Reviews
[Review] ‘Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden’ Mixes Stealth and Strategy Well, But Comes Up Short Elsewhere
Can The Bearded Ladies bring something new to the strategy table and still provide all that matters to genre fans? Find out in our Mutant Year Zero Road to Eden review.
The XCOM template is one worth replicating for any budding turn-based strategy game. It features a nice mix of action, tactics, and management if done right, but you simply do have to try and balance those three out and add something of your own to succeed (which some haven’t quite managed recently despite decent efforts). Developer The Bearded Ladies’ (great name) Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is the latest, and perhaps closest, game to attempt to update the formula.
Set in a future where most of humanity has been wiped out, the last remnants are holed up in rig-like structure, just trying to keep the flame of existence burning a while longer. The only things keeping them alive and safe is staying in their makeshift home and relying on the Stalkers, a team of mutant soldiers (human hybrids of a duck and a boar respectively, at least initially), to bring in supplies from the wasteland. We, the player, are tasked with controlling those Stalkers as they roam outside the safety of their rickety compound.
Mutant Year Zero is a turn-based game, but only for its combat. The rest of the time, you have manual control of your party and their movement around the wastes. This is because the predominant strategy element is stealth, and you’re able to walk the group around the enemies and set them up in real time for an ambush. Enemy vision is dictated by a large red circle that, if you step in it, will more than likely alert them to your presence and give them the upper hand in the ensuing turn-based combat.
Each of your party brings something different to the tabletop. Dux, for example, carries a crossbow, which means that you can quietly pick off a group one by one as long as you keep it out of the eye line of the survivors. That is, of course, if you pack enough firepower and the enemy isn’t too high a level. Others pack heavy artillery for firefights, and all come with upgradeable abilities to deal with ever-increasing threats. So far, so XCOM, even with the free-form stealth.
The stealth is a strange thing to get used to, but once you understand it and use it to nail a succession of strategic takedowns with minimum fuss, it’s a revelation. It genuinely adds something fresh to the turn-based squad strategy model. Any sequel and other turn-based squad games would be wise to try and implement some variant of it in future.
Perhaps the most fascinating departure is how it eschews a hub/mission structure for something closer to an RPG. You can move freely between areas, finding other missions, salvage, and enemies of varying difficulty. You need to manually trek back to the Ark for certain upgrades and equipment and smartly, the game ensures you have plenty of nooks and crannies to dig through as you wander back and forth. The world design is interesting enough that it tells its own story (and Mutant Year Zero is a visually impressive game for its chosen genre). There are traces of what came before the triple threat of apocalyptic events occurred (plague, global warming, and a nuclear war on top) and it’s a shame the story itself doesn’t do more to focus on the history that’s alluded to.
In fact just as the story seems to be going somewhere, it ends in a surprisingly swift and abrupt fashion. It’s almost a cliffhanger but feels like it comes way too early in the game to have been earned. Mutant Year Zero takes around 15 hours to finish and that’s a fine length for how it’s structured as a video game, so the narrative structure should follow suit. It’s unfortunate because the time spent with Dux and company is largely enjoyable and there’s so much more I’d like to know about the world and its history.
Also not helping the story is audio issues. The sound cuts out intermittently at the start of every cutscene and new area. A patch has smoothed some of this out since I finished the game, but unfortunately, it didn’t come quite soon enough. It’s still there on occasion, but it is at least much better now.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a positive step in the right direction for the future of turn-based strategy on a mechanical level, but it finds itself lacking in the storytelling department. Hopefully, we get more from this world. A bigger, deeper sequel is a must at this point because there’s huge potential for Mutant Year Zero to be a frontrunner in the strategy arena.
Mutant Year Zero Road to Eden review code provided on PS4 by the publisher.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC.
Books
‘In Search of Darkness’ Book Review: A Must-Have for ’80s Horror Fans
In 2019, the documentary of 80s horror In Search of Darkness became an instant hit with horror fans. Now, a beautiful coffee table style companion book is available and is a must-own for all fans of one of horror’s greatest eras. The book is a walk down the horror aisle of the best mom and pop video store in the heyday of VHS, featuring full color photos, poster art, insightful essays and more. More than just a nostalgic throwback, In Search of Darkness is the kind of book I wish I’d had back in my years as a burgeoning horror fan but is also satisfying for the film fanatic I have become in the years since.
