Avalanche Studios, the developer of Mad Max and the Just Cause games, announced today that it's working on a new open-world shooter called Generation Zero. Set in Sweden in the 1980s (Avalanche is based in Stockholm), it's a vaguely Terminator-like tale of a world that's been taken over by machines, and humanity's efforts to survive against them.
Generation Zero will feature "a full day/night cycle with unpredictable weather, complex AI behavior, simulated ballistics, highly realistic acoustics, and a dynamic 1980s soundtrack," which I pray will not include really bad AC/DC. Players can have at it solo or in groups of up to four, and enemies will be "persistently simulated," meaning that damage inflicted will be permanent: If you bang one up and it gets away, you'll see the effect of your efforts the next time you encounter it, no matter how far down the road it may be.
The description is really interesting as far as it goes, but it's also really short on specifics about things like the size of the game world or how the "seamless multiplayer" will be handled. It also sounds like it may not be on the same scale as Avalanche's previous games: Generation Zero will be self-published, and executive producer Tobias Andersson described it as a "small project in the corner office." Avalanche is also currently working on Rage 2 for Bethesda.
Generation Zero is listed on Steam with a 2019 availability date and system requirements that I would guess are subject to change between now and then:
- OS: 64bit OS—Windows 7
- Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 660 / ATI HD7870—2GB VRAM
- Storage: 30 GB available space
- OS: 64bit OS—Windows 10
- Processor: Intel i7 Quad Core
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 960 / R9 280—4GB VRAM
- Storage: 30 GB available space
(Okay, they're both bad, but Maximum Overdrive has Emilio Estevez and so that's your recommended spec.)
