As GTFO leaves early access, it's trying something new: going easy on players

Later on 2 years of enjoying various experiences with GTFO, I thought I was done with surprises.

GTFO, a co-op survival shooter from 10 Chambers Collective, is something of an bibelot. In an industry where the run-and-gun accessibility of games like Left 4 Dead is increasingly popular, the Swedish-made chance instills caution. You never kickoff with a full prune of ammo; you'll frequently never find enough medkits, trip mines, or ammo packs to experience secure.

GTFO has no interest in making things easy. You're a prisoner, ane of four literally dropped into a zombie-infested pit similar it's a horror ride at a theme park. Just even earlier that, GTFO is willfully and deliberately oppressive. The game literally screams at you every time you open it. Enemies are hidden in deep, thick fog that reduces visibility to a handful of meters. Much of the map is shrouded in pitch-black darkness, creating neat little jump scares where you'll crawl forwards but for a sleeping enemy to slowly awake inches from your position.

It's an intensity best described every bit Escape from Tarkov crossed with the xenomorphic, 70s lo-fi thriller vibes of Alien: Isolation. Except in that location'southward not actually any detail permanence. GTFO has a story, although there'south no direct cut scenes, only snippets of text logs left hidden in DOS-style terminals. Each room y'all traverse is effectively a mini-puzzle, blending into a larger, interlocking complexity that repeatedly asks the same question: how will you survive?

GTFO has thrived on this idea since late 2022 when it beginning launched in early on admission. The timing is uncanny given the ascension in appreciation for unapologetic difficulty, whether it'due south through indies like Cuphead or Tarkov or bigger upkeep productions like Sekiro and the upcoming South.T.A.L.M.E.R. sequel. And its blend of mechanics and surround is about catnip for Steam, a platform that regularly surfaces titles with challenging multiplayer experiences.

So when playing a session with three developers from GTFO'south Swedish creators, my third session with the developers since the starting time of the pandemic, I was nonplussed when the developers introduced a new mechanic for the game's 1.0 launch, checkpoints.

gtfo 1.0 final preview — Doors with checkpoints are marked with a yellow, well-nigh maze-like symbol. Screenshot by Gamepur

It'south almost a betrayal: the very idea of GTFO, ane that convinced hundreds of thousands of players to take the plunge, was the sense of achievement when you finally completed a level. Those levels could take an hour, possibly longer, depending on how slowly players nudged and crept their way through GTFO's lo-fi halls.

Only GTFO is selling to a different audience now. Upon firing upward a beta version of R6 — or rundown 6, which is largely how the team and customs have kept rails of GTFO'southward evolution over fourth dimension — there'due south a lot more information. The opening level acts as a tutorial, a void that fans and wiki pages had largely filled over the final two years. The UI has more direct prompts, even going equally far as to suggest players on what command they need to type specifically. Previously, you lot'd accept to type in old-school HELP commands.

GTFO's 'Rundown' screen — basically a menu of the maps you can play in any given season — has at present been carve up into two sections. Screenshot by Gamepur

The difficulty of maps has even been split out. In previous versions of GTFO, maps would sometimes feature giant bulkhead doors. These would effectively unlock a harder mode to complete the aforementioned level, usually containing more challenging enemies, mini-bosses, and just more than of everything. That'southward a little unlike now. The master, almost "core" missions, are marked in gilded, whereas the harder challenges are now separate maps of their own.

"Nosotros're trying a new kind of concept in how we build [the rundowns]," developer Robin Björkell explained. "There's no alternative difficulties on the yellow [missions] — that'southward what kind of makes them a little special. All the other levels have external layers, so you can layer your own difficulty co-ordinate to your own skill."

The first level isn't a tutorial per se, simply the placement and book of enemies are low plenty that about new players should be able to finish it on the starting time become, if not the 2d or 3rd. And coupled with the ability to effectively restart missions midway through via the checkpoint doors, I had to ask: did the developers feel like they were compromising GTFO'southward identity?

"There was a huge word if we should include them because it takes away from the urgency or the hardcore experience knowing that if y'all die now," Björkell said. "We lowered the overall difficulty on the expeditions a bit; former C-tier levels are now D-tier levels, and onetime B-tier levels are now C-tier levels."

"A very, very modest percentage of the player base reached D-tier or East-tier [expeditions] … we wanted more players to experience those college rundowns," Bjorkell added. "It's a way to brand it more attainable."

Despite the Swedish indie'due south success over the final two years, GTFO's persistent problem was that it didn't even attempt to onboard new players. GTFO one.0 tries to fix that, although some players will still detect the tutorial level a little too easily-off.

Have opening a door on the new A1 level. It spawns a giant UI prompt in red, practically screaming at the team to establish a defensive perimeter before triggering the next alarm. But that doesn't tell y'all annihilation nigh how y'all exercise that. It doesn't mention the value of jamming up previous doors with c-cream, a viscid, gooey white substance that buys you crucial time.

Information technology doesn't propose you on turret placement or that turrets are merely every bit decumbent to friendly fire as your teammates. There's no real guidance on dealing with enemies' weak spots or approaches to clearing out rooms. All of that, still, is upwards for you lot to observe.

Still, the compartmentalized design of the new "tutorial," which introduces much larger gaps between enemy clusters, makes information technology difficult to get overwhelmed. If you miss a swing and an enemy wakes upward, well, another ii or three might follow adjust. But by and large, everything is always manageable.

Narrative is a big focus, too, although GTFO's manner ways nearly of the lore is still delivered in the most understated of ways. You lot'll observe occasional logs left on terminals throughout levels; the first tutorial even has a surprise vox-over hinting at the Warden, the supposed graphic symbol responsible for sending your team on all these hell missions. And some expeditions will fifty-fifty teleport y'all into new spaces entirely, spaces with a pattern and color palette that is completely foreign to the dull metal gray that most GTFO players know and love.

Many quality-of-life changes take been added for the game's full launch. There's cosmetics now. Attributes have been added to the game's suite of melee weapons, providing more flexibility for new players and veterans. A stamina meter has been added to counter players that would simply sprint away from enemy waves. GTFO's level toolset has gotten an upgrade, as well: levels can exist much more than vertical now, something that's immediately evident from A1 (the offset map in this rundown's rotation).

But much of the game's core spirit remains unchanged. Spiral upward an enemy moving ridge, or mismanage enough fights along the style, and yous will be overrun.

To this twenty-four hours, I've still never actually played something that has the same alloy of horror, pacing, gunplay, coordination, or structure equally GTFO. It's a graphical marvel; it might actually be the all-time-looking Unity game I've played to date. The sound blueprint, enemy models, and overall artful is astonishingly capable given the small-scale size of the developer that made it. GTFO is the byproduct of a team blessed with clarity of vision, from the high-level concept all the way down to the minutia of how a terminal interface should wait and office.

The just missed opportunity, really, is that GTFO, for at present, remains a PC-only game. It's out at present exclusively through Steam, although given Tencent's investment in the Swedish studio — and GTFO's consistently high ratings on Steam — a proper panel port won't be too far off on the horizon.