Mutant Year Zero

[Sméagol]

Another turn based strategy game in the vain of Xcom. Yes more turn based strategy!

Releasedate: 25-06-2019

 

Edited March 21, 2019 by Sméagol

[Ganepark32]

I played this at the start of the year in the PS4 and loved it. I remember it didn't review amazingly for technical issues and stuff but I had a great time playing playing.

It's much more free form than XCOM in that you actually walk through interconnected locations as the group of mutants as you progress through the story. Because of this, how you approach battles is entirely up to you. You can easily skirt round mobs if you're just wanting to get on with the story or set up however you want by splitting your characters up and moving them individually around an area occupied with enemies.

This latter point is of importance as setting up stealth hits to quickly and quietly take out lone enemies is a much needed tactic as if you alert them, you'll be swarmed and easily outgunned even early on but especially late game when enemies are heavily armoured and have a lot of health.

The usual XCOM style gameplay applies once in battle, with your overwatch ability to wait for enemy movement before shooting, percentage stats for whether you'll hit the target or not and various other bits. Character customisation is also a big part of the game as you level up and can unlock new abilities to add verticality to certain characters movesets (getting them out of danger of fire and such) or turn your mutant into a shotgun wielding tank character that can shoulder barge through enemies and leave then vulnerable to attack.

It's a different kind of intensity than say XCOM but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm so happy to hear there's an expansion coming as I was curious to see whether they'd give more based on how the game ended.

If you're a fan of the genre and games like XCOM, give it a go as I think it's great but I know it won't be everyone's cup of tea. While I wait for the expansion I can get on with Phantom Doctrine (a similar style game but espionage focused) and wait for the release of Phoenix Point, the new game by the original creator of XCOM Julian Gollop.