Avalanche is also developer of the rather more explosive Just Cause gamesAnd so you start to glaze over,
ignore the copy-pasted assets, and
focus on scouring houses as quickly
as possible. And that, sadly, is the
entire journey of playing Generation
Zero in a nutshell. Or a nötskal, as
they’re known in these parts.
The gunfights with robots start out
tense – they have you outnumbered
and outgunned, and it’s hard to not
be a little freaked out by mechanical
creatures shooting at you – but, after
a few encounters, the thrill quickly
fades away.
This is despite the game handing
you plenty of interesting tools for
combat. Fireworks to baffle the robots’
targeting systems, boomboxes to
distract them, fuel tanks that can
be shot to trigger an explosion. But
their benefits are short-lived for the
amount of effort required to dig them
out of the unwieldy inventory menu,
and you’ll end up relying on whichever
gun still has ammo in it instead.
The bigger problem is that
Avalanche seems to have decided
it’s vital your enemies have period-
accurate AI capabilities. Early on,
facing half a dozen robots on a farm,
we hid out in a barn, rattling off a
few shots as they wandered past the
open doorway. As the mechanical
corpses stacked up, we realised there
were multiple other entrances to the
barn, and waited for that ‘clever girl’
moment. It never came – and instead,
the last of these fearsome foes got
stuck on the barn door. It’s hard to
be scared of something that moves
with all the grace of those LEGO
educational turtle bots.
In an effort to balance this out,
the machines – sporadically –
demonstrate supernaturally good
detection abilities, spotting you
through walls or while you’re crouched
in long grass. This means it’s not
much fun trying to outwit the robots or
sneak around them.The result is an intriguing setting
which manages to make a well-
trodden period feel fresh, but which
never translates that into a compelling
world to explore. You’d likely be
better off looking up the art of Simon
Stålenhag, reading up on Sweden’s
part in the Cold War and blasting the
Stranger Things soundtrack on your
boombox than actually playing. QLIVE
TOGETHER
Online, four players
can team up to
explore Generation
Zero’s world together,
and battles –
especially as you
progress and the
game swamps you
with cybernetic
threats – definitely
feel balanced for
co-op play. Alas, the
difficulty doesn’t
scale up or down to
match the number of
players, so it’s up to
you to find that
Goldilocks sweet spot
between ‘dying
repeatedly on your
own’ and ‘a walk in
the robotic park’. For
our money, though,
two or three players is
just right.“It’s not much
fun trying to
outwit the
robots or sneak
around them”
FAR LEFT
Fireworks and
flares might not
be the most
effective tools
in combat, but
they sure are
pretty to look
at. Ka-pow!
RIGHT The nice
sunshine almost
makes the place
look pleasant
and not ravaged
by the machines.OXM VERDICT
An interesting
concept and
setting, held back
by its rather
lacking execution.5
LEFT You can
observe and even
scan robots with
your binoculars,
though you can’t
mark them.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 079REVIEW