Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

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

bylam

Funcom
Developer
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
707
I haven't asked the marketing guys directly, but I assume because it is linear, has pre-set characters and it is based on a PnP RPG that calling it an RPG would give those players the wrong impression. You can't exactly choose to make whatever character you want from the Mutant rulebook.
 

anus_pounder

Arcane
Joined
Mar 20, 2010
Messages
5,972
Location
Yiffing in Hell
I haven't asked the marketing guys directly, but I assume because it is linear, has pre-set characters and it is based on a PnP RPG that calling it an RPG would give those players the wrong impression. You can't exactly choose to make whatever character you want from the Mutant rulebook.

Jesus H. Sounds like shit. Yeah, gonna pass on this one.
 

bylam

Funcom
Developer
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
707
I haven't asked the marketing guys directly, but I assume because it is linear, has pre-set characters and it is based on a PnP RPG that calling it an RPG would give those players the wrong impression. You can't exactly choose to make whatever character you want from the Mutant rulebook.

Jesus H. Sounds like shit. Yeah, gonna pass on this one.

FWIW, I really liked it. The best moments gave me some real Fallout 1 vibes. But of course, I work for the publisher so therefore - shill.
 

bylam

Funcom
Developer
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
707
I haven't asked the marketing guys directly, but I assume because it is linear, has pre-set characters and it is based on a PnP RPG that calling it an RPG would give those players the wrong impression. You can't exactly choose to make whatever character you want from the Mutant rulebook.

Could you expand on the linearity?

It has a linear story - leading you from A to B. You'll find side areas along the way, and you always return to a central hub, but you don't really go off and explore the map. You might have a few options about where to go next, but you'll never be in doubt about where your next objective lies. Following the story leads you through a large % of the world, but there are optional exploration areas.
 

CyberWhale

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 26, 2013
Messages
6,058
Location
Fortress of Solitude
I haven't asked the marketing guys directly, but I assume because it is linear, has pre-set characters and it is based on a PnP RPG that calling it an RPG would give those players the wrong impression. You can't exactly choose to make whatever character you want from the Mutant rulebook.

TBH this was obvious from previous previews. Still, I would like it if someone made an open-world (Fallout like overworld map, of course) RPG like this (set in this universe or not). Graphics also hit a sweet spot, looking modern but without unnecessary filters/effects and whatnot (yes Larian, I'm looking at you).

Can't wait to experience that Fallout 1 feel you talk about (although it reminds me of Fragile Dreams on Wii as well).
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Combat overview trailer:



Blog post: https://www.mutantyearzero.com/news/a-tactical-adventure-game/

A TACTICAL ADVENTURE GAME

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden seamlessly combines exploration, stealth and world-building with turn-based tactical combat gameplay. You can set up ambushes and plan out your encounters in real-time before

We’re calling it a tactical adventure game because of this unique combination of gameplay mechanics.

ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH
You control a team of Stalkers, hunter/gatherers who venture explore the irradiated wasteland to collect scrap metal that can be used back at the Ark, a safe haven among the post-apocalyptic madness. Stalkers make do with the weapons and equipment they can find when battling Ghouls. These festering monsters can be found all throughout the Zone, just waiting to ambush anyone caught unawares. Keep in mind that there are more things lurking out in the Zone than just Ghouls.

You explore and journey through the Zone in real-time with your party of three Stalkers. As you venture forth you can, and should, explore the surrounding area to find scrap, weapon parts and ancient artifacts. All of these can be taken back to the Ark to upgrade your equipment, unlock new team skills and buy upgrades.

6_small-1024x576.jpg


Outside of the Ark you need to constantly be on alert to avoid being ambushed by Ghouls and whatever other foul creatures that lurk in the wasteland. When you encounter an enemy out in the wild, a ring around them will tell you their field of vision. Step inside that ring and combat will start, so switch off your flashlight and get ready for some sneaking.

IMPROVISE, ADAPT, OVERCOME
Since half of The Bearded Ladies is made up of former Hitman developers it made sense to combine tactical combat with real-time stealth mechanics. The main goal of the project was to experiment with the tactical genre and push it in a new direction by taking the initial part of any tactical scenario – the setup and planning – and moving it into real-time gameplay mechanics to speed up the loop. As your characters sneak around you will hear incidental dialogue from NPCs and the party will react to things in the environment.

Switching off your party’s flashlight will put you into stealth mode. Your characters will crouch down and be less visible, but can still be detected by Ghouls and other enemies if they’re not careful. At this point your best bet is to split your party up and set up a sneak attack.

