GunZ: The Duel Launches on Steam, Faces AI Backlash

GunZ: The Duel has returned to Steam worldwide. Players are criticizing alleged AI content in the assets, as well as performance issues.

GunZ: The Duel was released on the IJJI platform in the mid-2000s as an entertaining free-to-play action MMO. Although the game shut down in 2013, it has returned with a global Steam launch through Masangsoft.

“We are sincerely grateful to our global fans for their passion and patience as they have waited for the return of GunZ: The Duel,” said a Masangsoft representative in a press release. “In GunZ, victory is determined by skill and mastery. There are no pay-to-win (P2W) elements, and success comes down to how well you play. We hope players can once again experience the excitement and skill-based action that lies at the heart of GunZ: The Duel.”

GunZ: The Duel Is Back, but Steam Reviews Target AI Use

The game currently has mixed reviews on Steam. As of this writing, a little more than 1,800 people are playing. Negative Steam reviews largely focus on the inclusion of AI content, along with server issues and other concerns.

You can see an example of several reviews below:

Do not play this game. Do not give them a single cent of your hard earned money. These developers resurrected a timeless classic, only to kill it again in front of you. They think its funny. The performance is worse than private servers have offered for over a decade. All new content is AI generated. The maps have “high res” textures that just make everything look awful. The game feels like it is under water, your character will get stuck on random geometry.

AI art everywhere. Slap in the face to long time players hoping for a revival with the AI video the moment you open the game. AI generated icons. People spiking up to 3k ping and randomly coming back down(always entire groups of people, seems to be half a room of people or more, or sometimes less, at any given time, with other players all seeing the same thing happening). They increased slash range- you can now slash from so far away you can no reg beat someone with slashes that don’t even make a sound. Block is entirely useless below 30 ping- you can’t stun people. Its impossible. This is due to a tick rate change they were told how to fix in the feedback every beta since making the change that they ignored, because I suspect they were just vibe coding(based on all the AI art I’ve seen in full release) this whole thing and had no idea how to apply the fix. I’m a glad player, so I did not get a chance to test gun aspect- but all the basic fundamentals of the game are broken. Maybe shooting at least works. This hurts. The game holds a level of sentimental value. I’ve been playing before the ijji server even released. Right now, the game would absolutely be in a better state if they just did absolutely nothing at all but improve anticheat. That is not me making a joke. Its that bad. That is another thing though- cheaters are also back. Whatever. I had high hopes for GunZ coming back, but this is just another bad pserver.

Games can always be updated to take out generative AI content. Still, not a great look for the passion project.

Did you ever play the original GunZ? What are some games of today that register that same feeling for you?

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