Mutant Year Zero: Seed of Evil | PC DLC Review

October 2, 2019 Tomas Becks

Near the end of 2018, Funcom and The Bearded Ladies released Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, a tactical story-driven RPG that played like X-Com meets Fallout. It turned out to be a fantastic game that I reviewed for The Gaming Outsider. I even put it in my list of the best games of 2018. To my delight, the first DLC for the game was released this August and I happily took on the task to play and review Seed of Evil.

The Continuing Journey

Seed of Evil continues the story and adventures of your Mutants, and their fight for the preservation of the Ark. Mysterious red vines have appeared everywhere, and you are sent on a mission to find out what these are and why the Ghouls are behaving so weirdly. Could this be the work of a former Ark resident that turned evil? This DLC introduces new areas to explore, new missions to accomplish, new allies to discover, new weapons to play with, and new enemies to vanquish. It literally starts where you left your Mutants the last time you played, which for me was at the end of the game before the DLC was released. That way you can hit the ground running with the same Mutants you’re used to playing with.

Missions All Over The Place

The Seed of Evil expansion not only introduces a new story line, but also side missions. The leader of the Ark can get into contact with you to send you on a mission to one of the previously visited areas to clear it from a new threat. These can be challenging, but are mostly fun and can get you new equipment and weapons that come in handy for the new missions. The new story fits perfectly with the Road to Eden one and there is plenty to discover in the new areas.

Smooth Game Play

One of the joys I had with this game is that the different difficulties allowed me to play the game the way I wanted to. I love figuring out the best way to clear as many enemies silently before taking on the heavy hitters with the big guns. That gameplay is unchanged, so it only took me a short while to get back into the game. I finished the expansion in about 19 hours, using the same three mutants I finished the base game with, but better equipped at the end. The missions are challenging, but not too hard and I was saving my game a lot. Eventually I made it to the end, and that was one epic battle that made me feel proud of myself for finishing it.

The Seed of Evil expansion is basically more of the same Mutant Year Zero game, like a new chapter of a book. This is a great thing, because the original game was fantastic to play, and I had a lot of fun with it. I can highly recommend returning to post-apocalyptic Sweden with your favorite duck and boar if you enjoyed the base game. And if this is your first exposure to Mutant Year Zero and you love tactical RPG’s and a good story, then please check out this game and get the DLC after finishing it. You won’t regret it.

This review is based on a digital copy of the DLC provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes and is also available on Xbox One, PS4, and Switch.