![]() ![]() That talked of 'zones' rather than 'The Zone'. It should be pointed out here that STALKER's use of the term 'zone' originated in the 1971 novel Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which obviously pre-dates Mutant by over a decade. The two main sources of inspiration were the RPG ' Gamma World' by TSR and the comic ' Kamandi' by DC." "The original authors, Michael Petersen and Gunilla Jonsson, were, and are, quite familiar with sci-fi literature of the time. places where radiation or disease is still active, has been in Mutant since its introduction in 1984," explains writer and Bearded Ladies' resident Mutant expert Jimmy Wilhelmsson. "The term 'zone' as in 'forbidden zones', i.e. 'Mutant' was an 80s RPG, made and most popular in Sweden, and reborn a few years back as 'Mutant Year Zero.' It's the latter which most informs this month's videogame, but one of the contentious terms dates back to the former. "We have seen a few people accuse us of just being a copy of Stalker," game director Lee Varley tells me, "but the original Pen and Paper was written back in 1984 where this type of post apocalyptic fiction was very popular." In terms of its theme (mutants battling through a post-disaster world) developers The Bearded Ladies shrug off the legendary noughties survival-shooter series as an overt influence. ![]() (And then I spent far too long researching the Swedish release dates of cult 1970s sci-fi). How what why? I asked Mutant Year Zero's developers to explain this anomaly. games/seen Tarkovsky's Stalker/read Roadside Picnic. Used repeatedly throughout the game are two beyond-familiar terms: 'zone' and 'Stalker.' Names scorched into the very soul of anyone who's played the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I had a fine time with Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden's post-apocalyptic, ducking good blend of real-time stealth and turn-based combat, but one concern dogged me throughout. ![]()
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