Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is what happens when a duck, a boar, and a human with stone skin walk into an apocalyptic wasteland. Publisher Funcom has teamed up with Swedish developer Bearded Ladies on what they’re calling a “tactical adventure” — a game that features exploration and stealth as well as turn-based tactics. Road to Eden will be out sometime this year on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Road to Eden is based on Mutant, a tabletop role-playing series that first rolled the dice in 1984. Target Games originally developed it, but the IP now belongs to Cabinet Entertainment. The franchise celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2014, when Modiphius Entertainment and Free League Publishing released Mutant: Year Zero. Road to Eden will be the first time the pen-and-paper title is getting the video game treatment.
Like others in the series, Road to Eden takes place in the ruins of a postapocalyptic world. The protagonists are searching for a rumored safe haven, but before they can get there, they must first survive. It’s a gritty setting that seems to feature both futuristic tech as well as low-fi weapons like crossbows.
Bearded Ladies has some triple-A talent behind it. Its team includes designers who worked on IO Interactive’s Hitman as well as Payday designer Ulf Andersson, who’s also developing 10 Chamber Collective’s hardcore co-op title GTFO.
Publisher and developer Funcom has worked with Cabinet Entertainment’s IP before, most notably Conan the Barbarian. Its open-world survival title Conan Exiles will launch on May 8 and has seen immense success in Early Access, selling 320,000 copies in its first week. The team also overhauled its massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Secret World late last year, relaunching it as Secret World Legends and attracting players with its new free-to-play model.