Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden trailer explains what 'Duck XCOM' is all about

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Samuel refers to Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden as "Duck XCOM" in his August preview, which is not a terrible way of putting it. But if you'd like a rundown of what it's all about that's maybe not quite so economical, Funcom has dropped a new trailer showcasing exactly—mostly—what it's all about.

The video demonstrates both real-time exploration and turn-based combat, which the developers are attempting to blend in a way that enables varied and efficient gameplay.

"What we're trying to do a little bit different," co-director David Skarin says in the video, "is to take the initial part of a tactical combat game, where you're kind of setting up and planning your thing—we put that part into real-time to speed up [the game]. That gave us the opportunity to tell the story while you're the voyeur. As [former] Hitman developers, we know that this works really well, right—like when you're walking through, we can also tell a bit story while you're setting up your ambush."

As for what it's all about, Skarin is a little less forthcoming. The game is based on the Mutant pencil-and-paper RPG series and will generally follow its "meta-plot," but it will be left to players to explore the world and discover what's actually going on—and how everything ended up in such a state.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden comes out on December 4. Hit up mutantyearzero.com to find out more.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.