A mobile dev is taking a chance on one of PC's most hardcore genres: a realistic military sim
ARMA has been the king of absurdly deep milsims for about as long as I can remember, and it is very secure in its reign. Try as I might, I can't recall many games that ever really tried to challenge ARMA's dominance of the hardcore simulation realm, but now someone else has decided to give it a try. Gray Zone Warfare is the just-announced first foray into PC gaming from Madfinger Games—the mobile dev behind iOS and Android series like Shadowgun Legends and Dead Trigger—and bills itself as «an immersive tactical first-person shooter with a maximum focus on realism.»
«Become a part of a Private Military Company,» reads the announcement, questionably, «and navigate an expansive open-world setting alone or in a squad.» To be fair, that expansive open-world setting does look very pretty indeed as our protagonist roams around with an assault rifle, popping pills, chomping down MREs and killing just, like, everyone. It reminds me a bit—in a good way—of Far Cry 4's Kyrat, albeit without the snow-capped peaks.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it takes itself a bit more seriously than Far Cry, though. The devs are keen to talk up the game's myriad commitments to realism, from guns you can customise with «hundreds of various parts,» to a health system that tries to simulate our terrible, frail human bodies realistically, with an injury system that demands you correctly identify what's wrong with you (probably a bullet) before applying the right solution, MGS3-style.
Interestingly, the devs dedicate a section of their Steam blurb to talking up the game's story, which isn't generally something I associate with hardcore milsim games. Madfinger promises «a mature experience with an engaging storyline» and «a colorful cast of
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