Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Well, here is another tactical XCOM style game. I have played it before and now finishing it after some time. I just finished Phantom doctrine, so weirdly it seems that Mutant Year Zero became easier, than it seemed when i started it.
Again, looking in every corner for artifacts, scrap (here is currency), exploring every location took me 58 hours. And it plays quite similar to Phantom doctrine - enemies on map are many, and will come to you if they will hear a battle is going, so stealth is very adviced. Granted you are prepared for this - there are silenced weapons. And loud ones, which makes more damage. Also here are shot probability back, like in XCOM, to hit the target you have to be at weapons range, have line of sight and have high enough probability to hit.
There are patrolling enemies, also enemies that start patrol after you come closer and they talk in between. Divide et conquer. Follow lone enemies and kill them silently. Then finish the othes, which do not want to move and needs to be taken on loudly.
Game has nice graphics, sound, voice-acting, cut-scenes, a well told story, even it is not lengthy. It gives a choice how to attack enemies. It has various weapons to find, an weapon upgrade system, weapon modding system, different armors and helmets with various bonuses. Also there is a perk tree for every character.
So a... well made decent rpg tactic action game. DLC tells one more story what happens after main game events, worth a buy as well.
So, that is all I wanted to share with Dear Reader about this game. Thanks for reading.

STEALTH & TACTICS
This is a smaller scale title taking the best elements out of tactical X-COM-like games, mixing it with stealth and greatly decreasing frustration linked to the genre. Mutant Year Zero chooses sustainability in exchange for crazy random chance events. There is still a decent deal of RNG in the game but it's more managable.
Players take control over a team of charismatic mutants roaming post-apocalytpic earth. Each one of them with their own skill tree and specialties. The story of the game is surprisingly good with the overal lore of the game being a breath of fresh air. There is a decent amount of humour as mutants are oblivious to the remains of our civilisation and miss-characterize some of the most mundane objects.
Graphics are mediocre but the gameplay is very solid. Variety of skills and weapons combined with destructible enviroment allows for a great dose of startegy and tactical decision-making during encounters. Unfortunately, I personally found it to be a little bit too simplistic in terms of depth. After a while you realise that weapons aren't that different from eachother. Some mutant abilities overlap. For a game that takes about 16 hours to complete, plus ten gained from DLC it's definetly enough but it represents a wasted potential.
The difficulty in this game matters as it can dramatically change your experience. The intended – very hard difficulty setting creates an immersive, yet extremely challenging adventure. It adds an aditional layer to the game.
This is definetly a very good product. While I cannot fully recommend it, I think it adds enough value to the genre to be treated with respect.
If you are interested in a more in-depth review check out my yt video:

Very fun game and DLC. Nice graphics, sound, and voice acting. XCOM style combat, but stealth is a must. Almost more of a puzzle game than a combat game. Your mutants are called "Stalkers" for a reason. All combat is to-the-death, so don't start something you can't finish! If you like to go in guns a blazin', well, good luck to you!
Only two complaints... The game gives you great feedback about your visibility which is very important, but it gives you no info about how far away your actions can be heard. Equally as important, but no clues given. Second, why do my mutants always insist on turning on their flashlight after combat? You carefully pick off a loner, then your guys light up their flashlights to let every other enemy around know you're out there! Very annoying!

Had it on my wish list for a couple of years and got it on sale recently, the only thing I can say is shame on me for not getting it sooner. 24h played over the last 48h, very hard to stop this game. I will definitely get the DLC once I finish the original game.

