I only got to see one level so far, but it was immediately refreshing to see XCOM-style combat unfold on a carefully planned out camp scene. The idea of that team now making detailed tactics battlegrounds for me to fight in is extraordinarily exciting. Mutant is a very different kind of game, but the fantastic structure of Hitman’s murder sandboxes are part of what makes that game so great. Laid out, no less, by some of the same folk that designed Hitman’s fantastic sandbox playgrounds.
There are certain RPG elements like item drops that can change up, but you are otherwise navigating designed spaces that have been carefully laid out for you. Similarly, probably one of the most significant differences given the team behind it is that all of Mutant’s levels are hand-crafted. It’s a big change, and one that emphasizes Mutant’s focus on this being more of a story-driven game than the randomness and replayability XCOM is built to provide. Each character can be upgraded and customized through individual mutation skill-trees, and death doesn’t take them out of the game permanently. Instead they are unique, set characters that you choose from a pool of around a half dozen - and Mutant’s description as a “post-human” world sets it in colorful reality where giant animals are average fair. An important twist beyond the already mentioned real-time exploration is that your units aren’t randomly generated.
It does a great job of taking that formula and mutating it into something new. I know I’m making the comparison a lot but, to be clear, Mutant doesn’t feel like an XCOM clone. It’s just not something I’ve seen done with XCOM-like combat before. But the way Mutant seamlessly switches between turn-based and real time before and after fights was exciting every time I saw it happen. There are special abilities to use, different weapons or items to try, a bunch of different and deadly enemies to fight, and, of course, a whole lot of hit percentage chances waiting to break your heart. Just as you’d expect, it’s grid-based with every unit getting to move and shoot once per turn. Once you do, Mutant goes from real-time to full-on XCOM-style turn-based combat.
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