So, cease me in case you’ve heard this one: A duck, a boar and a girl stroll right into a bar… No, it’s not a joke, however the set-up for the reveal trailer to Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden, an upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG from The Bearded Ladies Consulting, a small Swedish outfit that includes expertise from each Hitman and Payday’s improvement groups.
Within, the trailer itself, introducing the trio of protagonists: Porcine powerhouse Bormin, waddling warrior Dux (the animal-folk of this post-nuclear world are clearly awful at naming issues) and Selma, who seems to be a mostly-normal human up till hassle comes knocking. Also, some high-res screenshots which you can click on to embiggen.
Normally I’d be submitting a sport like this underneath the header of ‘strategy RPG’, however the builders would fairly we use ‘tactical adventure’. In their protection, it does seem to be there’s a bit extra to the sport than leveling, looting and progressing to the following fight encounter. Decisions in dialogue can apparently lead you down branching story paths. While the fight as pictured within the screenshots beneath is clearly XCOM-inspired grid-bound stuff in battlefields filled with conveniently positioned waist or man-height cowl, stealth and evasion play out in real-time, paying homage to the Commandos sequence or the newer Shadow Tactics.
While the precise fight skills of the trio (past the apparent ‘Bormin kicks stuff over’ conclusion we will draw from the trailer) are largely unknown at this level, I do discover Selma’s particular energy attention-grabbing. At first I assumed it was a chameleon-like camouflage capacity, however on condition that it’s nonetheless up whereas she’s standing within the open within the trailer, it appears extra like stone pores and skin. It’d be fairly attention-grabbing if she served as each a high-mobility character and tank, clearing floor quick earlier than armoring up to attract fireplace away from the Duck & Boar duo (collectively, the makings of a high-quality pâté) as they shut in.
As for The The Bearded Ladies Consulting themselves, whereas they declare to have poached some expertise from Hitman & Payday’s groups over time, I acknowledged the title of the studio for his or her work on a really a lot lesser-known PS3 sport known as Landit Bandit, a weird tongue-in-cheek pedalo-helicopter piloting sport. Given that Landit Bandit was first launched in 2011, and little has been heard of the studio since then, I ponder in the event that they’ve been hammering away at Mutant Year Zero your entire time.
Mutant Year Zero is due for a 2018 launch. While info is a little bit skinny on the bottom at current, Bearded Ladies will likely be demoing this vaguely furry post-apocalypse stay (now there’s a sentence and a half) at GDC subsequent month. Funcom have already stepped as much as publish this one, and you’ll see a little bit extra of the sport on each the Steam store page, and the official site here.
