Launching in October 2020 for early access, Systemic Reaction originally planned to release version 1.0 last year. However, a few “critical issues” resulted in it being pushed back. “Unfortunately, it became clear that our small team lacked the resources necessary to hit our quality targets and exit Early Access and Game Preview, and the investment needed to do so was too large for us to bear.” This would help explain the relative lack of updates in the past year or so.

“After evaluating our options and working during this year to find other potential solutions, this became the reality our team had to face.” It will communicate “well in advance” when the servers shut down next year.

While it’s not the best situation for the developer or those who bought into early access, there have been no layoffs. “The passion, talent, and skill of the team who worked on Second Extinction is being put to good use on other projects across Avalanche Studios Group. We ask for your understanding and compassion towards the team members involved in the project who poured their hearts into this game as we move on to our next adventures.”

As a squad-focused first-person shooter, Second Extinction saw players battling across regions to help the War Effort. Though tackling unique threat levels, the success of other players could lower them. If it gets too high, an Emergence Event could occur.

What’s next for Systemic Reaction? It announced the completion of development for Ravenbound on October 5th, and other projects are in the works. As always, stay tuned for future announcements.

The execution begs to differ, though. Even as your wings spread out en route to fighting the final boss, the technical issues, combat, and world design threaten to weigh it down into oblivion.

"The goal of Ravenbound is to explore Avalt, gaining different equipment and Relics and becoming stronger to challenge an Ellri’s Guardian and gain their Blessing."

And that’s a shame because Ravenbound is interesting. The art style may not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s colorful while creating a sobering effect. Character models aren’t realistic and feel kind of limited with their animation, but the surrounding environments are nice to look at. This isn’t a game trying to wow you with its visual fidelity, so much as establish a mood and atmosphere to immerse you further into its world.

Until music blares in just as suddenly as it blares out, or the environment strobes ever so slightly while running away or becomes a visual mess when activating Ravensight while it’s raining or snowing.

Set in Avalt, a fantasy island, the story concerns the Ellri, who brought prosperity until betrayed by their sister (named, um, the Betrayer). They created the Raven, a mystical creature of immense power that could defeat the Betrayer, but were exposed during the ritual and subsequently imprisoned in Tombs. As a result, the Raven’s power is incomplete, and it must occupy a Vessel and grow its strength.

This sets up the process of choosing a random Vessel with unique starting traits, which expand as you complete challenges and unlock more with accumulated Legacy. You start as a Human, who can drain cards for Coins, but eventually unlock the Ulvar that drains cards for extra damage or the Simlar, which can do so for more Mana. The goal of Ravenbound is to explore Avalt, gaining different equipment and Relics and becoming stronger to challenge an Ellri’s Guardian and to fight the Betrayer.

"You have three Fragment slots – collect three Fragments, which is done by slaying enemies, and you can Empower them to gain a choice of three cards."

When you soar into the world of Avalt and fly around, there are numerous points of interest to explore. You can go pretty much anywhere, but you can’t just fly whenever. When landing and reverting to Vessel form, you must find the nearest launch pad to turn into Raven form and fly again. It’s tedious but also a sign of things to come.

Regarding Vessels, you have next to no choice in the early going. Rogue Legacy offsets this by making the first new classes relatively cheap and throwing in some interesting genetic quirks. Ravenbound’s Vessels get a Sword and Shield and then gradually Dual Axes, some armor, and either increased critical chance when Frenzied or more armor for their armor, which makes the early going rough.

When entering the world through a regional door, there are two waypoints. One leads to the town, where a sidequest – singular, not plural – awaits. Another leads to the region’s Tear of Hatred, which you must purify. You have three Fragment slots – collect three Fragments, which is done by slaying enemies, and you can Empower them to gain a choice of three cards.

These cards can range from better armor and weapons to more Mana, used to play said cards, Relics that confer different effects, Coins and even additional Relic Slots. More cards unlock as you fulfil certain conditions, like clearing a Tomb X number of times. They can provide powerful benefits, like Dawn’s Rot which consumes all of your Focus with an attack to deal 700 percent increased weapon damage, or Vined Amber Goblet, which inflicts Spored on nearby enemies when using Surge.

"While there is a huge world to explore, Hatred drastically reduces your choices. Better hope you get some decent cards from the freebies and don’t run into some particularly powerful Elites that can quickly destroy you."

