After a muted rollout on console and Epic Games Store last year, Off The Grid quietly made its Steam debut last week—bringing its dystopian extraction battle royale to a much wider audience, complete with all the cybernetic chaos, jetpack antics, and yes, a Web3 economy baked in.
Set on the neon-lit warzone of Teardrop Island, Off The Grid is a third-person multiplayer shooter that blends traditional battle royale with PvPvE extraction mechanics. The twist? You’re a cyber-augmented contestant in a televised deathmatch where dying is temporary and loot is eternal. Directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium), the game leans hard into sci-fi grit and capitalist absurdity. Picture The Hunger Games, if the tributes had NFTs and jetpacks.
What separates Off The Grid from the pack is its loadout system—players can swap cyberlimbs on the fly, looting the modular body parts of fallen enemies to mix and match builds mid-match. It’s part Frankensteining, part min-maxing, and all chaos. With over 15 limb types and a live marketplace tied to player-to-player trades, every part you pick up could be your next big win—or someone else’s loss.
Gunzilla also promises fast, vertical movement through a jetpack-based traversal system. You’re encouraged to zip in, loot fast, and either escape with your haul or explode in a fireball of bad decisions. Classic extraction shooter energy, except this one’s wearing designer cyberlegs.
Teardrop Island is a cinematic playground built to support both its PvP mayhem and a promised 60-hour narrative campaign, which Gunzilla says is coming later this year. The devs call it the most realistic open world in the genre—though how that gels with midair cyber-combat and twitchy boss fights remains to be seen.
Then there’s the blockchain bit. Off The Grid includes a crypto-driven marketplace where players can buy and sell cosmetic items and gear using Gunzilla’s proprietary currency, GUN. These NFTs are purely optional (and live outside of Steam’s client to dodge its anti-crypto policy), but they’re there, along with a stream of limited cosmetics that range from edgy to questionable. Whether it’s the future of in-game economies or a monetized fever dream depends on who you ask—and how much they’re willing to pay for a Trump caricature skin.
Reviews so far are mixed. Players seem split between digging the mobility and grind potential, and bouncing off the blockchain extras, inconsistent performance, and what some have called “NFT gimmicks dressed as features.” Still, for a free-to-play shooter, Off The Grid offers a unique mix of systems—and just enough chaos to keep you wondering if your next run will end in riches or regret.
