Generation Zero

I spent more money (in total with all of their DLC’s) on this game than any of my other 250 plus Xbox games, and then the Dev’s somewhere around three years after the release, decided to do some major changes in a recent update, which made this game far more difficult, especially for us solo and casual players like myself. Now to have a far better chance at being successful in destroying these much tougher machines, and especially the extremely difficult to destroy REAPER, you’ll more than likely need (as a solo player) to craft “7.62 shock ammo”. The major problem is, is that in order to be able to eventually craft this special ammo, you must first destroy 41 bases! Not a reasonable five or ten, but forty-one total, which each time is extremely stressful (for solo and especially for casual players) to say the very least, and will more than likely take many months of extreme grinding (these bases aren’t always available) using up tons of resources. And (attempting, yes…attempting) to destroy the reaper by yourself, (after about 45 straight minutes of repeatedly dying and using tons of ammo, and yes, I’m aware of how to kill it, I finally gave up) multiply your stress level by four now. If you are a gamer (not hardcore) who likes a reasonable but fun challenge, as well as playing solo, this is not (since this recent update) the game for you! Why in the world did the Dev’s have to recently ruin a once good game for casual and solo players is beyond me!

So I've been trying to put into words one thing that I've been thinking about about generation zero now that I've got a bit of time into it.First let me say, I really enjoy the game, the concept is great, the gunplay and game mechanics are really well done.The game is very fun, and had tons of exploration to do.I think the main three issues that I have are:One: As beautiful as the outdoor environments are, and they are stunning and well crafted, the indoor environments are purely lifeless and done just as badly as the outdoors are done well. The interiors of most of the houses just get plain boring after the first two. The individual designs of each house don't reflect the unique folks that called that place home, because they are all the same, without even the hunan feeling touch of a designer, they feel like a cookie cutter, a known quantity after just a couple of them.Last night, I found 1 house in the entire game that was designed differently, and when I entered it, it was a pure joy to see the touch of a game designer actually designing a unique house and layout in this bland world, and searching it for supplies was actually fun for the first time in 40 hours.The bunker design is positively atrocious. If getting bored of each 4 room house was an issue for you, then the bunkers will drive you insane. Needlessly complex, the sheer size, and repeated rooms of them in slightly different configs, will have you stuck in false-gameplay-extension-hell for way, way longer than is appropriate. I don't need more identical rooms and right hallways to open and get stuck behind doors in, that you stick a back pack in, that doesn't belong there.Beyond that, its a military base. It would not be designed so that soldiers on sub sub sub level 5A die in a fire because the door to the closet is open. It is not a submarine.If you go into real modern military underground structures, there is usually enough room to have two people in a hallway, walking in either direction at the same time, and also have the room to push gear, maintenance, and equipment carts down the middle, like a hospital.The second and third game issues that I have, are a more "philosophy" of story issue.Only relating to in-world people through overheard radio messages and tapes works for the Fallout, because it further isolates you from a world long dead. Doing it in Generation Zero, when you're playing by yourself and you actually have time to listen to or read these things, there are no signs of Life anywhere. It is as if the battle is already lost. Yet you are constantly told that there is a resistance, one that you have no visual confirmation of anywhere in the flesh.No NPCs, no Humanity, no other people are seen there in the distance, or at the top of an impenetrable safehouse, or a far away island, you never see a truck driving across the land, only to be blown to bits by a passing Hunter as you are tragically too far away to save them.My third point is that this game engine was from a hunting game. There is absolutely no reason, with as beautifully rendered as the outdoor environments are, that the only signs of any animal life, are birds.It makes no sense to me, and feels disingenuous to say that the robots would have exterminated Badgers, other than through accidental fire.In Sweden there are Arctic fox, wolves, Lynx, moose, elk, reindeer, brown bear, owls, little ground pheasant called capercaillie, beavers, squirrels. The list goes on.And in particular, with such a beautiful, impressive outdoor environment, it seems like the greatest of losses to not hear a tank or a harvester smashing around, and see small critters and Forest wildlife running towards you and going past you to get away from it.Imagine the beauty of lining up a sniper shot on a robot, and seeing a moose in the foreground or background, just out of focus;Of being startled by a bear crashing through the underbrush, and the relief of it not being another Robot; The relief of life "finding a way", to quote Dr Malcomb.Then there is of course the accidental hilarity, of being in pitched battle, man vs machine, throwing a grenade into a group of robots... and pulping a beaver or a ground squirrel, in a spray of red on the beautiful white snow, and then feeling for yet another lost breathing, living creature, while the cold, metal monsters take over.As such, with all of these things in mind, as fun as the gameplay is, "The World" of Generation Zero does not actually feel like a world freshly dead but still fighting, worse it feels like a world that was never alive.For all the praise of "world building" being bandied about, it's actual story is badly executed, detached, poorly conveyed, and lacks any connection to the player, and frankly, lacks the Humanity, the Human Connection that is so desperately needed in a human vs machines narrative. The physical world it has built is an empty, lonely place, that seems surface-deep most of the time you're in it.The game as a whole is a slightly bland cracker to swallow in terms of anything other than the actual gameplay of gunplay and stealth etc.I wish they had done more of the actual "World Building" that they are receiving praises for from many.All of this being said, I know that it sounds like I don't like this game, but you would be dead wrong.I'm playing, enjoying the game, and having a blast with what the game does right. What it does right, replacing Commies with Robots in the Red Dawn stealth action pacing, really is just that good.

Das Spiel ist der HammerWenn ihr endlich mal ein Spiel spielen wollt wo ihr endlich mal mitdenken müsst und eine Taktik braucht ist das genau richtigDer extrem hohe Schwierigkeits grad mach das Spiel für mich zum beste spiel seit langen

Vorab, ich kann die Kritik durchaus nachvollziehen das hier nach der Beta am Ende nicht mehr viel rum kam. Trotz all dem ist es für mich persönlich ganz ok. Das Setting ist top. Die KI ist durchaus gut an vielen Stellen. Klar...hier und da bugt es mal etwas aber für mich durchaus vertretbar. Da gibt es andere Titel die für mehr Geld über die Ladentheke gehen und schlechter abliefern. Habe es bisher nur im Singleplayer Modus getestet. Kommende Woche geht's mal an den Multi. Fazit für mich: Wer nicht unbed. high end Grafik braucht und sich mit dem Setting anfreunden kann wird hier für 36 Euro gut bedient. evtl wird ja noch das eine oder andere Update nachgeliefert das den Titel verbessert.

Ich kenne die Rezensionen, allerdings birgt das Game dennoch großen Spielspaß. Allerdings nur wenn man es mit Freunden zockt. Und man sollte trotz Open-World immer dem Log folgen. So verfolgt man die Story und wird stufenweise an die Gegner herangeführt. Bestimmt in vielen Belangen verbesserungsbedürftig allerdings gibt es bisher so ein Setting in keinem anderen Game. Und fairerweise sollte man noch erwähnen, daß es für 36€ kein Vollpreistitel ist. Wer also Abstriche hinnehmen kann und die Möglichkeit hat mit Freunden das Game zu erleben der kann eigentlich bedenkenlos zugreifen.

Super Preis

Mit 2-4 Leute macht das Spiel mega Spaß! Entweder reinsprinten und schießen oder taktiv spielen. Sehr empfehlenswert.