Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Some may find a high barrier to entry though that high bar shouldn't prohibit tactical strategy enthusiasts from enjoying MYZ, an excellently produced game within the tactical genre.
Interestingly once the game's systems are understood and progression reaches a certain point the high entry barrier drops significantly, reloads are far less than at the beginning and the game becomes very enjoyable.
Attention to detail from environment perspective and the environment are very high. Every stage has fully destructible immersive environments.
The game is a perfect length and the recommended dlc Seed of Evil continues with a well written and playable story.
MYZ starts with two playable characters. Three additional characters are added throughout the main campaign and one during the dlc. Characters are exchangeable out of battle and all come with their own mutations or skills.
Given the number of characters and variances in difficulty the game is highly re-playable.
Controller support is perfectly implemented though kb/m support is available if preferred.
Having completed the game and dlc I can comment on some of the complaints I've read about the game-play whether in reviews or forum posts.
Enemies can shoot across the map. Depends on the map size but the larger the map size the less probability and the larger maps just not true so I'll rate this false. Enemies like the player controlled characters have weapons with a defined range. The farther the shot the less probability of a hit. I've found this behavior very consistent.
Firing at enemies can alert the entire map to move against you.
I'll rate this complaint false though with a caveat. NYZ has three types of weapons. Some may say two but allow me to pontificate. This is where I believe much of player frustration emanates, especially in the beginning of the game when you are just learning the game's idiosyncrasies.
MYZ does very well at demarcation. That is to say movement both horizontal and vertical (*dpad on a controller) is very precise. The developers did an excellent job at illustrating action points used, enemy hit range and hit percentages for every potential square the player may move to.
The issue for some is that *after starting battle* non engaged enemy alert levels for the various types of weapons are hidden from the user. Silent weapons if used too close to a non engaged enemy may alert that enemy who will in turn alert all enemies in a specific vicinity or range. What is this vicinity? I can only speculate. Same for weapons that are not marked as excessively loud (type 2). These weapons can be used without alerting enemies though again you must speculate alert distance.
The third weapon type, excessively loud weapons have large alert distances, more understandable as the developer labeled them as such. Clearly alert distances are Type 1 < Type 2 < Type 3 however alert distances are not specifically disclosed or defined. Obviously intentional design by the developer and looking back at my play-through I can agree with this design but there will be many who don't. I will say that the behavior is consistent throughout the game so I don't believe it's an RNG issue.
Frequently I'm overwhelmed this game is ridiculous.
I've spoken of alerting too many enemies. The main premise of the game is stealth and managing your battles appropriately. MYZ also shares an enemy mechanic with Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Certain enemies just let's say need to managed. If you don't, yes you will get overwhelmed. You may be able to handle the rush but the odds are, especially early in the game, you won't and you'll probably uninstall, rage quit, blame the game and write a negative review or forum post.
In summary, in the beginning the game can be difficult but not everything in life is handed to you on a silver platter. Learn the game's systems and you'll be rewarded.

At first glance, it might seem similar to XCOM with its tactical combat and strategic elements. However, upon closer inspection, it falls short in several critical aspects, such as the depth of gameplay and narrative. The mechanics come across as simplified, and the overall experience lacks the polish and complexity that fans of the genre might expect. That said, if you approach it with lower expectations and aren’t seeking something too challenging, it can still serve as a reasonable choice for casual, light entertainment. It offers just enough to keep you engaged without becoming too overwhelming.
동물농장.

