Gray Zone Warfare With Huge Audience. Game’s Reception on Steam Improves While Eft Rival Developers Fix Most Pressing Issues
The start of Gray Zone Warfare in early access was problematic, but the game is slowly getting off the ground. Players keep coming, reception is improving, and the developers are releasing the first patch.
The premiere of Gray Zone Warfare in early access did not go as smoothly as the developers would have wished. Problems began on the game's Steam card, where the transparency of the available editions left much to be desired. The servers were overloaded, and problems with anti-cheat were the icing on the cake. However, this did not stop players who wanted to try out the new rival of Escape from Tarkov. The game has gained a lot of attention.
Players' reactions
At its peak, almost 67,000 players were playing Gray Zone Warfare simultaneously (via SteamDB). Unfortunately, such a good result does not go hand in hand with opinions, because at the time of writing this news, 60% of all posted reviews are positive, meaning the game has a "mixed" rating. This is still a much better situation than two days ago, when the game had only 33%.
The list of problems is extensive and starts with the technicalities. Players complain about poor performance and frequent crashes, kicking them out of the game. It also lacks some basic QoL options like aiming and running that doesn't require holding the keys, instead of pressing them once. Moreover, the AI in the game is supposed to be ridiculously stupid, and the faction system is pointless, because it does not punish you for killing your comrades in any way.
First hotfix
Fortunately, Madfinger Games responded quickly and, as announced, released the first patch. The list of changes is short and boils down to eliminating the bug where players appear without heads, clothes or containers, as well as fixing problems with anti-cheat and server crashes. Additionally, FSR has been enabled by default for graphic cards that do not support DLSS, and its performance has been improved.
However, as it turned out, the patch did not fully work because the first problem still persists. The devs are aware of this and are looking for its source, asking players who have encountered it to fill out a form.
The studio also shared several tips intended to improve the gaming experience. However, they are quite banal and boil down to "choose the right region", "update your drivers" or "enable DLSS or FSR". If you are still interested in learning more, go to this link.
Given the fact that the game is in early access, many things can be overlooked. However, players point out that a large number of problems were pointed out during earlier tests, but they still haven't been fixed. Everything indicates that the creators really wanted to take advantage of Tarkov's weaker condition and hastily released an unfinished product (or at least unfinished for an Early Access). However, looking at the results, one could say that it paid off for them.