Unlocking each card provides a goal to strive for over multiple runs. They’re also tied to a specific Fragment element, of which there are five. So you can farm enemies with those specific elemental Fragments in the hopes of getting a specific weapon or item drop or even specializing in certain types of damage. There’s still RNG to deal with, and based on my experience, it can go either way. Of course, that’s not the only issue you’ll have when getting geared.

It’s highly advised to go for the Tear of Hatred first because in Ravenbound, any attempts to gain power – like collecting Fragments, opening chests and so on – grants Hatred. Empowered too many Fragments? One of your slots is permanently locked due to Hatred, resulting in fewer card choices. Opening a chest in a corrupted area? You absorb a slot’s worth of temporary Hatred, which only goes away when Empowering Fragments, further reducing your card choices, and you gain some permanent Hatred.

Each permanently locked slot of Hatred grants five percent more damage to bosses and Elite enemies. So while you may or may not become stronger, your toughest foes are scaling up. It’s all the more annoying with Elites because they have the best loot and usually attack in groups of two or three. Now imagine dealing with that when they deal more damage and take longer to die relative to your mortality.

Clearing a Tear of Hatred lets you explore the space around it without fear of Hatred from the surrounding points of interest (while also granting free Mana to play any cards found). However, these are fairly limited in their rewards. Past that, everything else is corrupted. So while there is a huge world to explore, Hatred drastically reduces your choices. Better hope you get some decent cards from the freebies and don’t run into some particularly powerful Elites that can quickly destroy you.

"Go to the Tear of Hatred, cleanse it for free Mana, and some non-corrupt loot nearby. Go to the town and take a side quest for some Coins. Empower Fragments and maybe get stronger. Repeat."

Also, there’s no map, so if you have to go to town to heal and come back to clear out the remaining non-corrupt sites near a purified Tear, it can take a while to find them. The waypoint for the Tear also disappears after it’s purified, presumably because more than two waypoints at a time is difficult for the engine to handle.

There is a way to sort of “game” the system by locking one of your slots with permanent Hatred, thus reducing the number of Fragments required to draw more cards. By collecting Aspects of Hatred from corrupted chests, you can essentially pick up a Fragment, roll a new card, cleanse the second slot, pick up another Fragment, collect the chest loot and repeat this process in another location. However, your card choices are still limited and RNG-based, while the Mana is limited. Some chests grant Mana, but you’ll need to seek them out.

When you’ve Empowered enough Fragments, you can tackle a Guardian that’s keeping an Ellri captive. Defeat the Guardian, and the Ellri cures your active Hatred. You’re then sent back to the starting tower and can choose a different door in future runs, starting you out in, say, a rocky plateau and desert region or snow-covered mountains, instead of the initial forest. It’s a lackluster reward, but at least you’ve completed some Challenges, earned some Legacy to unlock more Traits like new weapon types and races for future runs, and encounter more diverse Relics.

However, you’re still bound to the same gameplay loop. Go to the Tear of Hatred, cleanse it for free Mana, and some non-corrupt loot nearby. Go to the town and take a side quest for some Coins. Empower Fragments and maybe get stronger. Repeat.

"It’s all just fighting. No mini-games, timed platforming challenges, puzzles, NPCs with riddles, fishing or more than one side quest per region to mix up the gameplay."

It’s even more monotonous because there isn’t much variety to the points of interest – every single one involves jumping in and killing enemies. The enemies become more varied over time, from Huldra and Draugr to Trolls, and they do have different, albeit simple, patterns.

You also start seeing random chests and groups of enemies with banners near launch pads, preventing you from flying away until they’re cleared. But it’s all just fighting. No mini-games, timed platforming challenges, puzzles, NPCs with riddles, fishing or more than one side quest per region to mix up the gameplay. That side quest also involves killing, by the way, so it’s fairly moot.

There is some lore on stones and sites to discover that confer some Legacy, but the world feels pretty barren most of the time. The towns desperately need more upgrades outside of spending Coins for a random assortment of cards, healing and buying weapons. More personalities among the NPCs would also be welcome, and instead of constantly returning to a town to heal, it would be nice to have some portable healing solution that could be replenished.

"As a whole, combat is very spammy. Using a Guard to down enemies, or assailing them with charged Heavy attacks can feel good, but it gets repetitive."

Since combat is a core component, it has to be on point and well done. It has to encourage you to return for more. Ravenbound’s combat is very hit-or-miss. You have the standard Light and Heavy attacks, and both can be charged to deal more damage to break enemies and stagger them. You can also guard against attacks, which is more like a parry and become temporarily invincible if performed right, or evade an attack at the last second to become Frenzied for a damage bonus. There’s also Surge, gained by attacking enemies, and when activated, it also provides a brief damage bonus.

