Gray Zone Warfare Preview

In military terminology, a gray zone is a state of conflict that is neither full-on warfare nor peace, but a murky area in between where opposing sides try to give themselves some kind of advantage over each through various actions. These differ based on the conflict in question, but in the case of Madfinger Games’ Gray Zone Warfare they include tracking down medical supplies, rescuing hostages, or even engaging in smuggling missions.

The latter is one core element of the Rogue Ops update, which takes the game to version 0.5 and out of pre-alpha, and goes live on Oct. 22. It’s out on PC via Steam, and I jumped in recently to see what Gray Zone Warfare can offer fans of multiplayer shooters.

Guns, Guns, and More Guns

Between Battlefield 6, the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and new kid on the block Wardogs, players are spoilt for choice when it comes to military FPS games. So what does Gray Zone Warfare do to stand out? For starters, it bills itself as a “realistic tactical FPS”, which chiefly translates to “highly-detailed weapons” – seven new guns are in the Rogue Ops update along with 340 parts, bringing the total number of available parts up to around 1,400.

You see, guns can be customised in much the same way as their real-life counterparts. Rather than simply adding a scope or new barrel, all the main sections can be swapped out for relevant parts. This level of detail also extends to the gameplay: Hold your aim for too long and it’ll start to wobble, for example. Controls include checking the chamber and zeroing ranges. Some of these ideas have been used in other milsims, but Gray Zone Warfare feels, to me at least, like it’s combining a lot of technical details into a very playable experience.

I’ll be honest, as a Brit, I’m really not the person to talk to about guns, but what I can tell you from my time with Gray Zone Warfare is that there’s a good range of firearms on display (maybe a few too many assault rifles), and they all pack a punch. Some can be acquired from a vendor, but most are scavenged from enemies (their bodies and bases). Gray Zone Warfare also captures the chaotic panic of wildly firing a submachine gun at an enemy that appears to have a lot more skill than you do.

Enemy AI Gets an Update

Enemy behaviour gets an overhaul too with Rogue Ops, but first let me give you some context. There are two game modes: PvPvE and PvE. Both use the same map, of a fictional Southeast Asian island called Lamang. Although it’s not readily apparent in-game, there’s a ton of lore for Gray Zone Warfare already, that sets up the underlying tensions. In short, there’s been some kind of armed conflict, and your boots are on the ground to find out what happened, as well as extract whatever you can (supplies, people, etc).

While other players can be a threat, from what I experienced, the NPC bad guys were smart and dangerous enough: Default enemies tend to be well-armed locals, and they know how to flank and fire from behind cover. I enjoyed kicking in doors and bursting into enemy hideouts, but didn’t realise just how easily this attracts attention: Madfinger confirmed that this action can alert enemies up to 15 metres away. They’ll also bandage themselves up if there’s a lull in a firefight, so watch out for an enemy you thought was at death’s door suddenly getting a second wind and coming after you.

Bad guys will also investigate suspicious noises, but only if they’re close enough. What I didn’t expect was to be hunted; during one session I played during the in-game night, which is extremely dark and dangerous, but thrilling. Tasked with checking if an abandoned ambulance had any supplies left, I crept through the tall grass by the roadside as enemies patrolled under a nearby streetlight. I scurried out to search the ambulance – mission accomplished! But the noise of my search attracted those guards, and they hit me with two flashlights as I darted back into the surrounding darkness. Hoping to outrun them (in the dark, with no night vision equipment) I simply couldn’t get away fast enough, and ended that playthrough bleeding out in a ditch.

Intolerable Pain

Madfinger has thrown the term “immersive” around in developer Q&As, and they’re not wrong to use it. Aside from the weapons, how player health works is also deeply layered. Even if it can’t escape feeling a bit too video gamey in places.

Bodies (yours and enemies’) get damaged according to how they’re shot, stabbed, or otherwise mangled. Run through razor wire hidden in the darkness? Kiss goodbye to full mobility and say hello to severe bleeding. Manage to down a bad guy with a chest shot? Search their body and you’ll see you hit their heart.

I like this attention to detail, but the system tends to get a little overzealous, especially when you factor in hunger and thirst. It was funny at first being out in the field and struggling with an upset stomach, which growls at you until you eat something or take medicine, as the absurdity of going on a clandestine hostage rescue with an empty tummy didn’t seem like something a real mercenary would do. But once you start accruing severe thirst, dizziness, and a frankly ridiculous litany of injuries, the game’s audio devolves into a cacophony of grunts, groans, and gargles, and it becomes a lot less absurd and more flat-out irritating.

Also, you can go into a coma. A coma! I was trying to recover some semblance of health by eating a tin of tofu when an enemy unceremoniously popped out of the bushes and nailed me right in the guts. Cue a restart back at base without my gear.

Hideouts and Crafting

Some issues like this are to be expected for a game only just entering its Alpha phase, and to be fair Gray Zone Warfare already boasts a decent level of polish. It doesn’t feel especially optimised at the moment but still ran okay on my setup, which is above the minimum requirements listed on the Steam page, but Madfinger Games has already stated that it’s busy refining what’s already here, as well as adding new content.

The most intriguing thing added with the 0.5 version is a hideout and a crafting system. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Rogue Ops update lets players embrace their inner Walter White and produce drugs, either for medical purposes or the illegal market, opening up new opportunities and creating competition based on the paths they choose to pursue. For example, if you want to smuggle illicit substances to another base, enemy players get the opportunity to try and intercept you.

The crafting system also allows the use of things like hacking tools to open up new areas on the map. Meanwhile, a hideout can be upgraded and customised. Madfinger have said that they intend this to act as a secondary gameplay loop parallel to the main game modes, although right now the hideout can only be upgraded up to level three (a fourth and fifth level are on cards, bringing more items and blueprints).

Big Men Doing Big Men Things

Getting started in Gray Zone Warfare is straightforward, as you create a character (you can have four on the go) from almost 20 presets each for clothes, faces, and hair, pick a game mode, then pick one of the three factions (see the image below). All the presets are big burly dudes, with no current plans to introduce ladies, so your take on this may vary, but it didn’t bother me personally.

I may have namechecked a few modern titles at the start, but the game Gray Zone Warfare most reminds me of, at least on a surface level, is the first Far Cry. That’s not a bad thing, because that game understands the joy of being let loose on a tropical island to explore and creep around, qualities Gray Zone Warfare has in spades.

There’s also a hint that this game might end up like Far Cry’s spiritual successor, Crysis, as some new locations added in the Rogue Ops update include a Radio Observatory, Asylum, and Camp, with the suggestion that extraterrestrials might be involved. Madfinger did reveal that anomalies are headed to the game in a future update, so a sci-fi angle could also help strengthen Gray Zone Warfare’s identity.

Gray Zone Warfare does a lot of the broad strokes stuff (extraction shooter gameplay, teaming-up, voice chat, etc) absolutely fine; it’s in the granular details where it stands to excel. As of now, it’s a worthwhile shooter that, while not quite the sum of its parts, is building on a solid foundation and set to only get better.