Early access can be a great way to promote support and interest in a potentially-fantastic title, but it can also be a good way for companies to release an unfinished pile of trash in hopes of grabbing a few bucks. Unfortunately, it can sometimes be hard to tell, and most gamers have likely experienced trying to support an early access title only to find it… well, suck, frankly.
But what about games that already have a huge hype following behind them? 10 Chambers Collective’s GTFO has been well received thus far. Being shown off at gaming conferences helped it get a pretty sizeable following ahead of their December 2019 early access launch, and it’s got very positive reviews overall on Steam – but how is it actually holding up?
10 Chambers will be releasing a huge patch later on this month on March 31st to correct some issues. In anticipation – maybe even celebration – of that, why don’t we take a look at how the game is holding up in early access as it stands?
Let’s focus on what GTFO does right, which is a huge amount of things. The audio design of this horrific title is suitably terrifying. You’ll hear things bump about in the dark that send you spinning to find something to shoot at only to realize it was just the ambience. If you do find something to shoot at, the music kicks into a battle theme that really captures the panic you’re trying to suppress.
When it comes to the visuals, the atmosphere of being thousands of feet underground is shown amazingly. Even with your flashlight on, the darkness can feel impenetrable. As dust and fog clog up your vision, you’ll find yourself struggling to keep a steady trigger finger once the enemies start pouring out.
But what goes wrong? Well, unfortunately, the game is noticeably unfinished. Once the enemies do start running at you, you’ll notice they aren’t quite animated properly, with the models moving slower than their actual movement. This can also break down a bit on the horror front, as it immediately takes you out of the immersive terror when the enemy filling you with fear isn’t even animated properly.
There’s also a staggeringly high number of issues in terms of bugs and crashes. From personal experience I can say that starting the game four times in a row triggered four crashes, forcing me to play the game on a lower graphical setting despite my rig being more than able to handle games significantly more intensive than GTFO.
All in all, though, GTFO is still a fantastic title that really lives up to the hype so far. There’s still so much more to come, as the Infection patch on March 31st goes to show, so go ahead and hop on the hype train as soon as you can!
