Triple-A presentation with the design/technical limitations of an indie - makes for a confusing cocktail. Luckily, as a robot fighting sandbox built for co-op, it makes for an engaging experience.
Of course Sweden makes even a game of mixed reception look good.
It's so close. It's so darn close.
Generation Zero's devs had the kernel of a good idea - that waging co-op guerilla warfare against killer (coffee) machines in a gorgeously rendered 1989 Sweden would be a fun proposition. They weren't wrong!
Perhaps Zero's biggest crime is that its triple-A presentation belies the indie scope of its design. Zero's issues are twofold - technical and in its minimalist approach.
Technically, it's salvageable. There are the crashes that don't overly frustrate thanks to frequent autosaving. Then there's the severe clipping. Enemies can find themselves ignore walls and objects entirely - getting trapped within. The sheer size of the world leads to similar sloppiness with frequent clipping, floating and other aberrations. The stealth-enabling awareness indicator frustratingly has you disturbing robots both above and below ground in bunkers constantly. The limits of enemy perception can be abused with a sniper rifle, rendering them easy static targets. A tank-type enemy even teleported from the ground to the top of a cliff at one point. All that said, this is mostly the game not showing its best face rather than any big issue with playability.
What a bizarre looking scene. Those Swedish houses aren't nearly big enough.
Zero makes its priorities clear from the outset when it foregoes anything more complex for an opening text crawl before unceremoniously dumping you on a beach. Its hands-off modus operandi has more than a whiff of the first Dead Island/Borderlands to it, or dare I say as well, Fallout 76. Quests remain log book textual, there isn't an NPC in sight and the world feels largely grounded and indifferent to entertaining you. What it does offer is the promise of ammo, healing items, weapons and new fast travel safe houses. With every lootable compartment randomised in offering between players, new locations can just feel like another dice roll rather than genuine exploration. The gargantuan map size, initially dizzying in possibility, leads to the much maligned similar looking buildings and interiors demanded by its more indie limitations - that too undermine exploration. Unlike the aforementioned games, Zero is also cautious in the expression of any real personality. The 80s setting feels reserved for the character customisation, music played on distraction boomboxes and emotes. You'll have to be mighty content with its less bombastic brand of looting and shooting as a goal in itself - in the absence of most any other sources of forward momentum.
Sweden's coffee culture is getting ridiculous.
You can see the upside of world-building being pushed to the background, however. It shifts out of the way of gameplay but is accessible to those that seek it out. It lays a mystery trail and doesn't undermine the seriousness of the situation with the in vogue levity of most FPS games. Its very un-Ubisoft world that doesn't spray a thick mist of activity two minutes in every direction is a novel one. Navigation doesn't insult your intelligence and you have to use your map and compass to find areas of interest. There's no enemy levelling or number rolls. There are just areas you'll be ready for and those you won't be. Whilst there's perforce reuse of assets, areas themselves can be very distinct - like the extensive frosty open fields surrounding the airbase that melt into the skyline or the sun bathed autumnal woodlands skirting the coast. Have I mentioned the vistas are mindbogglingly good?
I bifurcated my experience into pure solo play and playing with matchmaking with others outside of my game, and my god was it night and day in terms of fun factor. In a move I can only think is to incentivise co-op play, there is no enemy adjustment whatsoever. This leaves playing solo an exercise in masochism, and, with long stints through forests and fields - unbridled boredom. Equally, an advantage of solo play in the absence of an ability to steamroll bots with sheer numbers is that you gain a feeling of tension and self-preservation that gives stealth a more prominent role and dovetails better with the fiction. I think the truth is that this is a perfect blank canvas PVE game. In the absence of direction (or compelling direction at least), the sizable environment and bots to hunt provide their own fun.
Skyrim with suns.
The robot designs and fighting them is where Zero truly shines, even if it could have perhaps done with more. The standouts have to be the mini-boss Tank and Harvester - two juggernauts which reverberate the land with their steps and create great emergent co-op moments. The runners, clearly inspired by Boston Dynamics' big dog, feel both scarily grounded and convincing hunters. Shooting rewards landing shots tactically - removing armour and hitting fuel cells. Distraction items mess with their sensors and either buy you time or set them against each other. Perhaps biggest failure here isn't just that Zero doesn't communicate subtleties enough - like that the dynamic weather can mask your movement or affect visibility for bots or that by not damaging parts on a bot, you can get better loot - it also doesn't make them necessary. Particularly in co-op where hardly a second thought can be given to assaulting any pack or smattering of droids. Everyone can self revive with their 20 backup adrenaline shots anyway! That aside, it becomes clear what the blood and sweat were put into. Zero is a fun combat encounter sandbox for good and ill.
Sweden is flatter than this - even more so than Zero's sense of personality.
For every crash or bug, there is still an inspired moment. Stumbling across a gas leak, fumbling in your inventory for a gas mask until you realise it's functionally incorporated into the player customisation. Getting launched into the air by a Tank's repulsion. Finding a secret stash in a village behind a locked door. With its constricted interests, though, this isn't necessarily a game of highs, but something that might need friends to give life to or a big spoonful of patience and motivation. I'm encouraged by the commitment to free updates by the team, though. Neither zero nor hero, I'm hoping I'll one day get a taste of the latter.
