One of the year's best survival adventure games is getting a nice update next week as the stranded scientists of Abiotic Factor take on the Crush Depth update, which will take them into the depths of the Hydroplant Sector and also finally give them something all true videogames must have: A fishing minigame.
The Hydroplant Sector will feature a large dam complex to explore complete with power plant and various experiments that can only be done with a large volume of water as insulation (if you've played Abiotic, you'll know keeping loads of fresh water around is no easy feat). It'll also include the quite spooky Security Sector, which appears to be pitch-black inside so I'm sure we'll all love it, as well as a portal to an off-site mountaintop facility somewhere in the French or Swiss alps.
Abiotic Factor is a somewhat unconventional survival game, more an exploration-driven immersive sim across a fairly fixed environment than in a sprawling open world. Part of that is its game direction—the director of the project just doesn't like how most survival games do things. "I'm not a big fan of survival games," he told PC Gamer earlier this year.
- Abiotic Factor's massive Dark Energy update, which adds teleporters, pocket dimensions and black hole grenades to the Half-Life inspired survival sim, is out now
- 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'
The Crush Depth update also has a few new toys on the way. Getting across all that water won't be easy, but the developers have teased a new Jetpack blueprint and a Sport Utility Vehicle to find and salvage that'll let you replace the boring golf cart and/or forklift you've been tooling around in. Finally, some trunk space!
Other additions, among many, are a new from security officer Warren, a set of security lasers for trapping and destroying attacking enemies with, carbon-fiber structures to build, scoped weapons, whatever a "moisture teleporter" is, and some decidedly psychedelic-looking rice to grow and eat if you're brave enough. There's also a rework of the ambient temperature system on the way, so get ready to bundle up against the cold in that new mountainous area.
You can find Abiotic Factor on Steam, where it's $25—though it's 20% off until August 15. You can find out more about Crush Depth on the team's Steam news post.