Shop-1024x576.jpg


Sneak attacks and ambushes are crucial throughout Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. Ambushes allow you to isolate enemies and kill them away from their companions, hopefully without raising an alarm in the process. The difficulty level is quite high, even on the Normal setting, and your characters aren’t supersoldiers. They can take a bit of a beating, sure, but if you get swarmed, they will die quickly. You should observe your enemies’ patrol routes and habits as you sneak around so you can set up the perfect ambush.

Splitting up your party will let you move each member individually, switching between them as you go. You can maneuver them into position and hide them from danger. A character who’s hiding won’t be discovered by an enemy, even if they’re standing in their field of vision. You can move your characters around as much as you want to set up that perfect sneak attack. Once they’re in position you hit a button and go into the tactical combat grid.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN
Several of your characters will come equipped with silent weapons, like Selma’s pistol or Dux’ crossbow. Weapons like these are crucial to your survival in the Zone as they can take out enemies without giving away your position. If an enemy dies too close to one of their friends the rest of the group will be alerted to your position and rush towards you. It’s therefore highly recommended to isolate enemies and pick them off when they’re alone, far away from their companions. The benefits of this is silently thinning out groups of enemies, taking them down one by one before you have to make noise and face several at once.

4-1024x576.jpg


Once combat begins you’ll seamlessly switch over to a third person tactical grid. You direct your team of mutants on a grid, placing them behind cover and moving them into flanking positions. Each action consumes a certain amount of points, ending your turn when all action points are spent. Certain things, like firing your gun, will automatically end the turn then and there.

It’s a good idea to always be on the move and be mindful of eventual blind spots you hadn’t considered. Ghouls come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some will run up to claw your mutants to death, while others prefer throwing Molotov cocktails or shooting you from afar with high-powered rifles. You should equip your characters with an equally varied assortment of weapons and skills to counter whatever threats you might meet. varied assortment of weapons and skills to counter whatever threats you might meet.

And remember: you can always retreat and try to fight another day, if need be.

MUTATERS GONNA MUTATE
As you play your characters will level up and earn points you can spend on mutations, special active and passive skills that can give them an edge in combat. Bormin’s Stoneskin ability makes him an excellent tanker, letting him rush into the fray and deal devastating damage with his trusty shotgun. Dux, who tends to hang back and snipe at enemies, can unlock crippling strikes and range bonuses as mutations.

4-1024x576.jpg


You have several active skills and passive bonuses and different combinations of mutations can be equipped to reflect how you like to play. Will you go for Bormin’s self-healing abilities, or up his defensive bonuses to make him more resistant? Maybe add in the ability to release noxious gasses when he’s attacked, to passively take down an enemy who gets a little too close? It’s up to you.

Team members and mutations can be switched around on the fly whenever you’re out of combat, letting you pick your ideal team depending on the situation. Dux is great at disabling robotic enemies, for example, but that skill won’t do much against an organic enemy, so you should swap that ability out for something that packs a punch.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014


https://www.mutantyearzero.com/news/master-the-stealthy-approach/

MASTER THE STEALTHY APPROACH

Being stealthy and using the silent approach to your advantage is a key component of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. Combat is brutal and will offer a harsh challenge, but by sneaking around and taking out isolated enemies will let you remove several low-level enemies before tackling the main threat.

You wouldn’t expect any less with a game made by former Hitman developers.

SILENT, BUT DEADLY
As you explore and travel through the irradiated Zone you will encounter Ghouls, monsters and other foul creatures that make this post-apocalyptic wasteland their home. Out here it’s kill or be killed. Anything is ready to ambush Stalkers who are caught unawares.

Since half of The Bearded Ladies is made up of former Hitman developers it made sense to combine tactical combat with real-time stealth mechanics. The main goal of the project was to experiment with the tactical genre and push it in a new direction by taking the initial part of any tactical scenario – the setup and planning – and moving it into real-time gameplay mechanics to speed up the loop. As your characters sneak around you will hear incidental dialogue from NPCs and the party will react to things in the environment.

Switching off your party’s flashlight will put you into stealth mode. Your characters will crouch down and be less visible, but can still be detected by Ghouls and other enemies if they’re not careful. At this point your best bet is to split your party up and set up a sneak attack.

giphy.gif


TACTICAL COMBAT EVOLVED
It is simply not enough just to tackle your enemies head on in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. If you want to survive you will have to use stealth – if not your team of mutants will not last long.

Your team consists of only three mutants, and even though they are powerful they can still easily be outnumbered and overrun by the enemy.

The crucial point is that you can’t just run into a group of enemies and expect to come out victorious. It may work sometimes, but most of the time you will either end up with a team of dead mutants or you will use up all your med-kits in a hurry.

