Gray Zone Warfare
Mad Finger Games
Gray Zone Warfare is an intense tactical FPS emphasizing realism. Join a Private Military Company to explore a vast MMO open world featuring a PvEvP and PvE mode. Strategize and survive against human operators and AI enemies while uncovering the mystery of Lamang Island.
Gray Zone Warfare might be the next Escape from Tarkov, but it has some glaring, albeit typical, Early Access problems dragging it down right now. It’s an intense, realistic, tactical FPS with a vast open world where strategy is king.
Set on the island of Lamang somewhere in Southeast Asia, the region has been ravaged by civil war, an oppressive dictator and now a sudden cataclysmic event. It’s unclear what the event was, and players must uncover the truth for themselves. This doesn’t matter much from the gameplay perspective, especially if you don’t care about the story much.
Gray Zone Warfare has a lot of content for an early-access game. At the foundation, it’s a PvEvP MMO game where you’re more likely to fight AI enemies than other players. This extraction shooter can be played solo, with friends, or with randoms. The weapons and equipment can be modified to suit your play style, and the developers plan to add many more options to the game, too.
At the start of the game, you’ll complete quests close to your faction’s starting town, which players from other factions will usually avoid. The biggest issue right now with the factions system is that if you want to play with friends and they choose a different one from you, you guys are enemies now. At the time of writing, there’s no way to change this, but hopefully, the developers will introduce this option.
Getting injured in Gray Zone Warfare is different to most other shooters. You’ll need specific meds to heal various injuries, making it more realistic than most. Blood packs are also essential to revive teammates.
Pros
Realistic tactical FPS
PvEvP MMO
Play solo or with friends
AI enemies
Unique injury and healing mechanics
Regular updates expected
Beautiful enviroment
Cons
Early access
Large amount of glitches
Poor server stability
Repetitive low-thought missions
Small weapons pool
High-end PCs hardware required
The biggest complaint right now is that the game is poorly optimized. Server performance is a large issue. I’ll often find myself leaving the server and joining another. Gray Zone Warfare works great on higher end computers with more recently released graphics cards but for other low-end machines, it’s not as consistent with crashing or the game refusing to launch. The performance issues are the main reason why the Steam reviews have been “Negative” though it’s moved into “Mixed” now.
Gun variety is an issue in Gray Zone Warfare, as the M4 has low recoil and fast firing… everything a player needs. Against earning cash incredibly quick, there isn’t much reason to go out and play other than to shoot bots. While the environment is gorgeous, thanks to the Unreal Engine 5 the maps feel barebones.
Gray Zone Warfare is definitely a early access with the gameplay feeling and its a shame we haven’t really had another realistic tactical shooter stand up to Escape From Tarkov. After just shy of 20 hours gameplay its just not that interesting for the cost or time put into the game. In time, Gray Zone Warfare might be ready to rival Tarkov but I have a sad feeling it’ll enter the rest of the Unreal Engine FPS early access heap pile. However if you’re a big fan of early access games and running with the bugs and watching the game develop, then this might be for you!