YOU CAN CONSIDER THIS A NEGATIVE REVIEW
I decided to post it as positive since I really liked the story but it was a close call.
I know we don't get many good games like X-Com series in this genre. Many of these turn-based tactical strategy games miss the strategy part and sadly, this is one of them. As I said, I really really liked the story but the gameplay made it very difficult. Let me give you a list of why:
1) Strategy: There are 5 characters in the game (+1 in the DLC). All of them have active and passive abilities depending on their "stereotypes" and somehow they decided to force you to just pick only 1 of the said abilities at a time per character. You can't pick the invisibility if you want "Run'n Gun" ability active. YOU HAVE TO PICK AND USE ONLY 1 OF THE PASSIVES AT A TIME. Same even goes for active abilities. That completely kills the variety, strategy and stereotype.
2) Abilities: There are abilities like "Jump" or "Eat Corpse to regain missing health" and guess what? You can't use them outside of combat. You can't position yourself or regain health after the battle. Reason? I don't even know. I learned it the hard way after I spent 10 level ups worth of points in the Corpse Eater ability. +There was loot stuck on a car and I couldn't even get it even when my duck could fly.
3) Items: You can buy weapon attachments, armor, grenades etc. but you can't sell anything. Reason? I don't know. Also shop doesn't even renew much. It showed me just 3 new items in my 30+ hours of gameplay.
4) Controls: If you change your Ambush key on keyboard, many things bug out. You won't be able to exit combat (It shows the name of your newly registered key but shows space bar and doesn't work). You can't register some keys like "Y" for some reason. Sometimes you have to use Space key to close notes even though it's not space anymore.
5) Balance: Every zone is balanced considered you taking out the "wandering" solo enemies first before fighting the main guy/group. But that sucks because your damage nearly always falls short for 1 point. Enemy you suppose to kills have 16 hp and your damage total for 1 round equals to 15. So what do you do? You look for weapon parts and force yourself to upgrade one of your weapon to balance it back. How do you learn it? By dying first. You have Jump/Fly abilities but very few of the zones have the high ground structures. Ambush key bugs out and you are forced to fight sometimes. Hit chances go as: *Enemy is out of sight *25% *50% *75% and *100%. Game wants you to use the glow sticks for +25% hit chance but throwing anything just ends the round, so why would you? You lose 1 character damage which is better than having 25% hit chance. I tried many different approaches to fight and I can clearly say that in many attempts; they have much higher hit chance than yours. (Also early revive bot is just ridiculous)
6) Fear of Missing Out: THIS ONE IS THE WORST: I mentioned that we have 5 characters right? Whenever you interact with something or wander into a new area, only the character you use to "walk" reacts to it. You have to reload and use another character to learn how they feel or think about it. This even applies to some critical story points and IT MAKES NO SENSE. It really made me feel like I'm missing out of story. Another important addition to this is: Many dialogue/monologue triggers when you are really really close to enemies and when you are engaged in combat, they stop talking and doesn't continue the conversation after the fight.
Misc:
*Sometimes after an ambush your flashlight automatically enables which forces you into a combat you don't want.
*Sometimes hide button doesn't work when you are at the edge of the enemy detect circle.
*Some subtitles are different than the voice line, which is kinda irresponsible considering the game came out in 2018.
*You have to adjust your zoom level to switch between floors which is a lazy design and leads you to make mistakes here and there.
*There is no minimap and sometimes you hit a new zone entrance unwillingly and find yourself in a loading screen.
*Also some of the phone numbers in the game is actually used in Turkey, I've added them to my contacts and can see their Whatsapps, which is another irresponsible detail.

A little clunky and old fashioned at times, but I love the premise, and the characters. The gameplay is turn-based, kinda like Divinity but with guns.

Amazing game and probably one of the best team based tactical rpg I've played in a while. My pros and cons after beating the game.
Pros
+ Good story and likable characters.
+ Very solid tactical rpg.
+ Game is quite challenging but fair. Combat is really fun and simple to understand but still needs good strategy, careful planning, and smart usage of skills to win battles.
+ Game does away with the mundane grind and you level up immediately after a battle.
+ It's a small and linear game but it does reward exploration with more lore, resources, and new equipments.
Cons
- Early game can be severely punishing and frustating.
- Combat can randomly bugged out on you at times.
- Really short game which you can probably beat in 8 to 10 hrs.
- Resources are very scarce and it's very easy to mess up your playthrough at higher difficulties just by running out of health kits or valuable resources.
- The stealth mechanics in this game is quite a weird one and way different from other stealth games. Every enemy has a peripheral circle that will automatically alert them immediately once it touches you. It doesn't even matter if you're hiding behind a wall or their backs turned at you. Once it touches you, you immediately engage with them in battle.
- Underwhelming final battle.
It's a fun game and eventhough it's short I did enjoy every minute playing it. It's an amazing tactical rpg and a steal if you can get it on sale.
- My score 9/10

There is not a lot of variety in which to beat the enemies. characters have fixed skills and some of those skills show up on different characters. less variety in that sense. XCOM had variety and you got to choose from many useful skills. Killing all enemies seems mandatory along with picking them off one by one and using silent weapons. Not much room to get creative but overall decent. Aside from those deficits, I love the game, 15 hours in. Only one game surpassed my expectations when relating it to XCOM, shoutout to Othercide!

It's a great game overall. You can go full stealth or boom-boom mode, your choice. The game has an interesting lore, but it's kind of short. That being said, it's a 10/10.