Hello there, 2020 was quite the year so I decided to review the content that was dropped mainly to get all my criticism in one place but also to try making a longer format video.
Everything said in the video is sadly true, wish it wasn’t but it is. All i can say is i hope the devs and the game doesn’t go to shit with all the requests from people who doesn’t care about the game.
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It’s very nice that you like it. But yeah unfortunately It was very tough to find something that could outshine the negative aspects of this year’s content. In general it’s been feeling like when we get something new like prestige points or crafting, the mentality is that it will be expanded on or fixed later. Wich in general would have worked if all those features had come in the same update as a “foundation update”.
Incredible review, it really delves into the problems that the game is unfortunately suffering from. A review that definitely should be highlated and be listened to by the devs. As Burgerplayer said, it’s sadly true and I wish it wasn’t.
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I’m glad that you enjoyed it!
Very well analyzed. The devs should pay you for your efforts 
Jokes aside, I really hope the heads of the dev team watch this and acknowledge the player’s point of view. There are some really good points that need to be improved.
I hope Zach can turn change course back to it’s original roots and has an idea how to merge all lose ends story- and gameplaywise.
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(Unfortunately,) I mostly agree with you.
I remember a discussion I had with another user a year ago, where I expressed my hopes that GZ would delve deeper into the FNIX mystery, and expand on the 80’s Cold War setting and atmosphere, while keeping the whole pacakge as ”down to earth“ as possible. The other user hoped that GZ would do the opposite, and rather evolve into a sci-fi setting. This other user was Tenebris Infinite, and I guess his opinion has more weight than mine. (Absolutely no disrespect meant to Tenebris.) …anyway, FNIX Rising happened and I lost my understanding of where the story was trying to go.
I can’t stop playing GZ, but it’s the extremely satisfying combat gameplay that keeps me here. I try to keep one eye shut whenever I stumble over any of the countless plotholes that have popped up during last year.
I hope they don’t lose their vision completely by trying to satisfy all players at once, though that might seem like what’s happening.
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No.
I don’t “hope” it will evolve into a sci fi setting, that’s just where things are going with recent updates and more specifically FNIX rising (which i believe is where the conversation you’re talking about stems from)
Personally I’m not bothered which direction the game takes so long as it takes a direction
This is a opinion that i see pop up every once in a while. I’ll say it clearly
no one’s opinion means a single thing
The only opinion that matters is that of the team and their direction through development. We might have sway as a majority through surveys and community input but no one’s opinion has “more weight” or any weight at all outside of the community as a whole.
I’m nothing special, just like you or anyone else in the community.
What you should hope for is that ultimately the team is satisfied by the end product, it’s not like they have to shield their creative identity from anything or anyone, they haven’t this entire time instead they’ve melded their ideas with community input
Which is something i personally respect.
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What do you think of my review? I’d like to know your personal thoughts on the things I’ve given criticism on.
The game was advertised to have this “down to earth” tone, while I dont mind the game introducing Sci fi elements. There ought to be a fine line for what can be done sci fi wise or at least the explanation for something should at least be done naturally. Personally I hope the game doesn’t have more of the generic cheesy dialouge or story progression that was in FNIX RISING. Like all the radio dialouge, for instance when Veronika calls and explains why she is leaving the base. Not only does it come across as cheesy but hold zero weight as the character acts like the third wheel. We are just a silent protagonist whose role is to progress the plot for others while we do the heavy lifting.
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I think it’s exhaustively long and could have been chunked down sizably to be more concise.
But i can agree on some points that stuck, like dlc weapons and their admittedly lazy introduction, but not on the fact that its pay to win cuz thats stupid and we’ve already had that conversation.
I enjoyed fnix rising for what it was myself. I’m not expecting miracles and award winning writing or coding or anything like that outta this team myself. I think if they put out something that has clear effort behind it, im gunna do my best to enjoy it unless it truly is pure garbo.
I never asked for melee weapons (except the iron church sword but c’mon anyone can agree that would be awesome) but i find them a novel throw away experience to have in the game.
one thing i ultimately agree on though, is the nature of “we’ll add this feature and improve it later” only for the feature to be left to the way side and not improved in favor of adding new features or tweaking incessant irrelevant things. That’s something i wish the team wouldn’t do but they do none the less, i’m not gunna bitch or complain, i’m along for the ride.
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That’s not really a “everybody has their own truth thing”. Prestige points still doesn’t have a function and it’s been a thing for a long time. I’m sure the devs are working hard, but them saying something will be expanded later when it either comes out not functioning or barebones, is not really setting high expectations.
This is not just to complain, but it is one of the truths we have now.
Well for the moment the truth is, with every single DLC or Update new gamebreaking bugs are brought :
- Now we have weapons and attachments disappearing
- Some people (like me) with corrupt saves, because of latest updates (not from any other reason)
- Falling through the map
- Rivals and Reaper dying on their own
- Buying a weapons pack and not finding the gold version of them (N16).
Come on, these are things that usually happen after Launch or during pre-release, not to a 2 year old game.
It´s one of my favorite games, but the lack of quality control over the product is weird and hard to understand.
