I've been quietly (and somewhat nervously) waiting to get crushed by a freak mech in The Forever Winter. If you missed its announcement back in May, The Forever Winter is a co-op survival game set in a bleak future where you're trying to survive in the midst of an endless hyperindustrial war. Since that announcement, developers Fun Dog Studios have mostly been sending out small “explosive transmissions” — essentially, footage from the hellish front — like this patriotic beheading and some panicked gunfights. But today they've made a longer video announcing the early access release date. And — oh! — it's coming soon.
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The developers say the game will enter early access on September 24, with four maps, a bunch of weapons, and five “fragmented characters” each with their own baggage and playstyle. That “baggage” could be both metaphorical and literal, as one of the game's features is that you have to attach a bulky modular backpack called a “rig” to your body before you can enter the kill zone. Picture the courier backpack from Death Stranding, but armed with jump jets or loaded with deployable turrets instead of cold pizzas.
I've seen it described as a “PvEvE” looter shooter, where you fight off groups of enemies while you loot for a living. The whole idea is that you're a fragile little meatbag in an over-the-top mech fight, and it's usually better to avoid patrols and let the opposing mechs fight than to engage in a fight yourself. There was a beta recently, and YouTuber “Riloe” made a cool promotional video explaining the general premise and inspirations for the game. That was enough for me to jump onto the game's Discord, where I first witnessed people getting really riled up about the long-legged mech they've come to call the “harvester mother.”
Anyway, in the video above, creative director Miles Williams addresses us from behind the cyber helmet of a human scavenger. He makes some promises about what the game's early access will be like, most of which address common complaints among players. The game will cost $30, and he wants to make sure you understand that there won't be any “pay-to-win” hype after that purchase.
“You'll never be charged for a new character, because that's how it should be when you buy a game,” Williams says. “You won't be charged for maps, weapons, additional missions, new bosses, and more. Those nickels and dimes are for the birds.”
That said, the game will still sell cosmetics and skin packs for extra cash. So it's not exactly an old-school approach. While the studio head has fond memories of when you could just buy a game and have everything it had to offer, The Forever Winter is still around in 2024. I guess they need to sell some face paint. That's fair.
Williams also outlines a roadmap for future things like new enemy bosses and upcoming levels. Early access will include an extra grey box on top of its four main maps (essentially a “work in progress” map). The developer says this is to help eager players test out the battlespace, and is partially inspired by another extraction shooter.
“We really respect what the guys at Ready Or Not have done,” Williams says. “The courage to add graybox maps to the map lineup was incredible. So we're taking a page from their book.”
So yeah, it looks nice. I've been watching The Forever Winter's progress with hopeful interest for the last few months. There's something about the horror of big robots that appeals to my Animatrix-addled brain. I'll have more to write about war-torn loot areas soon. Until then, please enjoy an hour of ambient harvester mommy.