I’ve been playing coop with one friend for a good amount of time to get the feel of the game.
It looks very promising to me, but i do have some gripes with what GZ is as of right now:
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Loot:
There is just way too much of it. I get why there’s so much ammo in every house, and it’s a nice way to explain a gameplay element with a little bit of lore, but i feel like there’s just too much of it in one go. For how much i’ve played, i’ve never run out of ammo once, and i’ve always managed to have a good 4/5 full reloads for every gun at the ready.
And that’s not even considering other items. Take Adrenalie for example: You’re supposed to use it to bring an ally back up if he goes down. Fair enough. It’s supposed to be a last resort kind of deal.
But the fact that you can:
-Stack it to 20
-Self inject it on the go
-You don’t have a “cooldown” for it
basically makes you a walking death machine that just won’t stay down. I get that with late game enemies you go down much more quickly and frequently, and that in single games it’s the only way to not die, but maybe making it a single slot item and not self injectable in MP games would add a little bit of challenge to sessions.
This is just some examples, others could be the incredible amount of silencers and scopes you can find, or the amount of healthpacks you can stack up. There’s also some problems with stacks for ammo and items you have in the hotbar not adding up to the stuff you find, creating a stack that does not add up to the ones you have in the hotbar, but i feel that’s a bug and not an intended gameplay element.
Another thing that’s been bothering me is the different loot for every player when playing in coop. Sure, it is nice to not have to fight over a piece of equipment, but having to share the ammo you find, figuring out who gets what weapon or piece of clothing and who is acting as a “medic” or “ammo donkey” would add a little bit of planning and another layer of tactics to the game. Maybe it could be a “hardcore mode” thing only. -
Environments, ambience and so forth:
I really like what the game looks like. It is very immersive, it looks great and overall it’s just nice to look at. But especially in bigger settlements the poor variety of structures and interiors is a tad boring, if not nauseating at times. I have purposefully been avoiding looting some of the bigger settlements because i could just not stand going into another house that looks exactly like the 3 that are next to it. I feel like a little more variety with the interiors or with the overall look of the buildings would help, especially since with all of them looking the same it is really easy to get lost and confused when traversing a town. -
Safehouses and fast travel
I feel like there is no real reason to call a “safehouse” a safehouse if the only real reason for you to use it is just fast travel between locations. You can still get spotted inside it if there’s robots around, and it only serves the purpose of cutting some travel time. It would be better to just call it “beacon” or something like that. I feel like it would be a great addition to be able to store some stuff in there, maybe a relatively limited storage just to hold some worst case scenario items like Adrenaline, health packs and a couple of guns with the respective ammo. It would be a cool idea to have to clear the safehouses from a rich enemy presence, instead of just waltzing in and sometimes press a generator button. -
The map
This ties in to the quests. Many quest hints talk about very specific places, sometimes with a lot of descriptions. But sometimes they refer a specific place that is not named on the map, and keeping in mind that non swedish players might even have some trouble not mixing up names in a foreign language that can cause some confusion/frustration. I’m not saying to translate names, they add to the immersion and whatnot, but maybe be a little more specific on the map with place names and so forth, maybe have a general area name and the more you explore it unlock the on map names. Markers are good and all, but sometimes they just make you rush from A to B without stopping to look around or be a little more cautious.
If there was a “hardcore” mode added, it would also be cool to not have markers at all. People have done no map runs in games for years, i feel like GZ would benefit from it, adding a little bit of challenge aswell.
Suggestions:
-Add a -story- and -hardcore- mode, with lowered loot spawns and harder encounters, and no markers on the map.
-Balance the items that are already in game, making reviving someone harder or atleast not as common/possible
-Add a little variety to the settlements, either by changing a lot of colors of the buildings or straight up making new ones (i know it’s a big ordeal, but i still think it would really help)
-Make safehouses feel like them. Add some challenge/requirement to unlock them that is not just finding them and pressing a button, and maybe add some storage to it. It would also be good to separate safehouses and fast travel beacons.
-Fix the map a little, it can get pretty confusing.
-Make loot shared for coop games, or make it a setting when starting a game, or a hardcore mode feature
As a last note, i really want to thank the devs for this game. Easily one of the best experiences i’ve had with a game in the last couple of years. I don’t want to come across as entitled with this post, i just wanted to share my feelings on what could make this game a little more challenging and fun.
Sorry for typos/weird stuff, english is not my first language
Edit: Added safehouse stuff
Edit2: Added map related stuff and stacks stuff
Edit3: I’m sorry, stuff keeps coming up. Added separate loot bit.