Location in the post-apocalyptic environment in which the main space of the mutants, which mostly have the human body, but the claw heads, is fine. Individual locations show the ruins of an "ancient" advanced civilization - understand our civilization after a recent collapse. In practice, it means that you walk through the wreckage of cars and run-in homes partially covered with lush vegetation that has survived since man ruled. .
The treasures of the past and the creatures, the hijackers and the fanatical cult from the current world are known through a group of their heroes. At the beginning there are two, and one of them is a beast. No, we do not want to offend him and we have nothing against him, but we just want to say that he has a pig's head instead of a human. But he's still a fellow, who is in the process of turning in the fight. And he is accompanied by another mutant who has to change the duck's head. Later, a bunch of other bastards are added - someone has more human characters, other animals, but each has some mutations. And it is these that bring different bonuses to individual characters.
Each member of your team has a set of mutations that you untie with the points you get at each new level of character. Mutations are not many, barely ten, and many of them are not very interesting. Some are passive, others activate in battle as needed. In this way, you improve your chance of critical intervention, let short wings on your wings, you get the ability to crawl with the enemy remains or the ability to control them.
However, you can also invest the same points in the attributes, which is actually only a line of five bonus bonuses that add value to your health or increase your speed. Do not expect anything more complex. To get it all up, every better skill and higher attribute costs more points. However, the levels rise rapidly, later, until very soon, one and a half, one and then even three levels at a time, all at once. Strange? Yes, but that's just one of many strange games.
When you go through the small sectors to which the whole game is divided, you move in real time and either your whole group or one at a time. Fighting occurs when you reach the enemy's field of view. It is a circuit that diminishes when it is crowned. Then you turn off the flashlights and there is a chance that you slide around inconspicuously. But you can initiate a fight yourself, which is no harm, because then you start and you have a tactical advantage. But it will not help you sometimes.
Although you have all the collected characters together, up to three can be active, which means that you are fighting with a three-member team. And against you, it is usually a few members. Why? Because the game is badly balancing, and there is a rare chance of separating enemies, although it is a key factor in conquering areas. The whole game is divided into relatively small sectors in which a certain number of enemies are spread out. Ideally, you are always separating pieces or a couple of opponents from others and thus gradually clear the surroundings. But as we have already said, in practice it can not be done almost never. It's nice that if you disarm your target in one round with silent weapons (gunshot, pistol with muffler), you will not wake up. But on the other hand, there are very few such weapons and, moreover, you often do not reach the goal in that one round. And it will be upset.
Usually, it will happen that the only armed enemy calls all the villains in the area, and then they are more than a dozen. Many of them are easy for you to put in quickly - just two or three wounds. Others are quite tenacious and the worst is when they are accompanied by a med-bot. This is a robot that revives dead organic enemies. Therefore, you should destroy it as soon as possible, but this is not always possible. The metal healer will usually get into a mess, and while you are hurting opponents as they approach you, there are again those who have been eliminated in the last round. We were most shocked when the med-bot raised the half-life of the dead boss while trying to reach his remaining hops.
The robot-healer itself is an interesting opponent, but if, in a short period of time, more enemies enliven than you can kill in a few rounds, it's really a nice crap. Other types of enemies are interesting even though you will not be hurt by many. They have their specific styles and ways of attack, and you should take that into account in tactics. Pyro hits a burnt bottle, and if your characters are held together, they also sketch it all at once. But when you destroy it, it will explode and leave a fire field around you that can also hurt its companions. Then there is a tough handrail who has a lot of life and armor and, with the liking of some, knocks some of your figure to the ground and forsakes it out of combat. The shooters are dangerous from a distance, but if you kick the bandits with the chisels and get too close, they will cause unpleasant injuries. Although the shaman does not blame and it's just a bandit, but if you do not immediately remove it, the shouting of the reinforcements. And there are more of these specific opponents and we value their product range.
Fight as such is based on XCOMU, so at first you can feel that there is nothing wrong with it and it will run smoothly. The opposite is true. Battles are in the tug-of-war mode and each character has two action points in the bike. It can be used to move or some activity - shooting, healing, throwing grenades. When moving in terrain you will use the objects to cover. When shooting, you'll see a close-up view of the target with a percentage of chance for a successful hit. That would be fine if it worked well.
