Generation Zero Review: Emptiness, Death and Robots

With the support of the online store MOYO

Swedish studio Avalanche (creator of the Just Cause series and the future Rage 2)

introduced Generation Zero - shooter from the firstFaces in the retro style of the 80s with elements of RPG, Survival and post-apocalyptics. The game is played alone or in co-op for four, but there are nuances everywhere. Read more in the review.

For the first frames of Generation Zero, it is clear thatBefore us is a category B game: a modest story is presented through text without grafonisty trailers or at least drawn screensavers. Everything is simple and Swedish severely. The same applies to the plot.

Generation Zero events occur in1989 alternative to Sweden. After World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, the government of the country was afraid of the invasion of the USSR, and therefore obliged the population to undergo military training. As a result, no one has managed to cope with the defense of Sweden, and the main character, which is created in a simple character editor, comes from rest and finds abandoned houses and cars, soldiers' corpses and crumpled metal fragments. A little later, the character learns that people were attacked by robots, and the survivors fled. Throughout the game, he tries to sort out what happened and find out where the walking cans came from.

In search of answers, not only the story is tied, butand basic gameplay. The hero alone, or with partners in a co-operative, moves on a huge map from task to task, searches every corner in search of useful objects, weapons, cartridges and text notes from victims and gradually restores the chain of events. Periodically, the secondary quests are searched for the necessary things in the roboapocalypse. There will be no full-fledged conversations with the NPC, because they are not in Generation Zero. Totally.

And if at the beginning of Generation Zero it seemsintriguing and able to captivate, then after a couple of hours you realize that you were wrong. From interesting ideas about what happened and the search for answers to riddles placed by the creators, thoughts move on to thinking about lunch, an evening walk or another game. After all, in Generation Zero there is simply nothing to do except walk, shoot and read rare notes. Here and there are scattered identical farms, houses, sheds and placed cars. And there is nobody except those robots.

Hostile pieces of iron resemble mechanicalanimals and represented by several species with their chips and weak places. Some, the biggest, it is desirable to throw the team, otherwise there is a chance to be literally trampled and die in seconds. Others should aim at certain places on the hull, third, turn off flying tracking robots, and so on. Separately, opponents are not terrible even for a loner, but the problem is that for the most part they are heaped. And mechanical animals have excellent hearing and vision, so weak stealth in the game rarely helps, which means it almost fails to avoid meeting with enemies and it is easier to go for a break. I used the last option almost always and did not die as often as I expected. The main thing here is to use first-aid kits and adrenaline in time, to hide behind cover and catch iron reptiles when they hang in place.

Shooting Generation Zero resembles Survarviumor Fear The Wolves - lax pseudo realistic shots, not weak recoil and dull, but juicy weapon sounds. All available trunks, by the way, are authentic and only Swedish. But there is no diversity: a pistol, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a machine gun.

Inventory, too, have questions, although I understandsome decision makers. The game does not know how to automatically pull up items of the same type into active slots. For example, if you assign first-aid kits from one cell of the inventory to the desired button, then when they end in it, you have to reassign them from another cell. Several items of the same type can also not be divided and simply transferred to a partner. To do this, they must be thrown out of inventory, so that another character can pick them up from the floor. Most likely, this is done to complement the realism of what is happening, but it would be better for the developers to introduce indicators of sleep, food, and so on. These elements of the game of survival, though not annoying and feel more natural.

In Generation Zero, there is a leveling hero, but experienceit accumulates so slowly that you often forget about it. But even if we recall the unallocated perks, it turns out that in a half-day game of skill points there are barely more than three.

Local customization also works strangely. During the passage, the gamer finds clothes that change the appearance of the hero and gives him various bonuses. True, admiring the outfits will not work out, the game is first-person, but you can consider the protagonist in the character's menu or light up new clothes in front of rare teammates. True, the clothes surprise with their absurd perks and inconsistencies with the supposedly religious surwaival. In which normal “survival” you will find sneakers with a bonus for jump enhancement or a T-shirt with protection against damage? Very strange decision makers.

Cooperative mode does not greatly affect the ease. In theory, playing the game better and more fun in the company, but Generation Zero does not count the tasks passed together to join gamers, so players rarely connect to other people's sessions. Who wants to help others, and only collect the loot and supposedly have fun. There are few users in the network, and most of them are inadequate, which means that in fact Generation Zero is better to go it alone, occasionally getting help from random partners who have flown over. In the end, you can call friends and calmly play with them.

Generation Zero looks nice and atmospheric. It works realistic day and night and nice, but not perfect graphics. And yet there is something to look at, especially during dusk, dawn or rain. Optimization is a little lame: sometimes there are unreasonable departures or drawdowns fps. But in general, Generation Zero is stable and not picky about the hardware, so it runs easily on budget assemblies with medium-high graphics settings.
Local sound perfectly complement the picture andIt works correctly on the atmosphere of the 80s Robo-apocalypse. Against the background there is always unobtrusive vigorous music with elements of synth and fashionable retrovive. True, I did not remember any particular melody, but the mood is created correctly.

Generation Zero looks like unfinishedtest version of something bigger and steep, but so far unattainable. It constantly seems that you are playing in alpha or beta, and not in the finished product. The game is sorely lacking in content, NPS and normal, albeit standard tasks, and the available elements of RPG, stealth and teamwork are done crookedly and not felt as desired. Annoying and far-fetched surwaiv, as well as imaginary realism. But the Swedish novelty pleases with atmospheric picture and correct, though not memorable music. In the current state, I do not recommend this game to buy. Maybe you should wait a couple of months and follow the content updates, but for now it's better to bypass the Generation Zero side.

Generation zero

Genre
First Person Shooter, Survival, Action

Platform
PC, Xbox One, PS4

Number of players
up to 4

Developer
Avalanche Studios

Publisher
Avalanche Studios, THQ Nordic

Localization
Subtitles

release date
March 26, 2019

PS4 games can be bought in the online store MOYO