Welcome to our review of Generation Zero, we played this apocalyptic game on Xbox One and we have a strong opinion about this open world experience.
Welcome to 1980’s Sweden. A once peaceful, rural setting – transformed overnight. The local population has gone missing, and machines of unknown origin roam the streets. Explore this vast open world to unravel the mystery of the invaders, perfect your fighting strategies and prepare to strike back. Play alone, or together with up to three friends in seamless multiplayer, as you discover ways to defeat the invaders. Do anything in your power to level the playing field; scavenge for weapons and equipment, set traps and use the environment to your advantage in intense sandbox combat. In Generation Zero, living is winning.
I will admit, a friend had told me this was not the best of games before I even set a single foot in this old Swedish place. I heard him mention it was very open and that it felt more empty than he wanted it to be. So I had a great entry into the game as I was prepared for it being very big and devoid of tons of enemies.
It was exactly that, this game feels huge but enemies are few. After the first encounter with that dog-like robot, it becomes clear; survival is the hardest part of this game. My second enemy already managed to take me down too, I guess I needed more experience to keep playing.
Moving around is fluid and thanks to the menus, you are always well-informed on what to do. Even if you were to put down the game and restart later on, it keeps track of everything for you. I recently told that exact same friend how I loved the fact that some games uphold this game mechanic. Not everyone has all the time in the world to game or even play several days in a row. Generation Zero is a game that really has that feeling of “the more you play, the more you will enjoy it”, however its biggest downside remains the lack of enemies at times, resulting in a boring game at some times.
So I thought to myself, what can I do to break this boredom, maybe explore some more? But alas, as cool as it is to investigate abandoned houses or cars, there is little more to it. It almost felt like Fallout 76 at times, sadly that is no compliment…
There are positive points to the game, on the other hand, it’s original in many ways and I do like the approach to go for mechs instead of the usual enemies like the Nazis, zombies or rednecks. Its biggest selling point is multiplayer, I am sure that Generation Zero will be great once you can find 3 other players to go tackle the world in team, but as a single player, it came short in so many ways.
In conclusion, for a game dubbed a survival game, it does little to survive in the current gaming atmosphere since so many games do the job so much better. Once you look past its great graphical prowess, you are left with a more or less boring game.