But in the fight very often there is an absurd moment when the game illogically evaluates the situation. On the one hand, you hit a hunter who is an obstacle far from you, but at the same time you can not target an opponent who is completely uncovered standing five meters away from your main rifle. The game tells you that you have no chance to hit it. Or even if you do not see the target, even if you have it on your palm. And then there are favored enemies, such as Pyro, who throws the bottles even when they are facing you back, throws them extremely far away and peacefully through the walls of the building. When you add a significant number of opponents, it is clear that you will drop as flies and fight not to restart. Naturally, this leads to frustration. And even the harassment that the creators recommend to the beginner. Even it is very unbalanced and demanding, but at least you do not suffer from a lack of medication as the characters will automatically regenerate after each fight that will survive
But you would also be able to adapt to this unequal fight and in the second half of the game you will actually do it - if you last. But in the first few hours you will irritate the imbalances of the fighting and especially the lack of opportunities to train and prepare enough. First of all, you come to sites where enemies have higher levels than you. Logic says you ought to go elsewhere, kill some skewers to make the call and gain extra experience and mutation. The problem is that everything is divided into sectors that sometimes flush, but the game will only take you to a few of them. You have a greater choice in the later stage of the game. So, at first you do not have much to go. Theoretically, you can inconspicuously drive through enemy enemies and skid into the next zone. But there are even stronger opponents waiting for you and nothing to solve. And if you want to go back to the former areas and help grind you, you are at ease. You have already cleaned those places and you do not have to kill them, the population is not being restored (which would have helped), there are no inputs to the maze, just forgotten items on the ground.
So you say you can get better gear. But there is another problem - where do you get it? The boar left by your enemies or around you is very modest. The chests that contain the armor or weapon are a rarity and you will be grateful for each of them. In addition, grenades remain at times and most of the finds are scrap and weapon parts. You can shop in one place - the so-called arche, where you return from the expedition and it's actually the last refuge and your temporary home.
The Archa is a modest mansion where you can visit its leader, but it will not help you and will not give you anything even if you assist the community on its command. And then there are three stalls. In one for the scrap, you buy your gear. So, at first you do not even buy a lot, because there is not a lot of scrap, and there are simply not enough places to get it. Later, it would be a while, but the assortment of business is only rarely completed and you already have much better pieces that you found work. So, basically, you're coming back here just because of the medicine boxes.
The second booth is a temporary workshop where you can have your weapons upgraded if you have enough weapon parts and necessary accessories. Each weapon can have a maximum of two - usually a telescope or binoculars and something to do. And you can improve your rifle or gun to the third level. By making such adjustments, you improve its effect, the chance of critical intervention, and increase the reach. In the third stand is a merchant with artifacts - these are actually technological toys that you find on the field. For the artefacts you can unlock ten global bonuses. Increases the total damage that will result higher in grenades or with the extra effect of weapons against live or robotic enemies, will strengthen the pharmacies, add points to the efficiency of each weapon, reduce prices in stores.
You will find very quickly that these options and ways of equipping are very modest and inadequate. You will not have the right equipment, you will experience the low levels of your characters and you face it - frustrating and desperate. It will actually change in the second half of the game when you find some great armor and weapons and add to your most interesting characters. Then, paradoxically, the game will start to be too simple, and you will also put down enemies who have ten more levels. And finally, you will be able to open more sites and you can choose where you will go. And it will start to be fun ... and suddenly it's over. And you have contradictory impressions and you can see that the story went exactly to the conclusion you've been waiting for, and you'll be surprised only by who can be for what you look like. And maybe it will not surprise you either.
So what can you think of all this? The game is initially very unbalanced, the battles are full of stupid mistakes that make it no longer fun. Character development is very limited, even though those capped and capricious animals look merciful and funny. You do not have anything to buy or collect. Insufficient equipment, almost no interaction with the environment and virtually no dialogue or election. Limited play options and lukewarm storyline, the game sometimes falls or you encounter some mistakes and fps fluctuations. The graphics are very nice, especially for the tactical game, but only that will not save. So what? It is to be hoped that the officially released game is at least partially better balanced than the newspaper version we received a few days before the release. But it is clear that he needs patches to make the game better. But with this lack of content and poor, circumscribed possibilities, the creators do not get much to do.
So what? Well, it's a frustration on the full line, and the second, significantly more enjoyable half of the game does not greatly improve the overall bad impression and negative feelings that have accompanied us practically all the time. Even in the more modestly represented moments when we had more fun as we suffered. If you want to go all the way, wait for a good game reconstruction and a discount. At the moment, however, Mutant does not meet the quality or content.
The other side of the coin: If you lose yourself through a very unintentional introduction, you get accustomed to unarmed struggles and you will not be impeded by poor character development and lack of equipment, after all, the fun of frustration can prevail. And that atmosphere is really great, interesting sites and enemies of imaginative (though not very brisk). If this in your eyes overcomes the above-mentioned gaps in the game, you can move the final score by two more points.
