Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden Reviews
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden feels entirely spread too thin. Without much depth to its name, it remains a unique setting devoid of personality.
It is Interesting world of mutants with animal heads, but with unbalanced gameplay, not enough equipment and skills. And with bootless failings.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
This is a game worth trying—just not on Switch.
A version of a tactics game that heavily incentivizes stealth to the point where it makes it mandatory. Good writing and style but a singular focus on the right way to play the game hold it back.
Combat is challenging and enjoyable enough that I briefly started a second playthrough on hard. I wanted to master the combat challenge and solve the puzzles properly instead of brute forcing my way through them. I got through a few encounters and then it hit me just how similar the experience would be the second time around. There weren't any cool new mutations to play with or better weapons to acquire. So I stopped playing. My first playthrough lasted fifteen hours and it was decent. I'll keep an eye out for a sequel or an expansion, but at the moment, Mutant Year Zero doesn't have enough worldbuilding or interesting variety in its upgrades for my tastes. I doubt I'll ever finish that second playthrough.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an ambitious take on XCOM but it simply doesn't do enough with the established formula to make a worthwhile campaign.
Mutant Year Zero feels most of all like a promising start for something potentially greater. Indeed, for as much as the game offers an intense, occasionally brilliant spin on turn-based strategy, it’s tough not to imagine how a sequel could improve the writing and the exploration to realize what is, at this point anyway, mostly just a lot of potential.
While Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden has managed to build a cohesive system for tactical turn-based battles to take place in, it's far too difficult for the average player. Hardcore genre fanatics are sure to get a kick out of proceedings, but those looking for a more introductory take on things will find more frustration than progress.
Everything that Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden gets right seems overshadowed by its general lack of depth and surprisingly short campaign.
Occasionally, Road to Eden comes to life with fun, challenging combat and a smart implementation of stealth. But even so, the feeling quickly disappears as you remember that there's little to enjoy after you've won. The game often seems empty and dull, with under-utilized characters and clumsy pacing, and not enough overarching mechanics to keep you engaged in the long run.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is an interesting attempt to combine two disparate genres, but it's definitely not perfect. It's not unenjoyable, but it suffers from repetition and way too simplistic gameplay systems.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The story is simplistic but the lore is interesting. The combat is fun at times but hampered by the games linear nature and finite resources. Exploring and finding new loot is fun but I do not think stealth killing enemies combined with RNG works well at all.
Mutant Year Zero sure is a great looking game with nice post-apocalyptic atmosphere. But way too often it suffers from lack of depth. Which is the main thing you would expect from a good tactical game.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden's blend of turn-based tactical combat with stealth is interesting, but not always successful, and its story doesn't take advantage of its unique setting. Although the ability to explore the world and sneak up on enemies adds a fun twist to the genre, it brings unwelcome complications and technical hiccups as well. I also ran into numerous performance issues, including game-ending freezes, that strained my initial fondness for the game.
While Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden has some growing pains to deal with, it’s still a satisfying tactical RPG.
It’s the perfect tactical RPG experience, for those who are looking for something that won’t consume weeks of their time. It’s a shame that the Switch port has arrived with many flaws.
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.
Despite mechanics issues, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden offers a good variety in gameplay styles, character customization and solid worldbuilding.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a competent albeit narratively underwhelming tactical RPG with novel stealth mechanics and solid turn-based combat.
While it mostly iterates on the foundation laid by other games in the genre, quirky writing and characters help keep things fresh. Unfortunately, Mutant Year Zero's short campaign and predictable story hold it back from being a slam dunk.