Off The Grid: A Battle Royale Experience with a Twist

Booting up Gunzilla’s free-to-play battle royale game, Off The Grid, I used to be immediately greeted by a bizarre and crude insult from the sport’s announcer, a personality named Master Sergeant Cobra. It was a colourful introduction, and never in way. The game only got stranger from there.

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When I first launched Off The Grid, I wasn’t sure what to anticipate. The game, which debuted in early access in October 2024, has been heavily promoted on the PlayStation Store and recently made its technique to Steam after being a PC exclusive on the Epic Games Store. To hype up its Steam launch, various gaming sites, including Polygon, IGN, and Kotaku, ran sponsored posts highlighting its regular updates and powerful following, and mentioning that Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9, contributed to its world-building. Curious about all the thrill, I made a decision to dive into OTG, because the cool kids call it, to see what all of the fuss is about.

After a slick introductory video, I met Master Sergeant Cobra, who quickly became one of the crucial irritating characters in gaming. Following his initial insult, he explained the premise: Off The Grid is a third-person battle royale where you try and survive and gather priceless loot that might be extracted mid-game and traded with other players. More on that later.

Getting into the Game: What Off The Grid is All About

The game threw me right into a match, and unfortunately, Cobra continued to chatter in my ear with lines like “Come on, you chickenshit!” and “Your safe zone is collapsing.” These insults quickly became repetitive. Yay, fun times.

The gameplay in Off The Grid isn’t exactly groundbreaking. You jump out of a plane, land on a map, gather weapons and loot, battle other players, and strive to be the last team standing. In my first match, most opponents appeared to be bots, which appears to be a typical issue based on online chatter. Players are also frightened concerning the game’s longevity, given the long wait times to seek out matches and frequent encounters with bots.

When I did encounter what gave the impression of an actual player, they were dressed as Donald Trump. Both Trump and Kamala Harris can be found as purchasable skins, with Trump’s featuring a “No Woke” sticker. I saw quite a number of players sporting the Trump skin, leaving me to ponder what that claims concerning the game’s playerbase.

After a number of hours, I spotted that Off The Grid is a mediocre third-person battle royale with some interesting ideas buried under a pile of less-than-stellar elements. The gunplay is decent, however the movement feels awkwardly floaty, making character control tricky. The ability to swap limbs on the fly, each with unique power-ups, is a cool concept. However, much of my time was spent trying to find other players and waiting for matches to begin.

Remember NFTs? Gunzilla Hopes You Don’t

In the sponsored posts promoting the sport, none mentioned that Off The Grid is intertwined with NFTs and blockchain technology. The loot you extract during matches? It’s all NFTs. I scored a rare arm and sold it for 60 GUN, Gunzilla’s cryptotoken, to a different player. Each item has a singular code, and there’s a limited supply.

After completing the sale, I checked my transaction history, which was marked as a part of my “GUNZ Wallet.” However, on my Xbox Series X/S, I couldn’t access this wallet or the tokens inside on account of platform restrictions. While all of it works on the Epic Store, I’m left wondering if I can ever money out my GUN tokens or if items I purchase can be usable in future games from Gunzilla.

Gunzilla, now the owner of Game Informer, has been attempting to downplay the NFT angle despite industry partnerships. The official Off The Grid website FAQ insists it’s not an NFT game, only a battle royale with optional NFT features. Sure, you’ll be able to ignore the NFTs, but they’re a big a part of the gameplay loop, so skipping them might detract from the experience.

The real query is: Do you desire to experience Off The Grid? Ignoring the NFT aspect, the sport itself isn’t particularly memorable. I struggled to seek out real players and the combat, while positive, pales compared to other third-person battle royales like Fortnite. The game’s edgy humor quickly gets old, with constant insults from the announcer and jokes that appear targeted at a really young audience.

If grinding for blockchain coins through farming rare loot in a lackluster third-person shooter is your thing, Off The Grid is likely to be for you. Otherwise, you is likely to be higher off picking a unique battle royale game—you’ll likely have more fun and avoid the spectacle of Trump-clad players.

Image Credit: kotaku.com