Robopocalyptic co-op shooter Generation Zero – newest from Just Cause studio Avalanche – arrives on March 26th. The open world shooter might have beforehand drawn comparisons to Left 4 Dead, however after enjoying round with a beta model final yr, I feel this one stands out from the gang by being a much more open, quieter and extra tactical shooter. Chunky industrial-looking robots have taken over a Swedish island, and solely a band of 4 very 80s youths can scavenge up the firepower to filter the machines, one hot-zone at a time.
The Generation Zero beta felt remarkably lonely, reminding me (pleasantly) of Arma three and STALKER. Even within the small strip of land the beta was restricted to, it’s massive sufficient to get comprehensively misplaced. Aside from as much as three different gamers, there wasn’t a single human to be discovered – no quest-givers, no cutscenes, only a map of doable places to discover. The robots themselves felt attention-grabbing to struggle as effectively, solely taking place after being shot in key parts. You may pour a thousand bullets right into a non-essential a part of a machine and obtain nothing, and headshots aren’t all the time the best way to go. They really really feel like machines, regardless of how animalistic some behave.
The beta had some points too, in fact. Its bugs ranged from deeply annoying (my character forgetting heal themselves) to hilarious (a floating patch of grass launching me 100 ft into the sky), and I’ve acquired my fingers crossed that they’ve hammered out the worst of the dents by launch. I additionally really feel it’s an attention-grabbing change of tempo for Avalanche – it’s an oddly quiet and restrained game, particularly contemplating that you simply’re meant to be preventing a battle in opposition to a military of killbots. Hard to imagine it’s from the identical studio as Just Cause and the upcoming Rage 2 – I’m hoping it finds its area of interest when it launches later this spring.
Generation Zero launches on March 26th for £30/$35/$35, and you could find it here on Steam. You can discover a bit extra (together with peeks at quasi-humanoid and big quadruped bots that weren’t within the beta) on its official page here.
