When you hear the word grimdark, what games come to mind? Anything Warhammer 40k, probably, or perhaps the WW1 trenches of Tannenberg and Verdun. Well, if Escape from Tarkov and Warhammer 40k Darktide are just too dang cheery for you these days, you may want to have a look at The Forever Winter, which is the bleakest thing I’ve seen in quite a while.
The Forever Winter is a unique spin on the extraction shooter genre, leaning more into survival game mechanics while maintaining the “gear fear” that breathes life into Tarkov’s mercenary veins. It’s the future, and things have gone extremely bad. Towering, merciless mechs battle it out above fields covered in the skeletal remains of soldiers who’ve fought there. Mutant forces are on the prowl too, fighting each other or anything else they can put their sights on.
Naturally, that’s where you’re headed. Heads up, this video gets pretty gnarly.
Your job isn’t to win any battle or gain ground. Your main objective is to survive while you and your squad search the maze-like warzone for scraps of Earth’s few remaining resources among the countless dead. All the while, you’re surrounded by hostile forces on both sides. You’re a scavenger, and pose about as much threat to them as an ant might.
It’s an interesting idea, and developer Fun Dog Studios is calling The Forever Winter a PvEvE game. The whole concept is to subvert the traditional sense of empowerment you get from military games.
“Our work on The Forever Winter started out with one simple truth: war is hell. There’s a time and a place for the power fantasy of being a super soldier, but frankly, it’s been done time and time again,” says CEO and creative director Miles Williams.
“You’ll be rewarded for fighting smarter, not harder, and maintaining situational awareness in a world we designed to be as unforgiving as it is unforgettable. While your power will grow, you’ll always be a mouse in a maze, to survive, you’ll have to work together.”
Out on the battlefield, enemies have their own objectives: they’re primarily concerned with fighting the war they have going on. They’re bigger and stronger than you and your squad, so it takes planning and coordination to take them down – and it’s often going to be better to avoid them completely, if possible.
Fun Dog has not announced a Forever Winter release date yet, but you can keep up with development by following the game on Steam. You also might want to check out our list of the best FPS games, as well as the best horror games for PC.
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