Generation Zero

[BinnZ]

I did it again. I bought a game. It has only just been released (March 27th) and is reported to be quite buggy. Typical fake beta release, I'd say. However, it's not the typical AAA game trick this time. The game is developed by Avalanche Studios (Swedish) which is known for developing games like Just Cause, Hunter; call of the wild and Rage. Those are all titles they developed in cooperation with AAA publishers, this game however they developed with a somewhat small budget, completely on their own account.
That sounds promising to me. I read a bunch of reviews, and basically all people have more or less the same things to mention; buggy, somewhat empty and repetitive world and gameplay, and a tad too few of most. But they all mention a brilliant, large game world and fantastic weather effects. Amazing graphics and super cool Robot movements. And each quest (they take you by the hand to explore the game world) gives you complete freedom on how you want to fulfil it. It seems sometimes a bit difficult to find the quest location, since they don't give you a dot on your map; they give you clues.
Something else that made me interested is the fact that there's all sorts of distraction options to fool your robot opponents, such as fireworks, a radio, a flare etc.

I've seen positive reviews mainly by the somewhat older gamers, and negative ones by the Fortnite generation. That made me interested. I hope I don't suffer too much from the bugs, (they will probably be fixed soon) and I hope the world exploration and freedom is what I hope it is...
And it is up to 4 player coop!
Will keep you guys posted. Here's a trailer:

[Art Blade]

good luck and have fun 

[Art Blade]

I was looking for some vids that are not already reviewing the game but a simple actual recording of some random stuff. After some consideration I decided to start with this one down below, two guys who are just playing co-op. It reminds me a lot of DayZ. Survival stuff, needing to bandage wounds.. running around in a post-apocalyptic world.. not my cup of tea. The vid seems to be nice, I watched a couple of minutes, they say the game runs surprisingly smoothly.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I saw some vids on this and was mildly intrigued. Co-op might be pretty fun.

Oh yeah and in the video, they are talking about the car's trunk, which in the UK is called the boot. On old cars in the USA, there was an actual steamer trunk strapped to the back instead of an interior space with a lid, so that's why it's called a trunk in the US. Not sure why the Brits call it a boot.

[Art Blade]

here you go The whole article is interesting but at the end of it, it's very interesting.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-boo5.htm

[BinnZ]

Well, only 2 hours or so into the game and I must say; I like it!

First some negative things:
You can't save whenever you want. You will only save the game in certain 'save houses' by reaching them. The game doesn't really tell you that the game is saves, but searching the net I found out they ought to w0#k... so much for saving at will
I have only stumbled upon one bug; a loot box that couldn't get looted. It was somehow out of reach, below a bed in a sleeping room.
When you pick up multiple loot items, the game will slowly list them one by one in the middle of the screen. However, that takes a little long. You don't want to be prompted that you picked up 8x .32 rounds 10 seconds after you actually did.

Then the good things:
The environment is really awesome. The music adds to the ambiance. As does the day and night cycle, and of course the weather. It really looks great.
The amount of weapons you find, and ammo, really reminds me of DayZ. You can find worn weapons and weapons in bad condition, but as it seems you may also find pristine ones. Same goes for the scopes and other attachments. They aren't really everywhere. Following clues on where possible survivors may be you come across various loot areas where you may find guns too. Until now, I found a shotgun in bad condition, a worn hunting rifle with a worn scope and a suppressor in bad condition.
You have a certain amount of space in your backpack, so you have to choose what you want to keep. There's all sorts of distraction items, like flares, fire crackers and ghetto blasters or simple radios. And you have explosive canisters and batteries that can give a nice punch. You could imagine luring foes to a certain place where you hid one of these canisters, wait for the foes to arrive and shoot it... and Bob's your Uncle.
The AI is challenging. So far I've only come across two types; robot dogs that scan areas, patrol them or are guarding certain places. After you abandon a place and come back later, don't be surprised to find a pack of them again, keeping you busy if you don't watch out. They do realistic searching if they become aware of your presence. And if they go into combat, they can either shoot at you from a standing position, changing location every now and then, or try to move around you and attack from the side or the back. They can also charge into you, dealing a nasty amount of damage. If you have to fight 3 or more, it's definitely not easy. However, learning to use those distractions and such, can give you a nice advantage.
I am pretty sure it matters where you hit them. They gave some sort of battery on their backs, that produces a bang when you shoot it. Doing more damage than a limb shot or a body shot. And they have tiny heads, which glow a bit because of their scanning devices. I believe if you hit those, you get an instant kill. Not easy though, since they do move rather quick if not shooting.
The other type is a little spider that will charge onto you at sight. They are killed with one shot to the body, but they deal a good chunk of harm if they run into you.

The missions are indeed pure freedom. You get a hint, like: The people here left a note they went to a nearby farm to search for a better shelter. There's an arrow pointing west. So go search for the farm in that direction. The map indicates buildings so it's not too difficult finding the next area of interest. And you can approach how you like. The environment provides walls, fences, cover from trees, shadows, and all in a very natural way.
There's a nice skill tree, with 4 main branches. Ranking up by doing combat and such gives you skill points that will allow purchasing skills.

I have a feeling that this game is some sort of hobby project started by some of the devs of Avalanche. They just started designing cool AI and others made a wonderful Swedish environment. They must have gotten green light to put their fun projects into a game, which resulted in this. It is true, the game may feel a bit empty at times. You could wish for a lot of stuff to be added; being able to swim or use boats, better saving mechanics, and god knows what more. But for now, I really like it. It runs super smooth and the gameplay already feels natural after 2 hours of gameplay. Simple controls and a good inventory / menu and an excellent map.

I really think more of you might enjoy this game. It's simple, a bit like FC2, in a wonderful natural environment. Challenging AI that looks and moves natural. And you can play at your own speed. Playing coop might allow for different approaches when raiding bigger areas with multiple enemies. Especially when you proceed farther into the game and get more challenging enemies. From what I've read those 'dogs' also evolve throughout the game. Now they have to stand still to shoot, but I was told that later on they can shoot while running, in multiple directions.
The fact that you can set traps and distract enemies makes it a game that honours creativity. And playing a 80's youngster coming back from a weekend trip, doesn't exactly sound like bad guy. You're a good guy here. Trying to figure out where everyone went. And where the damn robots come from. I'm up for more 

Oh and I forgot; the weapons do feel good. They do proper w0#k. No hit percentages and bullets flying away from your aiming point randomly. A shot is a shot. And it hits if you aim right. I like that.

[BinnZ]

I took a quick view at the video you posted; it's very accurate. That's what it is. However, it's just the start. I've proceeded only a little farther in the game, and it's getting more interesting overtime I guess. I do have a feeling though, that the movement in the game is actually slower than what these guys show. They sprint a lot faster than I can do. Maybe they changed some things after beta testing.

Something I forgot to mention; you have these bandages, there's at least two types of them. Restore health when applied, and as you can see it's easy to use. Just have them in your inventory and press left mouse button. You heal instantly. You also got adrenaline shots. They are used to revive. Either team mates or yourself. You don't need to equip them; they will automatically get prompted as soon as you're unconscious.
Then there's this inventory thing I don't get. I've picked up loads of clothing items, but I can't find them in my inventory. Some promise to give you more protection or better stability etc. So I wanted to 'equip' them, but they're just not listed. I haven't found any other inventory places, so maybe you just auto equip? No clue...

Anyway, what the guy says at the start of his video is true; you get what is promised. The game is a tad raw, maybe. Simple explore, search and fight. But the mechanics are amazing. And so is the game world. I haven't been so enthusiastic about a game since I started playing GTA V. And that is nearly 4 years ago

It reminds me of DayZ, of FC2 and also a bit of Dear Esther. But it seems it took the good parts of these games and combined it into something that really works! They don't overdo the looting and survival, and neither do they overdo outposts and such. The game looks as good as Dear Esther, but it feels a lot better. Better movement and much more to do. If only they allowed you to swim... and fix the save options. I would't mind a quick save option. If only it was 2 or 3 slots, would be wonderful

[Art Blade]

The vid was "Published on Mar 28, 2019" which is one day after the release date, so it's not beta testing. It was one of the reasons why I chose it.

Anyway, good to know that you're enjoying the game

[Dweller_Benthos]

Maybe I'll look this one up, might be fun to join you Binn. Is it on Steam?

[BinnZ]

Yep, it's on Steam. In Europe it costs €35,- so not really expensive. Would be cool if you join, I think coop would be great fun

[Dweller_Benthos]

Got the game and played about an hour. It does look nice and runs fast, I was getting well over 100FPS most of the time. Made a short video of the combat mostly just to test out OpenShot and get used to using it.



The first bit is my first encounter with a robot. I should have shown me placing a fuel can on the police car, but its there on the hood, and when the robot gets close, I shoot it for a nice explosive kill. Next bit is just shooting another one, pretty basic stuff, and I cut out the next 6 or so kills. Then I get to the church safe house, and loot it, and find the shotgun upstairs, at which time I encounter the inventory system. I'm not too fond of "Tetris style" inventory schemes where different items take up different "blocks" of space in your inventory, and even if you have the space free to pick something up, if they aren't in the correct configuration, you can't pick it up. So I figure out how to drop some stuff, pick up the shotgun and continue from there. Have a little trouble hopping up on the window frame because I didn't want to fall out of the window, heh, so that was a bit tricky.

After that, I run through the character customization screen so Binn can know how to put on those pants he found  But you'll see that my sneakers give some bullet protection, must be nice sneakers, and I have a couple shirts that make me move more quietly so I put one of those on. There's apparently no limit to how much clothing you can carry, so that's a good thing and you can swap on the fly so if it looks like you'll need more speed or stealth then you can equip the items that will give you the boosts you need.

One thing I did notice was that in the perks screen, they are kind of listed strangely, like the one that I would think makes you reload your weapon faster, is described as "Increases reload time" or something like that. I think the description is wrong and it decreases reload time, otherwise, why would you want that? Might be a translation error or something.

[BinnZ]

Cool that you joined D_B! 😃
I was in the first little village out there and was busy looting it, as well as finding clues to the local quest. More about that later, I have to go to w0#k first 😜

[Art Blade]

nice shotgun sniping

Yellow gloves to be better visible when waving at enemies? Why bother looking for them if you can make them spot you

So indeed, looks very much like DayZ, only with walking toasters. That's one of those games I wouldn't be able to see enemies unless they're bumping into me and apparently even the inventory screen with it's DayZ tetris layout doesn't pause the game.. I'd be dead more often than I wanted.

Compared to DayZ it's nice that they allow for co-op. However, do you think other players would kill you like in DayZ? Or is it strictly co-op only?

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah the yellow gloves may not make the best camouflage, but they are stylish! Once I get more clothes that have perks on them I'll switch out.

I'm not crazy about the inventory either, but once I get used to it will probably be able to tolerate it. I may have to change some key bindings so I don't have to go hunting across the keyboard all the time though.

From what I can see in the multiplayer menu, there's either open game, as in anyone can join you, or invite only. I have mine on invite only. It also seems there's only four person co-op, not huge open servers like DayZ where many people are in the game at the same time. It's essentially a single player game with available co-op of four people only. I don't know if there's friendly fire or not, I would think so, at least for things like explosions.

[Art Blade]

if they allow you to limit it to friends, that's cool