In 2018.1 there's an explicit Model Assist mode to bring back this behavior when no SGs are assigned, but I don't think it's in the latest 2017 update.
They took Mental Ray out of Maya in newer versions of Maya 2016. In 2017 they replaced it with Arnold. If you search for it there is a separate installer for Mental Ray Maya 2016.
This is the updated 2017 version of Vodyanoi with a few swamp environment assets. This is the initial chosen concept I made back in 2015. These are the thumbnails for the character also from 2015.