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

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.