The XCOM genre has been mentioned a lot, although in general I'm not a huge fan of turn based games. However Mutant Year Zero has a pretty straight forward attitude and a "gimmicky" style when it comes to your characters.
The game itself is based around 3 team members, who you can equip with various gear and change between talents depending on what you need. There is a big emphasis on scouting each zone you enter and try to eliminate enemies one by one. You'll pay attention to patrols and how enemies behave, as some may have a nasty surprise despite you kill them silently.
The silent part is essentially one part of combat. You will find regular and silent weapons. Silent weapons deal less damage, but allow for stealth kills, if you manage to kill them before they alarm the others. Various talents can help with this, including some that allow for a 2nd shot. Should you enter regular combat, you'll be switching to the loud and more damaging weapons, but you'll also have to align your characters so they have cover or high ground. All of these positions have a bonus and you can get real hurt if you plan it poorly.
The story is actually decent and gives insight on your mutant characters. This takes it a bit further in the DLC, which can be highly recommended as well. The attitude on the characters are somewhat witty, but also grim as they question their existence. The whole apocalyptic enviroment in the zones has a great charm to it and it's often worth your while exploring it for hidden loot.
Definitely a thumbs up if you'd like a more "simplified" XCOM genre with less RNG attached to it.
The only downside to the game is that some of the story wasn't really specified regarding a certain character.

If you're a fan of X-Com-inspired turn based strategy games, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden might be right up your alley. The game has a solid, if not slightly underwhelming story with great potential in the world and setting the game takes place in. The main campaign isn't quite as strange and bizarre as you would expect considering you are playing in a party with a talking, no nonsense pig, a wisecracking cynical duck who'll remind you of a certain other duck themed character from Marvel, and a third party member of your choosing each of whom has their own unique dialog and quips that can give deeper insight into the story. A key highlight of the game are the encounters with the characters because not only do they give a greater understanding of the world, but they also provide a much-needed sense of friendship and camaraderie between the party members. It's easy to say that the characters and world design are two of the game's greatest strengths, which will keep you going despite some shortcomings.
I found the approach and combat method of the game to be one of the biggest downsides, in which you had to sneak around an area and take out enemies one at a time without being seen, as alerting other enemies will result in you killing upwards of seven, eight, or more enemies all of whom will be difficult to defeat. It is clear the intent is to make stealth an integral part of the combat loop, which means once you've whittled down a group of enemies you're encouraged to focus on the remaining enemies, usually heavy enemies like tanks or bosses, but this approach gets stale after a few hours. Towards the end of the game, I had essentially abandoned that style of gameplay as I had already out-leveled many encounters by mid or late game. At that point, you can be more aggressive. Personally, I was glad to have done so since combat was becoming tedious and I was actively looking forward to skipping encounters altogether.
In addition to adding intrigue to the world, the DLC also resolves the questions left by the abrupt end of the main campaign. There's not much to look forward to here apart from one useful new party member, though I found myself switching him out for a previous member from the main campaign who I thought was more useful. Furthermore, the new threat in the DLC whilst interesting wasn't all that memorable and overall it ended up being more of the same. While it was a fun experience, overall I did feel the game could have done more creatively with its premise while also opening up the settings (and gameplay) with more varied, weird locations that set it apart from other post-apocalyptic video game tales. By game's end I found myself wishing there was more as the game's current adequate approach to combat and story-telling didn't quite impress me as much as I had hoped. I would love to visit more of this world in the future though as there's a ton of potential for sequels to dive deeper into this world's lore and create a far more interesting, unique experience.
Recommended. Now be careful out there, Stalkers.

I'm usually not one to finish games, but I saw this one to the end (minus the DLC).
I'm a fan of stealth games and I'm a fan of XCOM-like games, so this mash-up was right up my alley. If you are the same, then picking up MYZ is a no brainer.
I only have 2 cons:
The first being the tediousness of having to scour each nook and cranny, in each level, just so you can have enough resources. It's a semi-con though because having limited resources is part of the game, which adds a layer of strategy, requiring you to make smart choices on what to spend it on and smart choices in other parts of the game so you don't have to spend resources in the first place...but , similar to grinding in other games, searching for the resources is a tedious process you have to do in order to increase your chances for success.
The second is if your character is hiding, he is HIDING. You can have your character with their back up against the wall, with the enemy standing right next to him, one square away, looking right at him, but the enemy won't see your character. Because he is "hiding". It breaks immersion and takes away a layer of challenge which I would have welcomed.
With those gripes I still enjoyed the game thoroughly and consider it worth full price.
I don't recommend it for those who:
-Don't have patience
-Prefer a "guns-a-blazin" playstyle
-Don't like strategy
-Don't like limited resources
-Are looking for an amazing story (Story wasn't terrible, but I figured the ending out early game)