The latest free games on the Epic Games Store are now available with The Bearded Ladies’ Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden and Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter. Whether you’re interested in tactical stealth strategy or retro-style Zelda-like action, they’re worth checking out. Both titles will be available until August 22nd at no cost.

Next week will see Fez from Polytron Corporation offered for free. The classic platformer first released in 2012 for the Xbox 360 and was a major influence for future platformers like Monument Valley. Fez 2 was in development until controversy erupted and creator Phil Fish cancelled it in 2013.

Fish would subsequently leave the industry, with little hope for the sequel ever being made. Regardless, you can still enjoy the original classic. Fez will be available free from August 22nd to 29th on the Epic Games Store. Stay tuned for more details on other free titles in the meantime.

Though the Epic Games Store is only offering one free game this week – the 3D puzzle game GNOG – it has two enticing titles for next week. The first is Heart Machine’s Hyper Light Drifter, an action adventure Zelda-like title with a 16-bit art-style. The other is The Bearded Ladies’ Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, a tactical turn-based role-playing game.

Both games will be free from August 15th to 22nd. You need an Epic Games account to claim them and the Epic Games Launcher to access them. Hyper Light Drifter is critically acclaimed and worth playing, especially with the developer’s follow-up title Solar Ash Kingdom releasing exclusively for the Epic Games Store.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden recently received a paid expansion with Seed of Evil. Only the base game will be free on the Epic Games Store, but you also get a free mode with Stalker Trials, offering tougher challenges in remixed maps. There’s a free demo currently live on Steam, in case you want to try it out right now.

The hit strategy RPG, Mutant Year Zero, is getting its big expansion next month in the form of Seed of Evil. The expansion promises to bring a lot of new material, including an entirely new storyline complete with new, deadly enemies. There’s also a fresh character in the form of Big Khan and, oh buddy, this is a moose of a man (literally) who is not playing around.

Big Khan was briefly shown in the announcement trailer for Seed of Evil, but this trailer focuses exclusively on the character and includes some pretty weird live action segments that are…well, weird. Big Khan is a stalker who has been going exploring the deadly Zone solo. He finds himself wrapped up in the new conflict despite some reservations. His big attacks are Flame Puke and Ground Pound that hit multiple enemies at a time. You can check it out below.

Mutant Year Zero: Path to Eden is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The Seed of Evil expansion will release for all platforms on July 30th. It will coincide with a Deluxe Edition release that will see the base game and expansion in one package, and that version will also launch on the 30th, and bring the game to the Nintendo Switch.

The Bearded Ladies have announced a delay for the Deluxe Edition and Switch release of Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the game’s first expansion, Seed of Evil, has been announced and will be launching with the new release date for the Switch/physical version. Check out the reveal trailer below.

Seed of Evil will take place after the main story and features new maps like the Hall of Electric Coffins and Mausoleum of Suburbia, new enemies, ways to improve mutations, new gear, and a tough new adversary from the Zone. You also get a new playable mutant in Big Khan, a moose who can use his strength to score critical hits against foes. He’s also equipped with Ground Pound and Flame Puke for taking out crowds.

You’ll still be facing Zone Ghouls and Polis Bots, but they’ll be tougher than before. Still, it provides a good incentive to revisit Spear of Haven or the Sea Titans. Mutant Year Zero: Seed of Evil is out on July 30th, which is the new date for the Deluxe Edition and Switch version. Stay tuned for more details on the same in the coming weeks.

Say what you will about Electronic Arts, but EA/Origin Access continue to be a solid deal. To further sweeten the pot for Origin Access Premier subscribers, EA has been adding more recent big-time releases to its Vault. This week, we get Haemimont Games’ Tropico 6 and The Bearded Ladies’ Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.

Tropico 6 sees El Presidente returning to prominence ane managing a slew of islands across different eras. Election speeches are back, the Caribbean music is as swanky as ever, and the freedom to rule your way is fairly strong. Check out GamingBolt’s review here.

Meanwhile, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden presents real-time isometric exploration, but turn-based tactical battles. Commanding a squad of three, it’s possible to ambush your enemies or sneak by them undetected. Along with a free challenge mode, the title also has a free demo available on Steam.

