Recent reviews by Zigtyr

Amazing game. Truly incredible.

But ♥♥♥♥ the mini-games. They are incompetently designed unless the Gestral Beach Volleyball is meant to be nigh impossible and one of the most frustrating experiences in gaming.

Was playing Trial of Iron and the game crashed after a marathon session. No mods. Lost hours of progress. And the game is far too tedious to make up that progress a second time...

Why don't you have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ auto-save feature in an "Iron Man" game mode that doesn't allow you to manually save? Asinine. What a waste.

This latest patch completely turned the game around. Night and day. Very fun, and a very promising future.

A phoenix from ashes.

I should not need to configure my mouse buttons to this specific game just because the developers were too lazy to implement actual keybind functionality... Same issue with Elden Ring.

It's the principle of the thing.

Very interesting concept, but far from perfect. Please see the feedback breakdown below if you are employed by Gamera Interactive or a player interested in purchasing Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms.


PROS:

- Fresh (although figuratively two-dimensional) skill-based isometric combat system that could foreseeably prompt widespread evolution within the genre if matured to a greater level of complexity.

- Subjectively appealing old-school art style.

- Mount & Blade style map navigation (although day/night cycles move too quickly and encounters are mind-numbingly repetitious/tedious).


CONS:

- The story is a cliche cookie-cutter fantasy fiction tale of a mortal champion rising to oppose evil deities. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but I chuckled on at least one occasion due to seeing blatant rip-offs of other works (such as "The Retreat" being a carbon-copy allusion to Tolkien's elves sailing into "the west" to live in "the land of the gods" and in the light of the "elder trees"). ChatGPT was obviously used to generate all story and quest-related dialogue, rendering it boringly superficial and unworthy of the player's time.

- "Fighting Zones" (basically "missions" from any mobile game) are exactly that -- small areas, each marked with a set difficulty, that you can enter from the map to explore (sometimes it lets you choose to go left or right!) and fight enemies. Once you enter a zone, you cannot leave it unless you either die or get to the very end. Any "loot" that "drops" is lost unless the zone is successfully completed. Fighting Zones can be entered multiple times, but they are static and always the same. Implementation of random generation (at least involving the mobs) would help to offer some measure of replayability.

- The loot (if you can call it that) is not satisfying at all. When you kill an enemy, "loot" will show up as obtained on the screen. However, you do not actually receive that loot (or the ability to access it) until after clearing the entire "Fighting Zone." Most of the items you receive are the same few crafting items over and over (leather, bones, metal strap, etc). Enemies do also sometimes "drop" weapons, but the hard-coded lists are incredibly limited. For example, you might kill 20 goblins during a mission, and afterwards receive five identical copies of a common-quality "Rusty Sword," five identical copies of a common-quality "Wooden Shield," and two identical copies of an uncommon-quality "Goblin Shield." Regarding individual weapon stats/upgrades -- despite there being several tiers of quality, you will likely not even notice the difference in time-to-kill between an "epic" quality sword and a "common" one. It would be great to see randomized and more meaningful items/loot, as well as a manual looting system a la either Diablo or Baldur's Gate.

- The progression system is overly linear, growth does not feel tangible whatsoever, and leveling up is only achieved by clearing every second "Fighting Zone." It is not possible to get stronger by "grinding" because there is no "XP" system, and the myriad quests are generally a waste of time because of that. A traditional formula involving either experience points or "souls" would have proven far superior here for both short and long-term gameplay. Furthermore, there exists only a small handful of skills/traits to pick from (some of which can only be used X amount of times per "Fighting Zone"), with insufficient variety to offer truly unique play-styles. The same can be said about choice of weapon type, which has very little impact on how you approach combat.

- The AI leaves much to be desired. Enemies just run towards you in a beeline and do not attempt to dodge your attacks.
Similarly, the allies you can hire just stand there and soak up damage -- providing a decent distraction but dying very quickly in the process. You can revive your allies twice per Fighting Zone, which will get you through maybe two or three groups of enemies before you are on your own again.

- "Hardcore Mode" is an optional difficulty enhancer that you can activate after beating the game once. It increases the health pool and damage of enemies by 50%, and decreases player damage by 25%. Even "trash mobs" were already far too spongy by default. Almost doubling the time to kill them makes this game the most boring slog-fest I've had the displeasure of experiencing since mid-2000's Maplestory (which at least did have more than a semblance of progression to keep players engaged/hooked).


Frankly, I would not have purchased this title to begin with had I known in advance how weak the progression and looting systems were. But I'm glad I did, because the Work In Progress combat system was a refreshing treat -- even in its current unripe state. That's not to say that I can justifiably recommend purchasing this game. Not yet, anyhow. Its description reads "Baldur's Gate and Dark Souls had a baby!" If only. I hope that such a thing can one day be realized!

No mouse support...

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 04/30/2024:

The developers at Madfinger Games certainly jumped the gun on releasing Gray Zone Warfare into Early Access. Likely because Tarkov's recent "Unheard" drama opened up an irresistible window of opportunity.

Do not buy this game, folks. It is in a very bad (and very early) state. Let it cook for a couple years.

UPDATED ON 03/17/2025:

It's been almost a year, and development has already come a long way. The established foundation is solid, and the primary gameplay loop (insert, kill, loot, quest, and extract) is very satisfying. Gray Zone Warfare's gun-play is second-to-none, and all weapons feel sufficiently punchy and lethal. The PvP and PvE modes are seamlessly connected, so you can switch between them while maintaining the same character and stash/locker contents.

My present criticisms involve optimization, content, and AI behavior. While certainly playable on a middle-end PC, the achievable frame-rate with low settings is quite a bit less than I hope to see upon full release. I understand that additional weapons will be added soon. As of now, the selection is paltry and aftermarket components are rare/overpriced. Lastly, engaged AI bots (even the supposedly-untrained scavenger rabble found in the starting zones) are liable to promptly execute you with supreme efficacy (and accuracy) as though each of them spent years under the tutelage of a green beret. There should be more diversity when it comes to bot difficulty and a player's odds of being killed in a given encounter.

Once the kinks are ironed out and more content is added, this game may grow to become one of the best out there. In the meantime, there is plenty of fun to be had.

A note to the devs: please consider allowing unmitigated 100% repairs for weapon accessories and attachments (at a minimum). "Gear-fear" is a necessary and wonderful aspect of the extraction shooter genre -- but we should not be punished, in the form of inevitable weapon deterioration, for *failing* to die.

UPDATED ON 05/25/2025:

It's getting better and better. Now is the time to hop in and give it a shot if you haven't,

Devs are scum. Rating is padded with positive reviews solicited in exchange for "leaked screenshots" of upcoming content.

Optimization is almost as bad as ARMA (you will not get more than 60 fps consistently even on a top-of-the-line rig), and the devs could care less. Their focus is now exclusively to continue pumping out additional micro-transactions.

Shame. What was and would could have been.

Pretty janky. Definitely an Early Access Game. Wait until they get closer to release to purchase it.

Devs, please allow us to change the keybinds for things like the rope hook.

I will revisit this review later on.