One of the game's many joys comes when Bormin and Dux-voiced splendidly by Enzo Squillino Jr. As you push north and south from the Ark you'll discover the remains of human civilization, including notes left behind by survivors, ruined buildings, and mysterious, deactivated robotic drones.

There are a handful of event scenes that take place at the beginning and end of quests and a few soliloquies from the Elder, but in general players absorb the post-cataclysm reality through exploration, visual cues, and character interactions out in the Zone.Įnvironmental, tangential storytelling is a big deal in Mutant Year Zero. It's impressive that the team at The Bearded Ladies brings the destroyed world of the Ark and Zone to life, without relying on overlong cut-scenes or extensive exposition. This quest pushes the mutant twosome further outside the Ark than they've ever gone, tests their courage and loyalty, and eventually shines a light on a mythical place of safety called Eden.

When Hammon, the Ark's principal engineer and a fellow Stalker, goes missing in the north, the Elder sends Bormin and Dux to find him. Two of those Stalkers are Bormin, a squat, grizzled anthropomorphic boar, and Dux, a sarcastic bipedal duck-man. Since the Ark is far from self-sufficient, the Elder sends his best mutant hunters and scavengers, known as Stalkers, out into the Zone to collect salvage and fend off Ghouls, savage humans who worship pre-apocalypse civilization. It looks a generation old.īased on the tabletop role-playing game of the same name, Mutant Year Zero takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth where mutant survivors of pandemic and nuclear fallout have found refuge in the Ark, a fortified base led by the Elder, the only human inhabitant. Despite developer The Bearded Ladies' successes in world-building, tactics, and stealth gameplay, it has allowed a huge graphical downgrade on Switch.

The Switch version, regrettably, is another story entirely. At the same time, it enjoys the staff and resources needed to create high production values and up-to-date visual assets-at least on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Sitting snugly in the middle space between big-time 'AAA' releases and small-scale independent titles, it's a modest, mid-range turn-based tactical experience that, not needing to sell five million units to break even, can afford to be experimental and weird. The industry needs more games like Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. By Evan Norris, posted on 30 July 2019 / 4,265 Views

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