If neither of those suits your taste, then there are four other titles which are also available to Origin Access Basic subscribers. These are Into The Breach, FTL: Faster Than Light, Shift Quantum, and Detention. Check out the Origin Access updates page for more information.

The Bearded Ladies’ Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden was an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic, tactical strategy genre when it first released. How else would you describe an XCOM-style game with exploration and an anthropomorphic duck? If you haven’t tried it and want to know what the fuss is about, then the developer has recently released a free demo on Steam.

Requiring a 3 GB download, the demo includes “all the content from the beginning of the game” leading up to the Ark, as per Funcom. To check out the demo, simply click on the tab on the right-hand side of the Steam page. It’s unknown whether the demo will also be coming to PS4 and Xbox One players.

Those who currently own the game and want a reason to replay it can check out the Stalker Trials. It’s a challenge mode of sorts where players take on existing maps with new enemy types. All characters and mutations are available from the outset, and performing special actions will earn score multipliers and bonuses. It’s worth trying for a spot on the leaderboards (and possibly making yourself into an in-game NPC).

Funcom’s Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden has received some interesting new content on PC with Stalker Trials. If you own the turn-based tactical strategy game on Steam, then simply patch it to receive the free content. The developer has also announced the removal of DRM, along with other fixes.

As for Stalker Trials, it’s essentially a challenge mode of sorts. The existing maps have received new enemy types and challenges to complete. While your skills will be tested, every character, mutation, and skill is available. Head over to the Zone and meet Pripp the bartender whenever possible – he’ll provide updates on your performance.

Perform specific actions and Pripp will bestow bonuses and multipliers. Leaderboards are also enabled, so you can measure your success against other players. Those who top the weekly and all-time leaderboards will get a special NPC with their name that others can hunt down. Check out the full patch notes for the update below:

Patch Notes:

STALKER TRIALS ARE NOW AVAILABLE

• A series of challenging map remixes with leaderboards
• Compete worldwide to see who is officially the best stalker.
• Added dialogue for chest opening.
• Additional options
• Mouse sensitivity slider
• Subtitle size slider
• Motion blur slider

Major Changes/Fixes

• Crash fix when returning to the dirty old man after finding his stashes.
• Fixed all reported instances of crew getting stuck in levels.
• Crash fix for rare chain lightning issue.
• Improved mouse focus for multi-screen setups.

Medium Changes/Fixes

• Fixed issue that made it impossible to throw grenades from the inside to the outside of train carts
• Fixed issue where killing with a mind-controlled unit could cause the next unit to loose its turn
• Melee attacks with possessed units now always cause the same damage as they would have being on the other team.
• Fixed issue that allowed Tank Ghouls to charge cloaked units
• Fixed issue where player would lose an action point when being caught sneaking
• Fixed issue with molotovs thrown onto train roofs
• Fixed issue that would cause Zone Dogs to be stuck in midair when knocked off certain buildings.
• Fixed reported instances of enemies shooting through walls

Minor Changes/Fixes

• Skull countdown icons removed from character portraits. Didn’t really work well and added clutter.
• 25% Penalty removed from kneeshot
• Melee health bars are now working correctly
• Achievement fixes
• DRM is disabled
• Many other small fixes and tweaks

The Bearded Ladies and Funcom have announced that they will be hosting special hands-on demos for the admittedly funky looking Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden. Demo sessions will unfortunately be taking place behind closed doors only.

Still, it does offer publications a closer look at the upcoming tactical turn-based strategy title which combines the tactics of XCOM with stealth and exploration. Taking place in a post-nuclear fallout future, humans are effectively extinct and the Mutants reign supreme. Exploring the Zone and finding the legendary Eden is your best chance at survival.

Along with stealth, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden boasts a dynamic environment with destructible buildings and plenty of loot to discover. Your team will feature a number of different mutants with Dux, Bormin and Selma starting off and other unique characters joining along the way. The game currently doesn’t have a release date but it’s slated to arrive this year on PC, Xbox One and PS4.