The visuals are a pleasingly grungy palette which suits the post-apocalyptic gameplay, and as you make your way around the sections of the zone, the rich, overgrown greenery gives way to desert-like sections and mountainous regions all of which come across well visually, although the inability to zoom in / out is a shame as the viewpoint is locked to the standard isometric camera, removing an element of control. It’s mostly stable but it does feel like it should be a little smoother, especially on console. The game runs at a mostly solid 30 FPS, stuttering usually in the Ark when talking to characters (this also causes occasional audio glitches) and in rarer moments when out in the zone. The main thrust of the early part of the game is searching for an important character called Hammon, who has disappeared into the deeper parts of the Zone and needs to be located. The initial protagonists are Bormin and Dux (literally a mutated bipedal, talking boar and duck respectively) who, able to survive the harsh surroundings of the Ark are routinely asked to search for food and scrap. Set on Earth after humans have apparently been little tinkers and nuked the hell out of everything, the titular mutants live on an ‘Ark’ and are now ‘Stalkers’ that roam an irradiated ‘Zone’ (Strelok, are you here?) looking for scraps of the old world to keep their machines running and to hunt for food and water (oddly not a focus of gameplay although the scarcity of which is referenced in the cut scenes). Pre-fight stealth sections add a new angle to the turn-based strategy formula present in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (MYZ: RTE) and the story, whilst quite generic is rich with atmosphere and the unforgiving gameplay is just on the right side to keep you involved without it feeling hugely unfair.
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