The State of Generation Zero

Thank you for the very detailed and thought-out answer!

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Thanks for the answer, it sheds a bit more light on the original statement. Let us know when your video is out, and donā€™t forget to include some of your own ideas on how to address the issues you point out! :+1: :+1: :+1:

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If you are referring to me, then the video will be about analyzing various aspects of the game, and providing examples and criticism on what can/could be done to create more depth and less grinding. It wonā€™t really achieve anything cause even if I did present something that could realistically be done with the devs current recourses and time, itā€™s for them to decide if it works or not. Initially, my review of the content that was released during 2020 would have been combined with said feedback/criticism part. But I realized during the writing process that it would be way too long of a video, so feedback/criticism is gonna be the follow-up. Iā€™m still writing it, but itā€™s looking like itā€™s gonna at least be an hour long.

Me and my friends havenā€™t played in months. I played 378 hours so far but the last few updates didnā€™t succeed in getting my attention and I think I can express succinctly why:

Although the game has amazing combat mechanics (ex: taking down a hunterā€™s gun, having him jump over you then double-barrelling his back canister - the best gamer feeling 2020), it became very difficult to actually get into a combat situation of significant magnitude.

Most evenings weā€™d just fast travel from known hot-spot to another but some nights those spots were vacants, some nights we just walked and traveled non-stop. At some point we want to use those fancy guns and we want to use them when we want to use them, not after going through a walking simulator, not after doing tedious ā€œmissionsā€ that are seemingly unrelated to anything lore-wise.

In short, how tedious it was to find proper combat began to outweigh how satisfying combat was.

I donā€™t know how to fix the game and I donā€™t think it should be up to me, but I think it starts with more shooting. Full disclosure, me and my friends are mostly from a background of first-person horde survival type game (killingfloor).

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Great post highlights I think everything that I would say and in tons more detail

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Is it going to factor in Resistance update

Yes, thatā€™s one of the larger parts of the video

Iā€™ve learned from doing Vision that there are many different perspectives on how players experience GZ. Resistance no longer is about new content - because itā€™s all been spoiled already, but the changes from it will be interesting to see.

One of the biggest points I agree with is how they keep releasing updates and paid add-ons that are either broken or are completely unnecessary and I wish that they should have made DLCs like Alpine Unrest: High quality, brought something unique, and it was atmospheric even for late game players.

I wish we could somehow reverse this madness, bring the game back to its origins, not whatever this is, I didnā€™t buy off brand Destiny or Far Cry, I bought an Atmospheric Stealth shooter with a unique story and concept, it is very hard to find games like this that are not completely full of Online Multi-player stuff and LootBoxes.

I really think the Devs should get into contact with Sean Murray of Hello Games, he turned his shipwreck into a 5* executive cruise ship. With an even smaller team, intense hate from the gaming community, and no relation to a big company like Avalanche.

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I think the difference between Hello Games with NMS and Systemic Reaction and GZ is the time the team can spend on the game. I watched a very interesting video about Hello Games and the whole case from over-promising to massive dissappointment and improving the game to a real gem. When I look at what the about same-sized team has accomplished I think the devs donā€™t work fulltime on GZ, I guess GZ is more like a side-project with a limited time budget. I think this would reflect the prices of the DLC and the game and reflect the pace of the development better then thinking of a fulltime development.

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I mean yeah, by now most people believe that to be the case, I could understand them making it part time if it was actually working and didnā€™t NEED constant development, but every single update completely breaks the game for someone or some console entirely. I would rather them make one or two updates a year if it meant the game wouldnā€™t be completely freaking broken EVERY update.

I mean look at the DLC packs, you canā€™t aim down sights of some of the shotguns with paid gloves on and most paid weapons either are not practical and donā€™t fit the gameplay or are missing basic things like IRON SIGHTS in the case of the N60.

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I love indie devs, you can really see the love and passion in their work because they obviously care and are not limited or corrupted by Corporate agenda, in fact two of my favorite dev companies period are Yacht Club Games and DigitalCybercherries because they make great and high quality content and most importantly they take Pride in their work.

I just donā€™t see that anymore with these devs, Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s because few of the original team is working on it anymore or the pressure they are receiving from the community itself, Iā€™m not sure.
I think the way the game is going, and how the quality of every update and paid DLC add on is declining, I might officially quit the game.

We all thought Alpine Unrest was a turning point for the better. The answer to that still lays in Limbo.

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But on balance, CDPR had a team of over 100, and developed Cyberpunk over 7 years.

Now itā€™s only known for the biggest letdown in gaming history.

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Off-topic:

Cyberpunk 2077 isnā€™t the biggest letdown in gaming history. Itā€™s the latest. And probably most hyped one as well. Further reading: List of video games notable for negative reception - Wikipedia

But in terms of development time vs end result, iā€™d hand that award for Duke Nukem Forever, which was in development for 15 years! and eventually when it came out, it was crap. Duke Nukem Forever - Wikipedia


On-topic:

Hard to say. But based on what community has asked for and what have been released into the game, iā€™d say itā€™s about letting the community to influence the game too much.

Small recap:

At launch day, the world was empty and eerie. The 1st parts of Archipelago didnā€™t offer much in terms of hyping POIs or machines to fight against, asides from some ticks and plenty of runners.

Due to that, GZ was like a slowly blooming flower.
The further you traveled, the more you got to see the game. 1st hunter you met was either at Iboholmen Castle or Saltholmen Naval Base (when doing missions) or at Saltholmen bridge (when just continuing on along the road).
It was nice.