Use stealth to study enemy movements and see if some of them move away from the others. These are the perfect targets to take down with your silent weapons, so you don’t alert the larger group.

You must try and take out as many single targets silently as possible. Then, and only then, you can take on the larger group when you are ready and they are weakened.

GATHER INFORMATION
Sneaking around is also incredibly useful to gather information about the enemies you are facing. You need to know how many they are and if any of them represent specific threats, like tanks, shamans or the mind-controlling Nova Sect, for example.

Your tactics for the fight to follow will be vastly different if you have already snuck around the enemy camp and learned what you can about them. With your new knowledge you can focus your first-round alpha strike on their shaman, so he can’t call for reinforcements, or root their tank in place, so he can’t charge your mutants and knock them down.

Perhaps the group even contains a brand-new type of enemy, which you may want to swap out mutations for, or get some new weapon upgrades from the Ark to tackle. Without the information gathered from stealth you will be blind.

giphy.gif


KNOW YOUR SURROUNDINGS
By sneaking around the map you will not only learn the composition of your enemies, but you will also be able to hear what they are talking about. This can often offer crucial information.

A group of Zone Ghouls may be talking about a pack of Zone Dogs that are nearby. Knowing about these dangerous creatures, so you can be ready for their ambush, can be very helpful.

You can also learn where the Ghouls have taken captured Stalkers and hear about their plans or even where they keep their treasures.

One of the most important things you can learn through sneaking around the map is figuring out where to setup your team for an ambush. Is there a suitable place with high-ground? Are there places with lots of cover available? Can you lure the enemy out in the open so they won’t have much cover of their own to hide behind?

Using stealth to learn all these things is one of the most important aspects in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden – and we feel it adds another layer of planning, tactics and depth to an already great genre.

3_small-1024x576.jpg
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
Releasing raw gameplay video every time they have some news. This time they released a video alongside the news this is coming on Xbox Game Pass:

 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Pretty tempted to pre-order the standard version of this for the 3 day head-start. Found out today that there are indeed more mutants than just the three we've seen so far that join your team, which pretty much sealed the deal for me. Also been reading that there is a good amount of challenge to the game, and an official ironman mode, which is great to see.
 
Last edited:

Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
17,040
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Apparently you get a demo too. I guess if it really sucks for some reason it's easy to refund.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Because Nu-Xcom. Welcome to a brave new world of TB gaming.

Yeah, it's a shame. TU or more AP would be much preferred. Luckily, there seems to be enough going on in this game between exploration, itemization, progression, stealth, unique setting and challenging TB combat, that I'm pretty sure it's going to be fun and interesting despite its shortcomings. Worst thing about it I've heard so far is that it's only going to be around 20 hours long. Hopefully that's a very conservative estimate from the developers.

Also, this does seem to be more Tactical RPG than a straight tactics game. RPG is the second genre tab on the steam page too. Infinitron, maybe this thread does belong in General RPG Discussion?

EDIT: I did actually find a forum post where someone has said they have spent 20 hours on the "2 hour demo" exploring everything, so maybe the developers were referring to if you stick with the main storyline only. Seems weird, though. You'd want potential buyers to think there is more per hour content, wouldn't you?
 
Last edited:

Agame

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 29, 2015
Messages
1,702
Location
I cum from a land down under
Insert Title Here
Because Nu-Xcom. Welcome to a brave new world of TB gaming.

Yeah, it's a shame. TU or more AP would be much preferred. Luckily, there seems to be enough going on in this game between exploration, itemization, progression, stealth, unique setting and challenging TB combat, that I'm pretty sure it's going to be fun and interesting despite its shortcomings. Worst thing about it I've heard so far is that it's only going to be around 20 hours long. Hopefully that's a very conservative estimate from the developers.

Also, this does seem to be more Tactical RPG than a straight tactics game. RPG is the second genre tab on the steam page too. Infinitron, maybe this thread does belong in General RPG Discussion?

To be honest I dont even care, we are getting good new turn based games so i see it as massive incline, even if they are all slavishly following this "2 AP" system.

BTW this game is based on a comic or something right?
 

GrainWetski

Arcane
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
5,078
To be honest I dont even care, we are getting good new turn based games so i see it as massive incline, even if they are all slavishly following this "2 AP" system.

BTW this game is based on a comic or something right?
But we aren't getting GOOD turn-based games because of the garbage system they mindlessly copy.

A turn-based game with bad combat is in fact bad.
 

Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
Ew, dude.

I'm not a big fan of the large icon design in Mutant Year Zero, but they are not nearly as garish as Borderlands. Fuck that shit hard.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom