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The Black Death’s latest update totally overhauls the medieval survival sim

the black death pestilence update

Things weren’t so great in the medieval era, but the Black Death is doing its best to make surviving the plague as entertaining a time as it can be. Now it’s adding even more to the fun by unleashing Pestilence, the biggest update the game has yet seen.

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The most obvious thing Pestilence brings is a revamp of the single-player story, putting players in the role of a plague doctor set on curing the malady spreading through the land. That means cutting open a lot of corpses, naturally – human and animal alike. Gotta get your hands dirty to figure out what this disease is all about. It’s not all autopsies, though, since you’ll need to keep money coming in as a blacksmith, hunter, or one of the other professions.

And that’s just the marquee stuff. The overhaul has affected systems all the way up and down, from UI improvements in inventory menus to better customization for houses, along with new skill trees and a refreshed focus on quests.

If that all tickles your “enjoy one of the darkest eras in Western history” fancy, then I’ve got extra-good news, since we’ve got a bunch of Black Death Steam keys to give away. I’m at least 99% sure you can’t catch the disease from playing the game, but you could do your part in becoming a medical anomaly.

The Black Death is starting to reach the tail end of its stay in Early Access, and though there’s no official release date yet it supposed to fully release “at the start of 2018.”