However, for those players who wanted everything right now, the slow start wasnā€™t good enough. And they voiced their impatience. So, two months after the release, at the end of May '19, we got the very 1st map revamp, which encompassed the BjƶrknƤsskogen and Iboholmen districts (the starting island).
It added hype POIs (e.g destroyed tank East from MƶrtnƤs, in the woods), and more machines, including hunters on the starting island. So, players get to see what game offers from the very beginning.

Was it a good move? I donā€™t know. But this is how it all started.

Next update from that one, June '19, brought several changes, including Machine Loot, into the game. (Machine Loot was actually players request.) And with Machine Loot, came the RNG and grind. The very same grind devs are now looking to solve.

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Iā€™m afraid I have to agree. Those first few updates felt like; ā€œhereā€™s the stuff we hoped to have for launch but didnā€™t have the time/resources to do.ā€, such as adding the tank corpse which I felt was great bit of foreshadowing, though I only spotted it after the fact.

But as for evolving the core experience, traditionally thatā€™s what DLC and sequels are for, this games as a live service thing is something I would have never signed on for. This idea that games continuously need to give players a to-do list to keep them engaged is an odd concept to me. I gave up on the assignments after a few days, they barely work or are worth doing. (Even more galling since we needed to sign up for the Apex Connect thing)

The only other game I can think of recently where I completely fell in love with the setting / world and lore and spent anywhere close to the 1600 hrs Iā€™ve spent with GZ (across 3 formats) was the original Dark Souls.

Much like GZ, Dark Souls was glitchy and not for everyone when it launched, unapologetically so.

It got patches and stability fixes. But at no point did FROM Software think, ā€œYou know what? Letā€™s completely revamp Firelink Shrine & Undead Burg, throw in some random craters, call it story-telling and remove some buildingsā€.

They fixed bugs, re-balanced a few enemies but at no point did they fundamentally change the game that I bought and fell in love with into something more generic & main stream.

I could launch the OG Dark Souls today and wander through Anor Londo or Blight Town even after all of its patches, it would essentially be the same experience it was when I bought it on day one. Blight Town would run better, but still be the same ā€˜placeā€™ it always was.

With Dark Souls, FROM Software saved their major changes to DLC. When playing those we left the established play areas, went to new lands, found new gear, faced new enemies, new bosses and brought that experience and loot back into the Lordran we knew and loved.

I liked that with Alpine Unrest we left Ɩstertorn and got a new playground with new enemies (albeit glorified paint-jobs of the 5 enemies were already had)

But post-Alpine Unrest theyā€™ve been systematically re-writing Ɩstertorn in fits and starts and with each little edit, chipping away what made the game unique. All the while copy / pasting pale imitations of features that other games do better, and in every case, promising that the new feature is only a first draft and will be iterated on further down the line.

Iā€™d far rather we just got regular bug fixes and then have longer intervals between quality paid DLC, than being drip-fed half-baked free content on a regular basis.

I realise this probably all sounds far harsher than intended.

I genuinely loved playing Generation Zero and really felt for the longest time that it was a rough diamond and this close [holds thumb and forefinger really close together] to being something truly incredible. Iā€™m constantly frustrated by what it could have been, and saddened to see the devs chasing whatever feature they feel will give it broader appeal.

I still play today, but less so, and find myself looking forward to each update a little less. Iā€™ve barely had chance to play of late due to ā€œreal lifeā€ stuff, although I spent a good few hours with the PS4 Pro Resistance Update. All I can say is that I hope itā€™s in a better state when it comes to Xbox (or even if comes to Xbox at this rate).

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It really is, and I feel this model is starting to fail on them.
I remember in the early days, back when the entire community was super hyped around every update even the small updates, but look at us now; the community is divided Down the middle and XBOX players still do not have the resistance update. Not only that, but most people are not as excited about the next content drop as much as they are excited about the update making the game slightly less buggy. Which whatever fix they do one update gets reversed the next anyway, so Iā€™ve gotten used to the bugs.

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Well, youā€™ve served me there for sure. And the irony being - Iā€™ve actually played and completed Forever on the 360 but refused to do the DLC because the game was so terrible.

But for hypeā€¦build up, marketing, sales, overall media coverage - Cyberpunk will take some beating.

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I remember the first time I introduced this game to my wife back in the beginning of 2020, I used to show her how ā€œsurviveā€. Like ā€œshh, shh, donā€™t move, donā€™t breath :-Dā€ Pretty realistic, with beautiful landscape and fantastic sounds.
Pity that now we just start the game to ā€œkill some machinesā€.

I miss the initial atmosphere, where you run from house to house to survive and count every bullet to determine if the possible loot is ā€œworth itā€. And the pure joy when I after countless of deaths secured my first two 2* AG4s from the camp and felt sooo strong suddenly :smiley:

The current game is fine but itā€™s definitely NOT the GZ as we knew it.

One idea to developers - the current state is mature with crafting, base building and assignments. Just keep it, let it be, donā€™t add anything new and start working on GZ2 - ā€œback to rootsā€

Please give is back the world we knew, where you had to wisely choose where to go and what to doā€¦ the world where were not the king of the hill, but just a teenager.

And instead of spongy enemies, please bring more realism - you cannot destroy the tank with a pistol no matter how much lead you pump into it.

And thank you for this game and all the effort!

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I believe the term is " Back to your Roots "

I would like to take a moment thank everybody involved in this post. Never ever could I & Brƶdkanten have predicted that this video would spark so much attention in the community. I originally thought that maybe a tiny bunch of people would agree on some of the points at best in this video, but I was positively suprised. Whether you agreed on all of the points, non of them or just complimented us for the video, you have my gratitude for acknowledging this post.

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