For the moment the game is on stand by, no one wants to play a game where you keep loosing weapons for no reason.
I hope next month they address these issues, instead of just giving us new broken stuff, or worst…breaking old stuff again.
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Hey @tene
I’m usually careful with my wording, especially when trying to paraphrase what someone else had said. I’m sorry if I misrepresented your position. This was written a long time ago, and to be honest I don’t even remember under which topic.
When I said your opinion weighs more than mine, well I should have elaborated, but what I meant is that your opinion is heard or read by a much higher number of people than what mine is.
Anyway, I apologize if I got you wrong. 
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Can someone tell me what that the post said?
Well we technically did but that was before they came out, back then we only knew that the US pack was a win. For endgame players they aren’t really paid to win cause then you have to exhaustively grind for the higher tier versions. But for new players who just started the game it takes less then 10 minutes to get them. Sure it takes longer to find the right ammo but even if you have one of them, then you don’t really need to “survive and scavange” compared to a non us pack playthrough. Like I said in my video the skill and progression curve is getting really messed with.
What’s supposed to be a tone setter and tutorial becomes a easily skippable part. I could have forgiven it a bit more if they made a little quest to get them, because at least then you would have put reasonable effort in obtaining them. It’s P2W cause you can pay more money to make the game easier, sure it’s a PVE game. But you’re still getting the advantage over someone who didn’t pay.
I still don’t consider them pay to win as you aren’t “winning” and really you’re only getting a moderate leg up. Though I do agree they mess with initial game flow and are too easily obtained, as well as being unrewarding for late game players.
Made a video on it so I don’t need to explain myself too much, sure its a rough first iteration, but in no way is it “pay to win” or some sort of predatory business practice, its reasonably priced additional content, as most games that don’t have a competitive edge have.
Say for instance dying light where you can buy a dlc pack that gives you the shotgun way early game, is that p2w? no.
in hunter COTW when you buy a dlc pack and get a better gun to hunt with before you’ve even killed a deer, is that p2w? no.
There are many examples, and GZ is one of them, that you can have weapon packs at adequate prices and offer cheap content to the player base. You can even
Summary
fuck the whole meta
and it doesn’t matter because at its core there is no true competition to be ruined in the player experience, and the damage done to the player experience is minimal.
Now i do want to see weapon packs be offered in a more robust and engaging way, but they ain’t p2w man.
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Yes, in the way the pack was done it’s far from the predatory business practices. It’s cheap and it more or less only makes the start easier. Unfortuantayle there are far worse things. However I should have clarfied the definition of pay to win better. While you’re not winning on a game mechanically level. I’m sorry as I will repeat myself, but paying for the advantage of progressing further than players whom haven’t paid. Give it a few hours and the non dlc has cathed up, but they still need to put in more effort then the one who has paid.
As for the examples of Dying light and Hunter COTW, I haven’t played or know much about those games. So I cant really judge those cases if they were or have the same type of weapon pack as GZ currently has. My overall point in the video of US pack is that they are cheap in quality as in value because it’s a lazy cash grab. I want to support the devs and of course they didn’t have to make them in the first place. But I prefer quality and effort over quantity and the US pack doesn’t have none of that. They way it was handled speaks more of the p2w aspect. I’m super down for new weapons as optional paid content, but they need to be justified in how they fit within the game lore and content wise instead of just being cheap. I mean cmon the lore for the us pack are on the store page, and even that lore gives us more questions then answers.
Just a note.
In Dying light the weapons wear off… so even weapons you might buy or new weapons unlocked sooner (the game now has a lot of new weapons given to the player) they all will need repairing or to be crafted again.
And any noob will still need to survive to the Safehouse at the beginning.
So basically, although in Generation Zero its hard for someone at the beginning, you get those weapons at the church.
While in Dying light eventually the infected hordes will kill you if you stay still, only endgame players can make a stand and kill hundreds of zombies without moving.
In the end, yes it breaks the initial player experience of GZ it´s not that hard anymore.
But it´s still not pay to win.
And Specially in Dying light, there is no pay to win, if you suck, you will die, unless you are always running and doing parkour, but eventually you will be surrounded.
Bonus- This analysis is based only in the single player experience, playing any of these games with 4 other people is a walk in the park unless everyone is acting like a retarded or learning how to play video-games for the first time.
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I think the pay to win term maybe isn’t the best term. It’s really more like pay to make start game easier, cause factually it is since you pay money for the advantage. The way you describe Dying Lights system would actually be a good thing, if the devs ever made a separate hardcore/survival mode. But in GZ while it breaks the difficulty curve it also ruins the tone. Because even if the player knows they have good guns but no ammo, then they wouldn’t really care about finding anything new. As compared to ammo, finding guns out and about above 3C is quite rare. I’m starting to feel like we are just going in circles here.
The pack is out now anyways and I heavily doubt they would add a quest retroactivle. However if they made another pack just like this. With no effort in properly presenting them in the game through lore or quest, then I’d have a real problem. Because then it’s so much wasted opportunity when small lore is given on the store page when the fact that NATO has sent us guns should actually be a big plot point. I mean we barely know anything about the outside stuff in the game.