could mean you catch multiple enemies in its blast radius. It also heightens the tension of walking through the world—you'll hear enemies talking to each other before you open fire, and if you're particularly careless, you might get their attention before you're supposed to, removing your advantage. It means this feels like much more than an XCOM clone, in case the duck guy didn't give it away already. The pace of combat and UI feel similar, but it's another exciting example of how the staples of XCOM are forming a genre.

Zero effort?
If you're wondering why I'm the only one who's beaten this demo after almost two days of Gamescom, my terrible secret, reader, is I that I played it on easy mode. Sorry! There's a reason I did this. Ordinarily I would pick normal for a review or preview, but the developers made a point of saying no one had finished the demo, after many media appointments. Knowing I wanted to write about it, I thought I should at least give myself a shot at seeing everything on offer if I was going to comment on it.

It's still surprisingly tough on easy, though, even with a few soft touches like restoring your characters' health after a battle. It's not like the gentle empowerment and all-conquering satellites of an easy XCOM campaign. The difficulty settings are described to me as "hard, harder and hardest," and I believe it. The developers mention it'll take around 15+ hours to finish the campaign on lower difficulty settings, and over 20 if you go higher.

I still failed this demo three times, and I think it's because I initially tried to play Mutant Year Zero like XCOM. The unusual powers of your heroes are key to winning battles, and it was only when I dabbled with those that I started to feel like I was pulling some real strategies together. The final scrap in the demo is incredibly tricky. It's against a cult leader and around five or six of his followers, one of which is a sniper. If you group your heroes too close together, the leader, who has a ludicrous amount of health, will perform a lightning attack that conducts through all of three of them, doing heavy damage to each. Keeping your party separate is key, then, along with trying to dispatch the leader as quickly as possible.

I decided to go all in on taking out the leader on the first turn. I had my pig guy, Bormin, use his special charge attack on the leader, beginning the battle and immediately stopping him from attacking. I got my other party members as close as possible, getting Dux to perform a headshot at close range, which did critical damage. By the second turn, the leader was dead, and while the rest of my party was almost burned to death by molotovs tossed by the remaining soldiers, I won with all three of my mutants alive.

That's my fascinating story of success, then. Not all of the mutants' powers will be useful all the time. Making Dux fly, for example, doesn't protect him from sniper fire, so remaining in cover seemed like the smart way to go. In some situations, however, I'm sure it'll offer real advantages in terms of positioning.

Despite being a little gruelling, then, I find Mutant Year Zero's curious mix of elements incredibly appealing, and I look forward to meeting more party members beyond these three and seeing what kind of weird stuff they can do—the developers mention there's at least one more. How about a beefy mouse in a tuxedo with a flamethrower that doesn't play by the rules?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I still failed this demo three times, and I think it's because I initially tried to play Mutant Year Zero like XCOM. The unusual powers of your heroes are key to winning battles, and it was only when I dabbled with those that I started to feel like I was pulling some real strategies together

So hard! You have to understand what your characters abilities do to win!

 

[tindrli]

I still failed this demo three times, and I think it's because I initially tried to play Mutant Year Zero like XCOM. The unusual powers of your heroes are key to winning battles, and it was only when I dabbled with those that I started to feel like I was pulling some real strategies together

So hard! You have to understand what your characters abilities do to win!

isnt that a point in all games?

 

[Jinn]

This actually looks pretty interesting. I like the sounds of no enemy scaling and hand-crafted maps. Exploration mixed with this type of combat seems really cool to me.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Looks nice. I don't like overwhelming resource management spergplay in my squad base tactics and although initially setting and characters looked silly, it's kinda in a good way. Like ninja turtles or Howard the duck silly. I can go with that.

 

[Life of the Party]

• CONTROL A TEAM OF MUTANTS: A duck with an attitude problem and a boar with anger issues; these aren’t your typical heroes. Get to know Dux, Bormin, Selma, and many other characters each with their own unique personality and deranged perspective on the world and their situation.

Any info on other playable characters or is it only these three?

 

[Life of the Party]

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/09/10/ctrl-v-mutant-year-zero-road-to-eden-preview/

CTRL V Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden preview

Duck, duck, pig

CTRL C XCOM: Enemy Unknown

CTRL V

XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

CTRL H

FIND: Stand alone, self contained missions.
REPLACE: Open exploration in a post-human world where the characters think a boom box is a weapon of some kind, because of the name.

FIND: Near-as-dammit current day setting; humanity scrambling to deal with invasion from a more advanced alien society.
REPLACE: Fun post-human society set dressing – hundreds of years after we’ve gone, there are crumbling highways, rusted out ambulances, the remains of a playground.

