Bamboozled Gray Zone Warfare players are protesting after realising their faction choices are stopping them from teaming up with friends

Three soldiers in camo holding guns and walking through long grass
(Image credit: Madfinger Games)

Gray Zone Warfare has had an eventful launch into early access since it went live yesterday. 

Players initially praised the tactical FPS game for, well, not being Escape from Tarkov. However, after a couple of hours, many more began to slate the new game for its poor performance. It's been a bit of a bumpy ride, and it's not over yet. 

Like Tarkov, Gray Zone Warfare is designed to give players meaningful choices and a sense of realism and purpose to their decisions. But this has backfired, as one of those design choices means that players can't change factions once they've picked one, unless they want to start from square one again or wait for the scheduled progress wipe, which should be around July (via CharlieIntel). While the devs highlighted this feature before the game went live, it's still caused a lot of upset for people who missed the memo. 

If you and a friend decide to pick different factions, you won't be able to play together. It's like Pokémon Go teams, but extra annoying as most players didn't realise what they were signing up for when they were picking a faction. 

One player voiced this annoyance in a Reddit post as they discussed possible remedies to the problem: "Devs need to introduce a way to reset accounts within days or quicker [because] otherwise, this could become a disaster. Friends, not knowing they have to be in the same factions, are stuck, and many would rather quit than not play with friends." From the sounds of things this is a frustrating problem, and one that the devs should tackle quickly before it becomes a more significant issue. 

One player even replied to the initial post with yet another grievance about this feature: "The problem arises when you have two sets of friends, and both groups choose different factions. Now, I am torn between which ones I can play with or not."

There are a few ways the devs could go about fixing this issue. The simplest remedy would just be to let people pick their faction at least one more time, just so friends could ensure they're on the same page a second time around. To prevent further confusion in the future, it may be a good idea to add a disclosure in the game before picking a faction. This could be a small pop-up box or a mission where players have to complete an objective and pledge allegiance to the faction afterward. 

But really, how this problem is fixed doesn't matter too much, as long as it is. There have been plenty of hiccups so far for Gray Zone Warfare, which is a shame because it actually does a lot of things right, one of which is the cooperative element, something that isn't always present in other extraction shooters. It'd be nice to see all the wrinkles smoothed out in good time, so this game has the space it needs to grow and become another excellent option for players to pick up and play. 

Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

Read more
Fragpunk characters with weapon drawn
The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'
Steel Hunters hands-on
Steel Hunters is like a more tactical Titanfall, but as an extraction shooter it's undermined by boring loot
marvel rivals
Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: 'sweaty' teamplay vs. casual fun
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
midnight murder club
'The point is to be generous': This $20 FPS releasing next month is trying something new—giving away a full version of the game
A player character with an ominous mask
The Forever Winter, my favourite extraction shooter, just overhauled its most contentious feature for the second time: 'It was a hell of a rollercoaster to make the adjustment'
Latest in FPS
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide adds a psychic horde murderzone mode and makes Ogryns even smashier
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Team Fortress Spy being shocked
An FPS studio pulled its game from Steam after it got caught linking to malware disguised as a demo, but the dev insists it was actually the victim of a labyrinthine conspiracy
Neighbors Suburban Warfare screenshot a child aims a slingshot at a man from across a cul-de-sac.
A beta of backyard FPS Neighbors: Suburban Warfare is out now, and the balance discussion is hysterical: nerf trash can lids and children
Fragpunk
Somebody finally figured out casual Counter-Strike
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'