If you’re a fan of horror co-op games, 10 Chamber’s Early Access title is an absolute blast. This game might be in Early Access and might be a little bit pricey, but my word it’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
In GTFO, players will take on the role of one of four survivors sent down to a facility overrun with monstrous creatures. Each survivor can select their loadout from what is available during a specific “Rundown” and teamwork is essential to progressing in GTFO. So what exactly is a “Rundown” ? A “Rundown” is the term used by the game’s developers to describe the predetermined conditions for gameplay including expeditions to challenge. Think of it as an in-game season of content and you’ll get the basic idea.
Once you and your squad have dropped down into a specific expedition into the facility such as A-1 Cytology, things get quite creepy. In GTFO, players will have to sneak around, be stealthy, and play extremely cautiously. One slip up can mean death for you and your entire squad. Ammo is severely limited, health packs are extremely limited and well, yeah, you’re going to have a hard time down there on an expedition. Teamwork is critically important.
You and your team have to properly plan your route through the areas in GTFO. Running in guns blazing will just alert enemies and get you overrun in no time flat. Playing strategically is the only way to progress. Players will be able to explore the expedition map they drop into at their own pace and each time you load up an expedition, enemies spawn in different locations and in varying numbers. This introduces another layer of difficulty to the game since each expedition will therefore never be the same.
When exploring, players will be able to open and close metal doors using keypads. These keypads can be locked with breakable padlocks or they can be sealed with devices that need to be hacked. Hacking in GTFO is quite simple with a rather easy to perform time-based system. All you need to do is press the left mouse button when your hacking device lines up with the correct frequency of the device you’re hacking. Get it wrong though and you risk playing a rather loud sound which will alert nearby enemies.
Enemies in GTFO are seemingly blind. You can sneak up on them and hit them with your melee attack if you want to conserve ammo but by doing so, you also risk alerting nearby enemies. Thus, playing strategically is important. Communicating with your teammates to take out multiple enemies at once can be a surefire way to progress without suffering enemy damage or wasting ammo. The melee attack your characters perform is also incredibly satisfying to see in action since it involves swinging a rather large hammer. Hammer away folks, it’s super effective here.
In GTFO, players will have a main objective in each expedition. In Cytology A-1 for example this objective is to recover lost hard drives and then escape the facility. This is however easier said than done since exploring to find your objectives involves a lot of terror filled adventuring out into dangerous territory. Players can opt to equip a Bio-tracker as one of their utility items and this is indispensable in GTFO. Someone absolutely has to have one of these, otherwise exploration becomes brutally difficult. The bio-tracker is able to highlight enemies that are nearby and through doors. It can also be activated to mark moving targets and display them on yours and your allies’ HUD. Seeing as the game’s environment is quite dark and it’s difficult to see enemies at times, this is incredibly useful.
Speaking of the environment, the graphics of GTFO are great. The facility looks incredibly creepy and there’s a dense atmospheric fog which can be found in levels. This fog can be poisonous too causing an infection which can kill you. This adds an additional layer of difficulty to the game that needs to be taken into account as well. There’s also quite an interesting mechanic in the game which involves using a terminal to ping items using a command prompt. This allows players to also find out where certain objective items are and can be incredibly useful for planning routes that avoid exploring rooms filled with enemies.
GTFO is brutally difficult. There is honestly no way a single player will be able to get through this game due to the amount of enemies it throws at you. Even playing with 2 players is pretty much impossible since the game does not scale the difficulty to cater to a lower number of players. Currently, there is a matchmaking option that is available but it’s still preferable to load up the game with 3 other friends and get through it that way.
Much of the difficulty stems from the fact that each person in the squad is necessary to get through the game’s levels. One person has to be the dedicated bio-tracker, another person has to carry a sentry turret, another a cryo weapon that can freeze and reinforce doors and lastly a final person with another sentry turret. This ensures that you’re able to face off against the hordes of enemies that you ultimately fight when trying to get through large security doors that trigger alarm systems and summon a horde of monsters.
The limited ammo, health packs and tool usage also increase the difficulty of the game but when you have 4 players around, this can be mitigated somewhat since ammo can be conserved and the other players can defend those who have suffered more health damage.
GTFO is therefore quite an interesting Early Access title that has a tonne of potential to be a very successful action orientated horror co-op survival game. There’s plenty of really great ideas in the game and it has a very premium feel to it. This is definitely a game to keep an eye on and if you have 3 other friends, it may certainly be well worth picking up. Even though it’s quite pricey right now, you will easily get hours and hours worth of gameplay from it as you learn how to get through expeditions and solve puzzles.
GTFO is available on PC through steam here for £29.99.
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