"Generation Zero" is everything I love and hate about Indie games*,
all wrapped up in one convenient package.

It's core gameplay is fantastic. Dropped into a huge open world,
you're free to explore in any direction (well, unless you chose to go
to one of the numerous islands, since your character can't swim and
there aren't any usable boats). While on the face of things, this is a first-person shooter, it's more accurately a first-person stealth
game. You will be forever outclassed by your opponents - hordes of
killer robots - who usually outgun and always outnumber you. Sneaking
is mandatory if you want to survive.

And the game does sneaking quite well. The AI is respectable; it has a
bit of an issue with pathfinding (it sometimes gets stuck on terrain
or buildings) but it also flanks and dodges enough so as never to be
completely predictable. (The AI is a bit cheaty in that it can
sometimes shoot you through terrain and buildings, but given it wasn't
too hard to outmaneuver the monsters, I considered this an acceptable tradeoff). One-on-one, you can probably take out most of the low- and
mid-tier enemies without issue, but they're quick to call in
reinforcements, and even when they don't, it's often the case that
you'll expend more resources - bullets, health packs, explosives -
than you'll gain in return. So the better strategy is to belly-crawl
your way through the well-detailed towns and farmlands, only engaging
when forced to or when you know the tactical advantage is on your side
(just make sure you plan your exit strategy first!).

There's a palpable feeling of dread when traversing the world. Enemy
density is lower, on average, than in other open-world action games,
but the encounters feel more random thanks to the extended 'wander'
range and long-range detection of the AI. You automatically stick to
the woods and thickets, and crossing any open field feels like a
life-and-death decision because - even when you don't see any enemies
- you know they're probably around somewhere. Maybe. Most times you
cross without incident, but there's always the errant chance of being
spotted and drawn into a prolonged - and resource-expensive -
firefight. This uncertainty makes the game; in many games, you are the
apex predator chasing after loot-dropping monsters. In "Generation
Zero", you feel like prey.

There are secondary mechanics too; looting is an essential part of the
game. Most of your needs will be filled by scouring the homes and
shops for necessary resupply (the excessive number of bullets and guns available builds off Sweden's concept of mobilizing its citizens
against any attackers so it's not /completely/ unrealistic). There's
some limited crafting and base-building too; none of it is too
involved and - while it may make the game a bit more difficult - you
can safely ignore both aspects if you've no interest in them.

The visuals are great. "Generation Zero" utilizes the Avalanche
engine, used in the "Just Cause", "Mad Max" and "TheHunter: Call of
the Wild" and - while it's not top-end graphics, it's still very
impressive to look at. The topography feels a lot more realistic than
in other, similar games (I'm looking at you, "Far Cry" series!),
although there is a lack of any stunning set-pieces. The robot
animations are top-notch, and the ground clutter - the buildings and
fences and cars - are all top-notch. Kudos also to the sound-design,
especially with regards to the alien-sounding honks and beeps of the
robots, which give you the idea that they are somehow communicating
but you're never quite sure what they're saying.

But while this all sounds great, the game suffers from a number of
significant flaws as well. Most obvious - but not most critical - is
the game's technical stability. This game has some serious bugs, and
anything from crashes to desktops, to quests not completing, to
important items not appearing on the map are all common. It took me
three restarts before I could get past the third quest marker because
an item I needed to progress simply did not spawn. Past that point, I
mostly worried about the random crashes that dumped me out of the game
but those were more annoying than serious and usually the worst that
happened is that I had to restart from the nearest safe-house.

Worse were fundamental problems with the gameplay and story. The first
quarter of the game is amazingly intense, as you slowly work your way
up from a gormless, unarmed victim into a killing machine carrying a
half-dozen weapons and a bunch of hard-learned strategies for
survival. In short order, you encounter a couple of fellow survivors,
and learn the basics of the setting and gameplay. You encounter a
range of monsters from the weakest 'ticks' to the massive 'tanks'. You
discover the over-arching goal to visit all the hidden military bases.
It all sets itself up as a massive, involved quest. And then...
nothing.

Well, nothing new. Those two survivors you met go strangely silent.
There are no other living NPCs in the game. The story never gets more
involved. By the quarter-game mark, you've encountered all the enemies
the game has to offer, and - except for a few experimental variations
- have probably used all the guns and gear. I spent fifty hours on
"Generation Zero" and by hour ten I'd seen everything the game had to
offer. (That's not quite true. Around hour 35 I discovered a new type
of building I could explore and the lack of variety up to that point
made that encounter a lot more exciting than it should have been).

There are other problems too. A lot of the game goes either
unexplained or requires a tedious amount of searching to find the
necessary clues (which are delivered, of course, in audio-log form).
It's quite possible to 'kill' the end-boss without understanding who
he is or how he came into being unless you search all the buildings,
making an already unexciting climax all the less involving. Concepts
like base-building are never fully explained, nor are concepts like
what advantages of higher-quality weapons offer over lower-quality
guns (they look less rusty? I finished the game and I still don't
know). Inventory space is stupidly limited (even after upgraded
multiple times) and the interface is often quite fiddly. The AI, as
mentioned, has pathfinding issues and can shoot through the terrain.
Crafting requires that you find schematics that are stupidly difficult
to locate (I went through about half the game before I found my second schematic, and the only reason I found the first one was because the
game literally gave it to me). The larger robots are annoyingly
robust, which plays into their feeling of threat, but there's never a
point where you are allowed to bust out and take them down with
impunity. The higher-level "rival" enemies (another aspect of the game
never fully explained or explored) are even worse, with some of them
happily absorbing 50+ missiles before going down.

And that's the crux of the issue. "Generation Zero" is gorgeous,
atmospheric and has a solid gameplay loop of stealth, scrounging and fighting... but it's surrounded by a plethora of problems that show a disturbing lack of polish. Moment-to-moment, the game is incredibly
fun and engaging, but it also lacks variety, pacing, stability and
direction. The developers obviously are skilled artists and level
designers, but the team desperately needs an equally skilled producer
who can bring it all together in a satisfying whole. The game feels
like it's an Early Access product, where the core concepts are still
being worked on before more content is added, but this is the final
product, and - judging by the long list of issues other players have
brought up already - its unlikely any of these problems will be fixed
(the developers seem more interested in pumping out DLC). I really
want to love this game - there are parts of it I /do/ love - but
despite all its best parts it's really hard to want to keep playing it
- much less recommend to others.




===========================
* Its arguable whether Systemic Reaction - the developers - qualify as "Indies", since they aren't the typical "solo garage developers" many
think of when the term is used. But they're not backed by a larger
publisher, and the team isn't that big so they perhaps qualify.
Nonetheless, the problems in their game are indicative of many of the
issues I have with Indie titles in general, and thus - whether
"Generation Zero" qualifies as an Indie game itself - I use it as an
example of the genre.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)