For some reason, I already had Generation Zero in my library, and after buying the DLC bundle on Humble Bundle, I decided to give it a try. I'm always looking for another FPS I can sink my teeth into.

And lord was doing that a mistake.

First off, the said DLC are effectively various weapons and tools that would immediately outclass the gear you would get in the early game, invalidating the gradual ramp up in gear quality you'd find in any open world/rpg style "Looting" game. I made the "smart" decision to avoid the DLC content I paid good money for outside of cosmetics.

The first hour of the game is a bit strange - your character(s) are a group of college kids celebrating at some sort of lake/boat party, before your boat is suddenly shot for unknown reason. The game intro explains the post Cold War era Sweden decided to train and arm their civilians in preparedness for a national war or crisis. You leave your burning boat after docking to the nearest land and end up close to a house - an abandoned house with destroyed robots, blood splatters and dead cops. Your silent protaganist character has seemingly nothing to say about the carnage or the fact that the first thing you should do is loot the property and bodies for healing and weaponry. The game mostly becomes a series of events of exploring a building or settlement, looting said location, killing enemy robots from an unknown source (likely an enemy state, or Sweden's own military units being compromised and used against them), and continuing on to the next mission or settlement.

Generation Zero at is a decent little romp that plays like a combination of State of Decay, Farcry, and Horizon: Zero Dawn to varying degrees: Mainly by being a PVE loot/crafting first person shooter with various A to B mission on an island nation. I put a few hours in before deciding to go multiplayer, which only works by matchmaking. I was loaded into a room with players multiple levels above me and I decided I'll mess with multiplayer the next day. What ensued that day was one of the worst MP experiences I dealt with - A room with a player that kicked me without communication, a second room with an Away From Keyboard (AFK) player, a third room with a level 10000 player in which when I joked about them cheating, got salty and kicked me. These last two were the only two available for a time - being forced to join an AFK room or a salty player that repeatedly kicked me on the instant I joined because I joked about their cheating. I lucked up on a fourth room that seemingly had a full 4 player squad... except the game became stuck on Joining Session, requiring me to use ALT + F4 as the only way to escape the screen after waiting for 5 minutes, when joining a game typically take seconds. Stuck between joining these terrible rooms, I did finally join a playable room...that caused the game to crash when I attempted fast travel to the other players. After more trial and error connecting to viable hosts, I finally got into a room I could play in. I play not longer than a minute before I got an "Connection to Server was lost". An absolute MESS of an experience, that is definitely not worth your time to try and join rando's if you're reading this.

But I'M NOT DONE! I decided to continue my original save and play as a host myself. I attempt the "High Value Target" mission - I follow the map marker...nothing is at the map marker. Something feels wrong, I do a cursory google search. High Value Target is bugged for many players, and supposedly hotfixed, but the same bug reported still exist in my game, and has been bugged for years according to posts on Reddit, Steam Forums, and the official game forums. I decide to skip said mission. A player joined. then immediately left. I played own my own for a good half hour or so, before reaching the hardest encounter I faced - an 8-12 robot fighting gauntlet where a small encounter turned into a big encounter fighting a heavily armored, 1 story high walking mech at my back side, along with a bunch of crawling "Grunt" style enemies and a couple of flyers. I used my sniping skills, prone position, and healing, trying to take out the bots one by one - even being downed once, and self reviving with an adrenaline shot, repositioning myself on the giant boulder I'm perched on, with no cover, only avoiding shots because I was prone at angle the bots couldn't shoot up at (By the way, these bots aren't super intelligent either). I gradually finish them off single handedly - then 2 players finally decide to show up in my game, right after I didn't need them anymore. Them joining didn't make things better, they both ran off and did their own thing the world before eventually leaving after barely chatting (the 2nd player not saying a word). I go about my business, completing my missions. Eventually another player joins me and even asks if it's ok to join my game - I suppose it is common for people to kick/not allow other players in their room - i asked the player if that is the case after he thanked me for letting him join... but he never responded afterwards, Again, doing his own thing in the open world before suddenly leaving. Day 2 of mutliplayer is an absolute bust.

Day 3. I decide to focus on my missons, but eventually to decide to let my room be open. A player joins me at a bunker, and even follows me around a bit. We kill some bots and such, and eventually they leave. At some point, Generation Z crashes. Fine whatever, not the first time this has happened. I play little bit more - game crashes again. Ugh, ok whatever, reload. Play again, make some progress, get on the dirtbike game crashes AGAIN! This is probably the 6th or 7th crash I've had in my experience in a game that honestly isn't great enough to reload just to do basic tasks. Too many crashes. Too many design oddities. Too awful online experience.

Steam: Would you recommend this game to other players? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
I do not recommend wasting money or time on this. This all said, my 12 hr playtime reflects about 8-10 hrs of RELATIVE enjoyment of exploring an archipelago of Sweden, looting containers, running missions and shooting components off robots. There's bones for a good game here, but with a poor online experience in 2024 and the developer announcing a Final update coming, despite the game being crash prone and buggy to this day five years after release. playing Generation Zero is an excersize in frustration and whelming.