FIND: Returning to the XCOM base between missions, to allow your troops to heal and resupply.
REPLACE: No rest for the wicked. Looting to find useful things, like medkits, or keys to locked doors from earlier in the level.

FIND: Different loadouts for different soldiers selected on deployment.
REPLACE: Finding new weapons as you go. Switching between silent and loud guns as the situation demands.

FIND: Turn based movement for squad and enemies the whole time.
REPLACE: Use of stealth and ambushing in open world free-roaming, to pick off patrolling baddies without initiating combat. Repeatedly failing at this and alerting many enemies in the area.

FIND: Those horrible snake aliens.
REPLACE: A kid of mutant wizard electrocuting everyone.

FIND: Drone support unit.
REPLACE: A heavily shielded robot that can heal dead enemies, godammit.

FIND: Alien psychic powers.
REPLACE: Duck bills.

FIND: Levelling for individual team members based on their performance.
REPLACE: Squad levelling, because that’s more fun when everyone’s a mutant like in X-Men!

FIND: Abilities that are broadly realistic for a gang of resistance soldiers
REPLACE: Hilarious abilities unique to characters e.g. moth wings to hover in the air, angry pig charging through walls, raising vines from the ground to trap enemies.

FIND: Randomly generated ruff, tuff marines that you still accidentally get attached to.
REPLACE: A cool lady with earth magic, a big ol’ porker, and a sniper who is a giant duck with moth wings and a top hat? He is my best friend and I love him.
…
…
… FIND: The expected kind of armour and gear upgrades.
REPLACE: Hats as discoverable gear, providing different hat options for the whole squad.

 

[anus_pounder]

Just make them all animals. Why the mutated human in there?

 

[LESS T_T]

Another 20 minutes of unedited gameplay: http://pr.funcom.com/pressreleases/...aw-gameplay-with-developer-commentary-2737704

Mutant Year Zero: Funcom releases 20 minutes of raw gameplay with developer commentary

– Tactical adventure game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden fuses XCOM-like turn-based combat with real-time stealth and exploration, arriving on PC, Xbox, PS4 on December 4th–

–Download the full 20 minute gameplay video here, where Lead Designer Lee Varley and Producer Mark Parker takes you through the Sea Titans map: FTP download, YouTube link–

OSLO, Norway – October 4th, 2018 – The tactical adventure game Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is just two months away from launching on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 4. Available for digital download on December 4th, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden combines XCOM-like tactical combat with real-time exploration, stealth, and story as it puts players on an usual journey across a post-human Sweden where anthropomorphic animals scramble to survive in the devastated remains of human civilization.

Today, publisher Funcom and developer The Bearded Ladies, have released 20 minutes of new, unedited gameplay with developer commentary from Lead Designer Lee Varley and Producer Mark Parker.

Download or embed the Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden gameplay video:

Download from the FTP| Embed from YouTube

“Bormin, Dux and Selma have just exited the Cave of Fear and are heading north towards a place called the House of Bones,” explains Producer Mark Parker.“But first they need to cross the river and to do so they must defeat a large group of zone ghouls who are controlling a massive metal boat.”

The game’s announcement back in February quickly ‘went viral’ thanks to the unique cinematic trailer showing three very unlikely protagonist: Selma the humanoid mutant, Bormin the mutated boar, and Dux, the crossbow-wielding duck. Following successful demos of the game at GDC, E3, and GamesCom, feedback has been great,and the game has received numerous “Best of Show” awards.

Now available for PC pre-order on buy.mutantyearzero.com, the game will be available in a Standard Edition ($34.99) and a Deluxe Edition ($54.99). The Deluxe Edition includes a desktop wallpaper, digital artbook, digital soundtrack, and a digital copy of the Mutant Year Zero pen-and-paper RPG book. Pre-ordering the Standard Edition will give you a three-day head start at launch while pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition gives you the same head start as well as access to a Beta version of the game before launch.

 

[Slavegal]

Are the beings in this universe asexual? If you know what I mean.

 

[Infinitron]

And now an hour of gameplay:

 

[Frusciante]

What I don't like is that they only seem to have one environment type. It's always the same forrest in the videos.

 

[Jinn]

What I don't like is that they only seem to have one environment type. It's always the same forrest in the videos.

Yeah, hopefully that's just the opening area of the game or something. I actually really like that environment, but some variation throughout the game would be greatly welcomed.

 

[bylam]

I've finished the game now in closed beta. There are other environments. I don't think they have shown anything outside the first act of the game yet.

 

[Infinitron]

I've finished the game now in closed beta. There are other environments. I don't think they have shown anything outside the first act of the game yet.

Do you have any insight as to why they've chosen to call this a "tactical adventure game"? Tactical combat games with character progression and a narrative are often marketed as RPGs. Previews have indicated it may be because the game is very linear.