Greetings all,
PS4 player here.
I have not been keeping up with GZ and it’s development/news for quite a while.
So the latest update for me, came as a surprise.
After playing around a few hours today with the new update, I want to start off with a question: What direction is this game going?
Because I am puzzled and unhappy with this latest update.
Basebuilding, really!?
Where did this game go from a survival-type shooter-looter game to a — “I do not know what it is anymore type of game?”
Horde survival? Run & Gun FPS ? Isometric Puzzle RPG?
This is Generation Zero, not Minecraft, am I right?
Was the community really crying out for basebuilding in this game?
I for sure was not. Sorry to say, never have, never will be.
The new mission upon entering the Ostervik area did not trigger for me (yet? / bugged? ) and I kinda am glad about that.
In my opinion, basebuilding does not belong in a game like this. Or better said; In the game it originally was.
But, I should have seen the signs on the wall…
When you had to gather wood and construction materials on Hjimfall to defend the Bjorntunet Hotel.
But then again, both the Hotel and the Mullvadberget in the Farmlands were pretty decent “Bases” if you can call them that.
No need for any more of those, I did fine without them. Still do.
I would have loved to see a decent crafting of survival material items in this game instead of building a base.
Ways to scavenge and craft some improvised weapons, traps, food and ammunition to survive.
I would have loved to see more locations get upgraded to the latest standards.
More opened buildings like;
- Hospitals. Where one can find good medical supplies,
- Gasstations. Providing fuel and explosives (for napalm),
- Police stations. Where once can find ammunition and law enforcement type weapons,
- Supermarkets. Where food supplies can be found,
- Garages and storage boxes. Where general supplies can be found.
Or more varied opened houses in general.
Instead, most buildings (in Ostervik) have been boarded up, locked or burned down. Not accessible - anymore.
With less places to look for loot and less places to hide and fight from. Sadly.
It also looks very much out of place.
Surrounding areas like the Industry Omrade, Lilla, Balders Vall, Nyhamm, Haga, Tornberget and Granlugnet are completely unchanged while Ostervik itself turned into a warzone.
Did no fighting occur in those other areas, storywise?
It brings up questions, but I fear those will remain unanswered.
With this “overhaul” comes a number of new issues.
Low FPS (again) in the Ostervik area on PS4.
Rendering issues, stuttering and tearing in graphics on screen.
Why? There are less houses and objects now and the whole area is almost deserted, hardly any machines around.
All in all, in the end it all looks incomplete, unfinished and random.
With a new “gameplay element” shoehorned in to place that will not interest me at all.
The game currently feels empty, the idea of survival in an changed world is almost gone.
New weapons DLC, sure a great idea… but I am holding off buying it for now.
The addition of a completel new machine would have been nice.
Revamped bunkers are imho also long overdue. Current ones are dark and mostly empty.
Revamped mission design would have been a great idea too… (like the dreaded unplayable unwinnable bicycle mission!).
Overhauled inventory management, like a weapon/item selection wheel, is long, long overdue too.
Make the inventory or the map available under a separate button for example.
But instead we got base building and some sort of a horde survival thing.
All I was looking for was a game where you could fight and survive against cool machines.
Explore, Shoot, survive, loot, craft, rinse repeat.
Please stop pushing the game in it’s current direction.
Thanks for reading.