Goodbye and thanks for all the rotten fish!!

[Subsonar7191]

So, I finally reached the end (?) of this game and I have to say that it was right in keeping with every single miserable moment spent trying to get my money's worth. Sorry, spoiler warning, or not, not sure if anybody out there is as bull-headed as I am with a very poorly balanced and designed game. But I digress...

Everything leading up to this final confrontation has been demoralizing and, frankly, not very fun. The main character is an immature, whiny, loser who is supposed to be the ultimate warrior? He's what people have been waiting for the last 150 years? Like expecting to get a Porsche for your birthday and you get a 3rd hand clunker instead. But even that is being generous, at least the clunker will try and do what's expected.

Not that the other characters all all that much better, but they're expendable, so in the long run, it really doesn't matter what they say or do. But this game reminds me of the series "Song of Fire and Ice", by George Martin, the books that the show "Game of Thrones" was based on. Halfway through the first four books I put them down because they were simply too depressing. Nothing but backstabbing and treason. That's what this game felt like. You have a mission to save a friend, but get there in time to fish her bones out of the soup pot. You have a mission to find your "Mama", only to find out that she wasn't related to you at all and as a mother, well, I've seen better rocks. You have a mission to break the grip of the "First Family" on what's left of the planet, only to see your whiny, self-absorbed hero throw a tantrum and join the other side. Yay team!!

But, unlike me, the side characters decide that the best course of action is to join together and go "rescue" the ungrateful little snot. And that leads to the final (I truly hope it's the final) confrontation. Your three, poor misguided fools, against the Evil Mastermind, the brat and two "Elite" Wardens. Well, at least that's what you think. Because the Evil Mastermind gets to summon in robots every freaking turn!! Yay! If everybody manages to hit something you just might kill off one of these robots each turn. Let's see...3+2-1=4. I really hate math early in the day. So okay, 4 vs 3. Oops, forgot the 2 newcomers...now it's 6 vs 3. Kill one, gain two....7 vs 3. Kill one, gain 2... 8 vs 3.

And all of that is assuming that you are not losing anyone on your side. Which of course just doesn't happen. Unlike Star Wars movies, these robots have uncanny accuracy at every possible range. Literally....got one-shotted by a Trooper at least 15 squares away! But I missed a 93% chance to hit prior to being shown the proper way to aim a gun.

Five or six replays later and I was willing to give the Evil Mastermind his victory. Frankly, the destination wasn't worth the journey. About the best part of this game was removing it from my computer. Oh, and frankly, the community in general has been ultra-supportive and helpful. That alone is where I felt my $50 was spent wisely.

Good luck to all of you who continue with this game. I never played Mutant Year Zero so I didn't know what to expect with this one. But I can definitely say I will not be purchasing or playing anything else by this particular company.

[ELDEN LORD]

thats crazy, i hight enjoy the encounters and its very rewarding. but im the type of person that will spend at least 20 minutes strategizing before i even fire my first shot, i think to many peopel try to play it like xcom since u know, every turn based game in existance is xcom. lmao. at least u palyed thru it regardless, i myself am goign to revisit myz as i get how these games are ment to be played now, i didnt like myz cuz i had no idea what i was doign and trying to fight enemies way above me

[Martin]

Yep. I feel your pain. Even on narrative is was annoying getting clobbered by a mere soldier on other side of the room. Which is why I saved up on powerups, acid, stuns etc and used them as best I could. But the ai just bypasses you alot.. it isn't really difficulty that gets me down, it's the blase way they do it, sure games are all basically chess ai's but it can be more dynamic. That said I had a sniper that could hit stuff 26 tiles away.. I had to manually nerf it with a crit scope, to shoot at anything in the game because I was always too close to the target.. those collectors should be issued with standard issue gear.. not the family heirlooms.

[wei270]

yeah i don't know why every main character have to be emo immature human being that can't take on responsibility. if you start with a mature character then you can get him to do great things and take a step future, but if you start with a emo kid you have to first him him grow up and that is already the entire game.

[gunnergoz]

Personally I've had more than enough stereotypical Hollywood Heroes populate the thousands of games, films, TV series and novels I've been exposed to over the years. Elvis is a refreshing change: a flawed semi-juvenile character seemingly ill-suited for the roles that a cruel destiny has laid out for him. Getting this hapless kid to where he needs to go in the game is indeed a challenge and this game's design team made the most of it.

[KasparL]

You just have to kill a certain number of collectors first part of the fight.
It isnt that difficult if you make use of different cc and status effects. At this point of the game you should have alot of consumables and skills at your disposal. EMP, barrels and shrinks are best for the situation imo. Since the map is so small shotguns are extremely powerful here too.

After enduring the first part the second part is basically a cakewalk with Elvis back to the team. You can just one shot everything with his crazy powers.

Also, are you playing on lite tactical?

[KasparL]

Yea i think Elvis is a really annoying kid but at least we see him starting to grow up at the end of the game. Besides, I would argue Jade and Mama are quite well written despite having their own agenda all along.

[zpc]

Just kill the 10 enemies like the quest is stating it - then Elvis is back and quickly finish the encounter. Pro tip: use the force powers he has - they evolved "quite a bit". E.g. one-shotting a squad of 6 collectors and stuff like that ;)

But yeah - like most "betrayer scenarios" in literature / movies / games this felt artificial. I'd wish we can evolve beyond that point where this stylistic device is spammed in every and all [game] stories. As most of the time it is very poorly executed.

[Runforyerlives]

I didn't like Elvis either. He started to be more annoying as the game went on. None of the characters were memorable either, except maybe Diggs. He was growing on me by the end of it. The best part of that last encounter was that i could blast Elvis with the Dragon shoutgun. I guess there isn't any more crying about mama for him. The power of friendship didn't work well for him in my playthrough. I never expected that the devs let us kill him outright.

[Fideo]

Originally posted by Subsonar7191:

Everything leading up to this final confrontation has been demoralizing and, frankly, not very fun. The main character is an immature, whiny, loser who is supposed to be the ultimate warrior? He's what people have been waiting for the last 150 years? Like expecting to get a Porsche for your birthday and you get a 3rd hand clunker instead. But even that is being generous, at least the clunker will try and do what's expected.

I think the problem is in the expectations you had for the main character. There's a part in the game, which I think you've skipped, where Jade dedicates a song to Elvis and clearly tells him what it is, since you've finished the game you don't need a spoiler alert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NfF_Yc-cUU

Originally posted by Subsonar7191:

Good luck to all of you who continue with this game. I never played Mutant Year Zero so I didn't know what to expect with this one. But I can definitely say I will not be purchasing or playing anything else by this particular company.

I imagine that the greed for easy money is what led this company to take its current direction.
Given your experience, it doesn't surprise me at all that you say this, but Mutant Year Zero is possibly one of the best turn-based strategy games out there, consider giving it a try when it's on sale.