Generation Zero®

I don't even remember when or why I bought this game (prob on Humble), but the moment I launched it it became the Main Game I play. For me it is a great game to unwind and rest, and take a break from other shooters I play. The game is very intuitive, the moment you start you feel like a fish in the water. Of course there are some nuances, but overall you feel the love and craftsmanship of devs which made it. Despite the fact that the game lack real story, AI is clanky and the HUGE world seems sometimes empty - which is fine, climatical. But there's huge lack of content too. The Game takes place in 80's Sweden, you just crashed a boat and start looking for items, life and story.. At first it seems there would be some sneaky moments, but mid-game it starts full Quake III Arena vs mechs mode. You wander HUGE world to discover there's almost no life apart from Clankers, dead bodies and few (below 10) NPC's which give you quests. The locations are clastered with the same buildings, and there's not much of them. See that blue house? you will se exact 50 if not 100 in game. ++ The world you immerse is very climatic and feels real, despite being empty of people. The weather changes from snow to bright sun, landscapes are beautifull and breath taking, ++ Game mechanism is fanstastic, apart from running / cycling (DON'T!). Shooting and fighting mechs is perfectly executed, despite some moments when AI stuck or block from moving. This is the most solid part of the game, ~ Story is meh or "Division" type, you just run and find some automatic secretary phone recordings, plans, newspapers, letters ect. The NPC's are blunt and not interactable, the story is not mesmerizing, sometimes even boring. If you seek a game with great story and characters steer away from this game. ~ Crafting is not intuitive. You have to create items, gain points, then to spend it on new recipes. Also there's no tutorial to guide you at start, so sometimes you might feel lost. There is some to grinding; Phosporus (Your bases with drill) for better defences, or Alco Destiller for Meds and furnace to smelt some ores for even better defences, Rivals or Reapers for the weps. ~ DLC's - there are some interesting story extenders, some cool items (RPG-7, second bazooka), new locations. But nothing that fancy. - the game sometimes seems unfinished, crude and not complete. Some locations, "safehouses" (which, btw are NOT safe) and buildings are pure copy and paste. There are some bugs like huge fps drops, crashes and freezes, but nothing serious. - mid-late (50-80 hrs) game might become recurrent and a little boring. The game is great to play with friends, but managable solo. When you die you'll just spawn at nearest safehouse, no negative penalty added, which is.. probably not finished and skipped (?). Interesting fact - you can have more than 1 world and more than 1 character, and the storehouse is actually shared between characters. So in short.. If you like simple fast-paced shooters or games like Terminator: Resistance where you fight robots and here you won't mind (almost) no story, you're gonna love it. If you like more story-driven games you might not like it at all. Personally, I have never encounter a game like this, which devours your mind, time and dreams.. at the beginning. Unfortunately after 100ish hours there's not much to do besides achiewements. And that's sad, missed potential.

This game can be quite fun, however some parts can be very grindy, mainly when going for the rarer weapons as there is no quick and easy way to level up/spawn rivals, so you end up clearing like half the map only to get a weapon you already had like four of. The preformance can be a bit strange, it will run just fine most of the time, however there are certain areas that bring my fps to like 25ish. The overall sound effects are amazing the only thing I wish for is the SFX to be a bit quieter than they are currently. The models for the machines are great, super high quality, you could really see the effort the devs put in. The lighting is also fantastic, most outside areas look stunning, however the flashlight can look rather odd at times with a sharp cut-off for the beam being very visible on some weapons. The biggest problem the game has is bugs, while most of them have been fixed many have stayed and will stay, most likely forever.

It's a good game that could've been a great game. Don't get me wrong, there's still some fun to be had running around scrapping bots, but there's not enough depth and variety to keep most people interested beyond a few hours, which is a shame really because there are so many elements that had the potential to be amazing, but they tend to come off half-baked. WHERE THE GAME EXCELS: - Visuals It holds up rather well for a 7-year-old game and, for the most part, it runs quite well. At times you'll find yourself pausing to admire the beauty of the Swedish countryside or closely examining some impressive small detail. - Sound design The sound designers did a fantastic job here! The machines sound incredible (especially the big ones), the weapons have plenty of boom and you’ll be ducking for cover over and over again at the sound of incoming mortar fire. Can’t fault the game here – except for the dialogue, which I'll discuss later… - Machine design Most of the machines look, move and sound awesome, particularly the OG Swedish designs! They’re imposing and exude danger. - Arsenal There are many excellent weapons and tools at your disposal. They generally feel satisfying to use and scratch that shooter itch. - Environment Storytelling There’s not a lot of NPC engagement here (thankfully), but the world that’s on offer tells a decent story, if not a bit of a repetitive one. - Gameplay Loop Personally, I enjoy running about and agro’ing the largest group of machines I can. IMHO the game is best played as a bit of an arcade shooter. You just need to keep your ammo and health supplies topped up and keep on moving. Knowing when to sprint and when to conserver stamina will make a huge difference when engaging large groups. Also knowing which machines to eliminate or surgically ‘neuter’ (remove weapons) will help control the fight immensely. WHERE THE GAME SUFFERS: - Story It's OK at best. Nothing we haven't seen before. The characters we meet are rather bland and add little flavour to the story. I’m English speaking, but I was forced to set the vocals to Swedish instead just to mask their awful dialogue. - Progression There's nothing that spoils your sense of progression more than randomly acquiring a top tier weapon within the first hour that renders all other weapons redundant. Sadly, this happens far too frequently and there's often no rhyme or reason to it. Some weapons almost never appear, whereas others (often OP DLC ones) show up all the time. I've literally had to store high tier weapons for later (or simply discard them) so that I can enjoy a smooth progression. - Exploration Many locations are basically cut-and-paste copies of other locations and the resources found in them are no different from anywhere else. This can dampen the desire to explore, since no location distinguishes itself apart from others, either by appearance or utility. For the longest time the devs teased secret locations all over the map that got the game's community all stirred up. By the time the game was finished, however, almost all of these locations were left undeveloped and the few that were developed are - how shall I put it - LACKLUSTRE. Truly a shame. - Skills They're alright. They certainly help, but the skill tree itself isn't terribly exciting. - Economy and Crafting The game leans towards being overly grindy and not especially rewarding. It offers some variety and novelty, but you'll probably end up favouring a handful of ammo types, tools and weapon augmentations, and simply forgetting the rest. The latest ‘Showdown’ update flipped the late-game economy on its head, and not in a good way. All the precious rare minerals became mid-tier and the top-tier elements became EXCESSIVELY and annoying grindy. Maybe it won’t be so bad if you’re starting a new game, but I doubt it. - Survival Elements Is it a survival shooter? Barely. If you’re downed often enough, you’ll be forced to spawn somewhere less convenient. You could rummage around towns for resources, or simply invest a few skill points into skills that increase loot from downed machines, which drastically reduces the need to farm and craft. In the end you'll probably invest more time unlocking new apparel tiers and gadgets than you'll spend actually using them. - Arsenal Some weapons and tools are just there to be there. They don't offer much of an alternative, either by lacking power or not providing any genuine utility, so you'll likely ditch them early or run them for a bit for an extra challenge. Sniping is so inconsistent that you’ll probably end up favouring close range. Anti-tank weapons don't offer the bang you'd expect (they're more useful as AOE chaff clearers). Traps, in all their variety, are decent early game, but are more trouble than they’re worth mid-late game. The game’s stealth mechanic is underdeveloped and hardly rewarding. - Gameplay Loop Once you’ve learned how to effectively eliminate most machines the game becomes a lot easier. Since OP weapons drop frequently, it makes most small-medium battles into rather tedious affairs. - Performance The game started off performing very well, especially considering how well it looked and sounded, and how intense the fights were. Alas, by the time the dev's were done, the performance was patchy at best. - Bugs There's too many to mention. It was always a case of "2 steps forward, 3 steps back" when it came to patches. Multiplayer is fraught with issues. Many bugs have existed since the game's launch and some have the potential to straight-up delete your savefiles. Word to the wise: MANUALLY BACKUP FREQUENTLY. - Limited Mods From what I’ve heard, the engine seems difficult to mod. This has limited the range and scope of the game’s modding community to basically just a handful of visual filters and item spawners. Props to those guys' dedication to the game, though! CONCLUSION To come full circle, the game is good - it just could’ve been a lot better! I've spent a good 1.6k hours on it and bought all the content available (at discount!), so I can say with confidence that it's been a reasonably fun run - just not enough fun to get the boys on board for the long haul. Due to its numerous issues, I'd pass on investing in its multiplayer anyway, as it plays more consistently as a single player game. If they’d spent more time refining the game instead of focussing on gimmicky paid DLCs and such, we could’ve had a real banger. If you're genuinely considering buying it, I recommend that you watch some gameplay and reviews beforehand, and then snap it up at a hefty discount.

Forget the negative reviews Yes there are a couple of bugs here and there but..... The gameplay is exactly what you see in the advertising videos Its a lot of fun solo or with friends Really pretty too Give it a go when it's on sale and you won't be disappointed.

I'm on a holy quest to leave a negative review for every game that doesn't allow me to bind keys the way I want. Hardcoded keys shouldn't exist in 2026. As a left-handed player, I have to take my hand off the mouse and press E or R every single time I want to loot anything. There's no way around it. I can't double-click the items, I can't manually click the "Take All" button, I have to take my hand off the mouse and press a key on the opposite side of the keyboard. It may not sound like a big deal if you're right-handed. So just imagine having to press a Numpad key every time you wanted to loot something, throughout the entire game. This is unacceptable to me. I'm not asking for anything crazy. The number of games that simply don't bother accommodating left-handed players is disgusting. Hence my holy quest.

This game feels like it was close to being something special, but there's so many bugs and issues that are super frustrating to deal with. Its easy to get stuck in the environment. Hit boxes are all over the place. You'll get random notifications telling you that you just earned zero skill points. Stamina is not balanced at all, you can run for about 100 feet and you'll be drained. Bunkers sound like you're swimming in the middle of a lake with waves splashing for some reason. When you log in, your ammo might not show or work correctly. Enemy AI can get wonky. The atmosphere, environment and gameplay are pretty good but it's not enough dealing with all the bugs and issues. If the Devs would have focused on fixing all the issues instead of pumping out greedy cosmetic DLCs, they might have had something great but as this stands, the game is not worth your time.

So, after finishing the main story, completing a decent chunk of the side missions, and playing around with basically every mechanic the game has to offer, I have some thoughts. To start things off, I'll talk a little about the visuals, style, SFX, music, and generally the vibe. I genuinely think if you showed a screenshot or even gameplay of this game to someone who has no clue what GZ is, they would never be able to guess that this game is 7 years old, because it just looks that good. Of course, that is partly because of the semi-realistic but also kind of cartoonish style they went for. The sound department doesn't lack in quality either, and hearing a tank stomp around during a pitch-black night is still terrifying even when you know you can take it head-on. Overall, the vibe is supreme. Now, I want to talk a little bit about the map. If you spend enough time in urban areas, you start to notice how a lot of the buildings, houses, and other structures are just copy-pasted assets. However, if you stick to the nature side of things, the map is absolutely stunning with a wide variety of terrain, weather, and vegetation. As far as the gameplay goes, the combat and skills are definitely the stand-out. Yes, you have your crafting, your looting, your resource gathering, your base building, your schematics, and whatnot else, but most of those, frankly, feel extremely tacked on. None of them really have a lot of depth and lack identity. Combat, on the other hand, is genuinely satisfying, and the skill tree complements it well. If I really have to nitpick, I really didn't like how bullet-spongy most mid-to-late-game enemies are. Your average Firebird will require between 8 and 10 rockets to take down, assuming it's a direct hit. And the same applies to almost everything larger than a Hunter. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part nonetheless. The story, though interesting in terms of the lore itself, has quite unsatisfactory execution. Most missions are just glorified fetch quests, with the only difference being that the mission ends when you pick up the required item or interact with the required thing, which barely improves the overall experience. It also doesn't help that most missions feel extremely disconnected from one another until the very end, when they all kind of connect together into a cohesive plot with a rather interesting twist, but most people probably never get that far. There are some bugs, but they are almost exclusively UI-based and not game-breaking, at least from personal experience. The game is also not all that replayable, unfortunately. I also quite despise how some content is locked behind paid DLCs. It feels extremely cash-grabby. So, should you pick it up then? Full price, I'd say no; it's simply too expensive to be worth it. But, considering it frequently goes on sale for 5€ or less, yes, absolutely. Honestly, I would gladly pay that much just for the gun handling alone, as whoever was in charge of the weapon handling, sounds, animations, and feel did a spectacular job.

this game is simply amazing in everyway, there's no killing humans in anyway! i am grateful that this game was made sure it has its glitches and bugs but all games do lol, the A.I. on the bots in this game is amazing the bot actually tracks you if they see you then you break the line of site and get away, i had this bot track me about a mile in game distance and when i came out of a barn the same bot attacked me! its a must play for all fps enthus