Format PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin US
Release TBA (Early Access out now)
Technically speaking, they’re not zombies. The disaster that has struck aboard The Anacrusis’ retrofuturist starship is really more of a facehugger situation, allowing the game to have its hordes-of-undead cake while also dressing it up in ’70s science-fiction kitsch. Still, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that this four-player co-op survival shooter finds itself in the most crowded marketplace since Dawn Of The Dead’s shopping mall. The Anacrusis arrives in Early Access only a few weeks after GTFO exits it, and precisely one week before Rainbow Six Extraction presents its triple-A take on the formula, with the likes of Redfall and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide also on the horizon.
What The Anacrusis has that those games don’t, though, is a Left 4 Dead veteran on its dev team, in the form of Stray Bombay co-founder Chet Faliszek. Less impressive than Back 4 Blood’s whole band of them, perhaps, but Faliszek hasn’t been afraid to play up the connection, describing the AI game master that underpins its enemy and pickup deployment as “Director 2.0”, an evolution of the tech developed during his time at Valve.
This story is from the March 2022 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2022 edition of Edge.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas