MADFINGER Games continues to evolve Gray Zone Warfare in a strong and sensible direction. The open-world tactical shooter has undergone more than a few changes in recent history, and it’s becoming increasingly impressive with each new drop.
Recently, the team made an update to the game’s identity on Steam, including a term in the product description that’s not seen too often in the tactical shooter space. Gray Zone Warfare, the sumptuous sandbox shooter, is now ‘PvE-first’.
What Does PvE-First Mean for Gray Zone Warfare?
Once upon a time, Gray Zone Warfare was described as an extraction shooter, with a twist. Players could run into and out of the game world, unbound by any kind of timer-based limitations, and explore the diverse, lush setting of Lamang at will. It bore classic trademarks of the extraction genre, but it was so much more than that.
That concept was recognized by MADFINGER with a pivot last year, with the team officially dubbing Gray Zone Warfare a tactical MMOFPS. It was explained:
You’re not heading back to base nearly as often. Tasks can be turned in from the field. Your time is spent moving from COP to COP, POI to POI. The world encourages staying out longer, discovering more, encountering more PvP—and staying immersed.
You’re not jumping in and out of isolated raids. You’re living in this world. It’s a tactical MMOFPS. It’s persistent. It’s dangerous. It’s accessible—whether you’re new or a seasoned vet.
It might look like an extraction shooter on the surface, but it’s something different. Something of its own. That’s what makes it special.
However, things have changed again, and Gray Zone Warfare has a whole new identity:
High-Stakes PvE-First Open-World Tactical Shooter
It’s a brilliant way to label everything the game offers in one sweep. It has the high-stakes mentality of an extraction shooter, the PvE-first focus that the developers are keen to flesh out, the open-world sandbox elements, and, above all else, it’s a tactical first-person shooter.
It’s borderline milsim, mixed in with survival mechanics.
The PvE-first element, as we’ve learned, is a concept that the studio’s CEO and Co-Founder, Marek Rabas, is keen to remain heavy on. There are some ‘amazing moments and stories’ to pull from the PvP world, and that’s not going anywhere in Gray Zone (and will be expanded on in due course), but the PvE push is now front and centre in this game.
In recent months, we’ve seen many more shooters lean more into the concept of PvE.
For instance, Escape from Tarkov is a couple of years deep into running a mirrored PvE platform that accommodates thousands of users. Elsewhere, ARC Raiders players never stop debating the potential for a PvE mode to surface in that extraction adventure title.
Gray Zone Warfare perfectly suits a PvE operating model, and it does little to take away from the game’s inherent challenge and risk profile. There’s every opportunity for you to run into an opposing faction and get into a firefight, but much of that tension is now centered entirely around AI enemies.
It’s very worth pointing out that, since the beginning, Gray Zone’s ‘Joint Operations’ mode has facilitated 100% PvE combat…
Do you think it’s a win for Gray Zone’s developers to be focusing on PvE? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
I put 100hrs into the game in 1 month, then stopped it. I played mostly PVE. I really loved the original far cry, far cry 2 and far cry 3 games, and Gray zone has that vibe but mixed with some extraction shooter like elements. PvP can be enjoyable, but basically it just consists of getting killed at location X, respawning, gearing up, running back to location X, and shooting at each other. Then you die at location Y and the whole thing starts over again. It’s fun for a few hours, but after that it gets pretty boring. Game could be a good PVE open world military “exploration” game, devs have to work on AI enemies, and map variety. AI enemies are pathetic in their current state. They are either brainless zombies, or the most highly trained delta force predators wearing flip folps, giving you a headshot with a broken AK from 600meters away in pitch dark. The map is good, but needs more interesting POIs.
I agree I have many hours in this game and PvE is where it’s at. But it needs more lore and interesting POI’s for this to work. It would be awesome if there was an additional story mode or campaign other than just the tasks to kind of flesh things out a bit. Love the game to death but it got kind of stale after awhile I hope these updates well give me a reason to dive back in.
Haven’t played since the first month or two that it came out. And I went hard for the month or two straight. I’m not sure where they’re currently at with things to do. I popped up super briefly not too long ago to see they added night maps and gear for it. But if they haven’t already, I’d really like to see more self sustainable items and so forth. Setting up a mobile camp out in the woods, getting a UTV to haul stuff, crafting foods by fishing at the river or hunting to whatever, this is what I envision. A full scale hybrid of survival, extraction, loot, shoot, and risk of losing it all. Furthermore, these mobile camps I mention would NOT be a safe space. Enemy groups roaming through the woods could easily see that fire pit at night and raid your camp, kill you and take your stuff. This would be an amazing feature.