So many games are filled with goo. From healing goo to goo you shouldn’t step in, it’s rare to find a game that doesn’t contain a kind of goo. Even lava’s goo, if you think about it. In Serum, an upcoming survival horror FPS, goo forms the soggy backbone upon which your entire survival rests upon. Following on from a successful playtest, Serum has set an early access release date and you won’t have to wait long.
If you couldn’t tell from the name of the game and all the preamble in this article about goo, Serum focuses mainly on the gloopy liquid found in the title. In this survival FPS game you’re stranded on an island where a mysterious mutagen has got loose, covering it in weird creatures, bizarre plants, and an ever-present fog. To survive you’ll need to pump your veins full of serum giving you immunity from the toxic environment, at a cost.
Unfortunately you haven’t got much on hand. Fortunately, you can brew up some serum and slap it right into your bloodstream, a tactic which always goes well. As you explore you’ll harvest serum from plants and the mutated creatures inhabiting the island, mixing up new formulas for you to try out. All should help you stave off death but some will come at a terrible cost, others may give you enhancements that will see you become a walking biological god, at least temporarily.
It’s this ticking down of your available time and the ever-present hunt for more ingredients and serum that will propel you ever outwards in your exploration. Along with your serum-powered enhancements you’ll have a variety of weapons to implement against your enemies, as well as traps and tools that should make your life on this abominable island a little easier.
Combining some of the power-fantasy of games like BioShock with the survival of Green Hell and the horror aspects of Sons of the Forest, Serum looks like it might be one of the most intriguing PvE co-op FPS games coming out in 2024.
Serum will launch into Steam Early Access on Thursday May 23 and you can head over to the store page to add it to your wishlist.
If you’d like to check out something else in the meantime, you can take a peek at our guide to the best survival games you can play, or browse through our best co-op games guide.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.