If You Love Arc Raiders, You Really Need To Try My Favourite...

Especially if the PvP is your least favourite part.

This week, I've been staying up too late playing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors, the only other extraction-themed game I vibe with. But I'm determined to drag some friends back into The Forever Winter with me again too.

It's rare that I vibe with an extraction shooter, and really I've only properly fallen for one: The Forever Winter, which has been modestly successful but still seems to fly under a lot of radars. It launched in early access a year ago, but it's been on my mind again thanks to Arc Raiders, the current new hotness.

Before Arc Raiders' explosive launch, our reviewer, Elie, was telling me why they were digging it so much, and it became clear that it coincidentally shared a lot with what I remain convinced is the genre's high point. And I suspect that if you're having a blast with Arc Raiders at the moment, then you'll also have a great time with The Forever Winter.

To be clear, though, there are sizable differences, but that's also why I'm recommending it. If you're already playing Arc Raiders, there wouldn't be much point in me directing you towards something that's essentially identical.

For one, The Forever Winter is not a PvP deal. It's pure co-op PvE, with humans facing off against brutal AI enemies split into warring factions. But it's clear that for a significant portion of Arc Raiders players, PvP isn't part of the appeal—particularly those who have mostly been indulging in the solo side of things.

The Forever Winter loses no tension despite the lack of human opponents, though. Like Arc Raiders, this is a world that has been overrun with robots, with desperate human survivors now living underground, sending poor souls topside to scavenge for resources and water. But where Arc Raiders goes for bright colours and fun costumes, The Forever Winter instead channels the post-Judgement Day era of the Terminator universe.

We're talking full nightmare fuel: skeletal cyborgs ruthlessly hunting down humans; monstrous machines literally devouring their victims, snatching them up and swallowing them; building sized mechs stomping through battlefields made up of broken bones and machine parts. It takes a lot of cues from survival horror, and you'll end most of your runs covered in sweat.

The Forever Winter supports solo play, and that's when it feels overtly like a survival horror romp. You're not really meant to fight the machines. What can one person do against world-spanning armies contro

Source: PC Gamer