The format is beautifully and simply laid out, with at least a dozen (usually more) movies from each year of the decade presented in order of release accompanied by informative and insightful essays by the authors Heather Wixson and Patrick Bromley. Both authors have been mainstays of film journalism, specializing in horror, for many years. Wixson began her career in 2007 with Dread Central and has spent the past ten years as the Managing Editor of Daily Dead, from which she recently retired to focus on books and other projects. She has devoted the past several years to interviewing and writing books about the Make-up and Special Effects wizards that have brought so much to film over the years, specifically the horror genre.
Bromley is a film journalist and critic whose work can be found all over the place including right here on Bloody Disgusting. He recently provided the commentary for the Vinegar Syndrome release of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and is known as something of a Tobe Hooper expert. He is also the founder and editor of F this Movie!, an eclectic film website, and host of its accompanying podcast. So, to be clear, the authors know their stuff.
Wixson and Bromley divide writing duties roughly in half and though each has a distinctive voice, their writing styles dovetail beautifully into a cohesive whole. Each author plays to their strengths. Being familiar with both their work I didn’t even have to look at the bylines to know that Heather covered Christine and Terror in the Aisles and Patrick took on The Funhouse and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Wixson’s passion for make-up effects is clear and comes through in many of her contributions. In general, Wixson takes on the “big” titles, the movies that defined the decade the most, and Bromley covers what the more cynical among us might call schlock, but he would likely call pure cinematic bliss. There are exceptions and surprises, of course, as there should be (Patrick covers The Shining for example). Each essay dives into the history behind the film, the major players involved, the reception, and legacy with often surprising aspects drawn from interviews with the filmmakers from various sources and insights from the authors.
For all their in-depth explorations of each film, in general the authors keep their critics’ hats safely stowed, keeping in mind that every entry on the book has its fans. In fact, they may well have sold me on finally hitting play on some of the schlockier offerings of the decade like Evilspeak, Nightbeast, and Blood Diner. Hell, I may even give The Beast Within a spin for shits and giggles. The point is that this book is a celebration through and through. The authors are honest about the critical receptions of the films, which were often unkind, and sometimes let their own opinions shine through, but recognize how beloved even the schlockiest films can become given time and availability. And that is an ongoing theme of In Search of Darkness. What may have been dismissed in its day often becomes revered as the years pass. Variations on the phrase “the years have been kind to…” referring to various maligned projects like The Thing, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, The Blob and many, many others, can be found throughout the book for good reason.
Each chapter of the book also includes a rundown of the top horror movies at the box office for the year as well as the top movies of all genres for context. The final page for each year highlights some of the major news and pop culture events including the top songs, albums, and television shows. There is a large central section that pays tribute to the talent involved with the greatest horror films of the 80s including directors, actors, effects artists, and more. This section includes brief biographies of John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Stephen King, Tom Savini, Barbara Crampton, Robert Englund, and many others presented in a dynamic and engaging fashion.
One of the beauties of the book is that it covers so much ground. Sure, you’ll find Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, and the Halloween sequels in it, but you’ll also find deeper cuts like The Changeling, The Being, and Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I was happy to find the same love given to Frank Henenlotter and Larry Cohen as to George A. Romero and David Cronenberg. In other words, In Search of Darkness is extraordinarily eclectic, highlighting the diversity that truly defined what is often viewed as a homogenous decade. The authors make the case that the 80s was horror’s greatest decade, and with what they lay out throughout this book, it’s tough to argue against that. I even came across a film or two I hadn’t even heard of before, which has become increasingly rare as the years go by.
At just shy of $85, the cover price may give some horror hounds pause, but believe me, it’s worth every penny. This is a beautiful volume that every fan of 80s horror will want on their shelf or prominently displayed on their coffee table. Filled with favorite titles, hundreds of full color photos, insightful and informative writing, this is simply a must own.
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