5 things Gray Zone Warfare needs to fix ASAP

With its early access release, Gray Zone Warfare has immediately risen to the top of Steam’s best sellers. But with over 9,000 reviews as of writing, it’s not surprising to come across negative reviews. While the game holds immense potential for a tactical FPS featuring realistic ballistic simulation, Madfinger Games must first address these game-breaking issues to retain its playerbase.

This article discusses five things the developers need to fix soon as they are making the game borderline unplayable for many players.

NOTE: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.

Five things Gray Zone Warfare needs to fix soon

While it is common to experience bugs and glitches on the launch day of any title, some of these mentioned issues are a part of the game's core gameplay. Here are five things they need to fix.

1) Performance issues

Performance issues have disrupted the player's fun. (Image via Madfinger Games)

Gray Zone Warfare was not optimized for performance upon release. Many players took to Steam and Reddit to complain about the low frames they have been getting while playing the game. For reference, a player with a decent RTX 3080 GPU, R7 7800x3D CPU, and 32 GB RAM is only getting about 60-70 fps without DLSS.

The players are also facing server-side lag, making the game feel clunky and unenjoyable. For a tactical FPS PvP shooter like Gray Zone Warfare, higher frame rates and better servers are warranted and Madfinger Games needs to patch the game for better optimization soon.

Also read: Gray Zone Warfare PC minimum and recommended system requirements

2) Loss of paid bundles

The loss of paid bundles in the game is frustrating. (Image via Madfinger Games)

Madfinger Games is selling additional upgrades like Tactical Edition, Elite Edition, and Supporter Edition bundles that give you some extra loot to start with. But as you load into the game, the game supposedly crashes, resulting in the loss of all purchased items. These items are unretrievable and non-refundable, making the players feel like they have been robbed.

Paying real money for digital items with no way of securing them in your inventory is risky. The developers need to find a way for players to retain the items they buy in-game while maintaining the integrity of a loot-based title.

Also read: All Gray Zone Warfare editions: What's included, worth buying, and more

3) Intentional team killing

Intentional team killing is not punished. (Image via Madfinger Games)

Killing your teammates goes unpunished and is rewarded. It is a 16v16v16 game between three factions. While the other two factions are hostile, 15 players from your faction are friendly.

But as of release, players from your faction can kill and loot everything you have without facing any consequences. This makes the game frustrating for many players and even leads to toxicity. While friendly fire is a must-have for a realistic FPS game, its no-consequence approach is damaging to the game. The developers need to address ways to deal with friendly fire.

Also read: All factions in Gray Zone Warfare explained

4) PvE

PvE is inconsistent. (Image via Madfinger Games)

Gray Zone Warfare has a PvE element to the game. Especially the first hour of the game is focused on the player going against AI enemies. But the AI enemies feel wildly inconsistent in their behavior. Sometimes they act like stick figures, taking no action while you shoot their teammates in close combat. Other times, they lock on you and shoot you down from far away.

The AI enemy's health also seems inconsistent, with some enemies requiring multiple headshot damage to go down. Paired with this, the fact that the quest lines are non-immersive and vague makes the PvE aspect of the game feel cheap and unenjoyable. This is something the developers need to address to bring in and retain new players.

Also read: How to complete Little Bird Down in Gray Zone Warfare

5) Landing Duck

Landing duck. (Image via Madfinger Games)

The game is an extraction-based shooter where you drop in on the map with a helicopter. The helicopter has dropping zones where it is relatively clear of vegetation and has suitable terrain.

Players, having figured this out, have started camping in bushes around these drop zones, waiting for a new player to drop in. As soon as the new player drops, he is shot down and looted. This makes the game frustrating to play.

The developers can maybe address this by having a buffer time upon drop during which the player cannot be shot down. Or even if he is shot down, the camping player is unable to loot the body as the helicopter carries the loot back. Whichever route Madfinger Games takes, this issue requires addressing ASAP as many players are quitting because of the frustration.

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