For some reason, I already had Generation Zero in my library, and after buying the DLC bundle on Humble Bundle, I decided to give it a try. I'm always looking for another FPS I can sink my teeth into. And lord was doing that a mistake. First off, the said DLC are effectively various weapons and tools that would immediately outclass the gear you would get in the early game, invalidating the gradual ramp up in gear quality you'd find in any open world/rpg style "Looting" game. I made the "smart" decision to avoid the DLC content I paid good money for outside of cosmetics. The first hour of the game is a bit strange - your character(s) are a group of college kids celebrating at some sort of lake/boat party, before your boat is suddenly shot for unknown reason. The game intro explains the post Cold War era Sweden decided to train and arm their civilians in preparedness for a national war or crisis. You leave your burning boat after docking to the nearest land and end up close to a house - an abandoned house with destroyed robots, blood splatters and dead cops. Your silent protaganist character has seemingly nothing to say about the carnage or the fact that the first thing you should do is loot the property and bodies for healing and weaponry. The game mostly becomes a series of events of exploring a building or settlement, looting said location, killing enemy robots from an unknown source (likely an enemy state, or Sweden's own military units being compromised and used against them), and continuing on to the next mission or settlement. Generation Zero at is a decent little romp that plays like a combination of State of Decay, Farcry, and Horizon: Zero Dawn to varying degrees: Mainly by being a PVE loot/crafting first person shooter with various A to B mission on an island nation. I put a few hours in before deciding to go multiplayer, which only works by matchmaking. I was loaded into a room with players multiple levels above me and I decided I'll mess with multiplayer the next day. What ensued that day was one of the worst MP experiences I dealt with - A room with a player that kicked me without communication, a second room with an Away From Keyboard (AFK) player, a third room with a level 10000 player in which when I joked about them cheating, got salty and kicked me. These last two were the only two available for a time - being forced to join an AFK room or a salty player that repeatedly kicked me on the instant I joined because I joked about their cheating. I lucked up on a fourth room that seemingly had a full 4 player squad... except the game became stuck on Joining Session, requiring me to use ALT + F4 as the only way to escape the screen after waiting for 5 minutes, when joining a game typically take seconds. Stuck between joining these terrible rooms, I did finally join a playable room...that caused the game to crash when I attempted fast travel to the other players. After more trial and error connecting to viable hosts, I finally got into a room I could play in. I play not longer than a minute before I got an "Connection to Server was lost". An absolute MESS of an experience, that is definitely not worth your time to try and join rando's if you're reading this. But I'M NOT DONE! I decided to continue my original save and play as a host myself. I attempt the "High Value Target" mission - I follow the map marker...nothing is at the map marker. Something feels wrong, I do a cursory google search. High Value Target is bugged for many players, and supposedly hotfixed, but the same bug reported still exist in my game, and has been bugged for years according to posts on Reddit, Steam Forums, and the official game forums. I decide to skip said mission. A player joined. then immediately left. I played own my own for a good half hour or so, before reaching the hardest encounter I faced - an 8-12 robot fighting gauntlet where a small encounter turned into a big encounter fighting a heavily armored, 1 story high walking mech at my back side, along with a bunch of crawling "Grunt" style enemies and a couple of flyers. I used my sniping skills, prone position, and healing, trying to take out the bots one by one - even being downed once, and self reviving with an adrenaline shot, repositioning myself on the giant boulder I'm perched on, with no cover, only avoiding shots because I was prone at angle the bots couldn't shoot up at (By the way, these bots aren't super intelligent either). I gradually finish them off single handedly - then 2 players finally decide to show up in my game, right after I didn't need them anymore. Them joining didn't make things better, they both ran off and did their own thing the world before eventually leaving after barely chatting (the 2nd player not saying a word). I go about my business, completing my missions. Eventually another player joins me and even asks if it's ok to join my game - I suppose it is common for people to kick/not allow other players in their room - i asked the player if that is the case after he thanked me for letting him join... but he never responded afterwards, Again, doing his own thing in the open world before suddenly leaving. Day 2 of mutliplayer is an absolute bust. Day 3. I decide to focus on my missons, but eventually to decide to let my room be open. A player joins me at a bunker, and even follows me around a bit. We kill some bots and such, and eventually they leave. At some point, Generation Z crashes. Fine whatever, not the first time this has happened. I play little bit more - game crashes again. Ugh, ok whatever, reload. Play again, make some progress, get on the dirtbike game crashes AGAIN! This is probably the 6th or 7th crash I've had in my experience in a game that honestly isn't great enough to reload just to do basic tasks. Too many crashes. Too many design oddities. Too awful online experience. Steam: Would you recommend this game to other players? ABSOLUTELY NOT! I do not recommend wasting money or time on this. This all said, my 12 hr playtime reflects about 8-10 hrs of RELATIVE enjoyment of exploring an archipelago of Sweden, looting containers, running missions and shooting components off robots. There's bones for a good game here, but with a poor online experience in 2024 and the developer announcing a Final update coming, despite the game being crash prone and buggy to this day five years after release. playing Generation Zero is an excersize in frustration and whelming.