When taking damage, you’ll have a grey area of health which will deplete after some time. Damaging foes will restore that missing health, so picking up a Relic which increases the window that grey health remains is good.

Other Relics, Equipment and Traits can provide unique effects, like a well-timed Guard inflicting Weakness and Bleeding on an enemy, reducing their overall attack power and applying damage over time status. Of course, you can’t just guard against enemy attacks forever since there’s a minimum amount of guard health. Once that runs out, you’re left vulnerable for a brief period.

As a whole, combat is very spammy. Using a Guard to down enemies, or assailing them with charged Heavy attacks can feel good, but it gets repetitive. Two-handed weapons like the Longsword are slower, dual-wielded weapons are faster, and that’s more or less it. More mechanics are desperately needed, ideally without being at the mercy of RNG cards.

"Optimization needs some work, even when running the game on Medium settings, and there’s quite a bit of pop-in."

Of course, the combat can also be quite spotty. Sometimes you’ll dodge at the right moment and still take damage. Other times, you’ll Guard but not stagger an enemy because their attack actually didn’t connect, despite visibly appearing so.

As noted earlier, the enemy types can be pretty varied, even though their patterns are very basic. Expect a lot of jumping slashes, whether dealing with humans or creatures. At least the Guardians feel unique, having distinct attack patterns and phases despite not looking that different from each other.

There are also bugs. Some NPCs in towns would suddenly turn invisible, though they could still be interacted with. Optimization needs some work, even when running the game on Medium settings, and there’s quite a bit of pop-in. Weapon audio just randomly became muted at a point. Some Huldras dealt lightning damage at the beginning of a new run, which is apparently not supposed to happen, and quickly killed me.

The game is stable enough, for the most part – I only experienced one crash back to the desktop during a fight. The camera can also be finicky, having difficulty staying locked on Guardians during boss fights while not moving away from some Trolls I was trying to escape from, which felt awkward given my low health.

" I just remembered there’s a janky grappling hook, such is its impact on the gameplay."

As I said at the beginning, I wanted to like Ravenbound, and there are certain endearing things about it. Alas, it’s just a list of “could’ve” and “should’ve”. The Hatred system could have been a fun risk and reward mechanic. Combat should have been a fun amalgamation of dodging, parrying and slashing. The world could have been full of life and unique secrets to uncover. I should have been able to fly anywhere at the drop of a hat.

Instead, I just remembered there’s a janky grappling hook, such is its impact on the gameplay. Unless grappling up mountains is a game-changer for you, that is.

Ravenbound could still very well live up to its potential as a rogue-lite-hack-and-slash-meets-3D-open-world. However, its combat, world design, enemy variety, Hatred system, towns, NPCs, performance, environmental effects and more still need some serious work, and that’s before adding any new mechanics or variety to the gameplay.

This game was reviewed on PC.

PREMISE

Ravenbound is set in the fantasy world of Avalt, and as you may have guessed, it’s a world that is rife with conflict and brewing troubles. It lies in the constant shadow of the Betrayer, though a weapon could be used to defeat it and restore peace and order to the world. That weapon is known as the Raven and was hidden away in the bodies of many warriors known as Vessels- which is what you’ll be playing the game as. While death is part of progress in Ravenbound, your ultimate goal is to ensure the rise of a Vessel that’s powerful enough to use the Raven to fulfil its duty and defeat the Betrayer.

STRUCTURE

Ravenbound is taking quite a unique approach to its structure, in that not only is it a fully open world game, it’s also a roguelite.  Players will, of course, have the option to explore the world freely and head in any direction they want, but each run will also bring with it plenty of randomization elements. That means the world will be constantly changing, and everything from its locations to the enemies you will fight and the challenges you will face will be different across every run. What sort of a balance will the game strike between hand crafted design and randomization? That remains to be seen, though it’s an interesting concept nonetheless.

OPEN WORLD DETAILS

Where the open world side of things is concerned, developer Systemic Reaction is promising a vast fantasy land that will present players with plenty of opportunity for exploration, though it remains to be seen what sort of variety it will exhibit in its environments. From what we’ve seen so far, the world of Avalt will boast grasslands, towering mountains, snow covered regions, marshlands, forests, and more, all of which, according to the developer, is inspired by Scandinavian folklore. Meanwhile, not only will players have the option to explore the open world on foot, you’ll also be able to fly across it in the form of a raven.

COMBAT

What exactly can players expect from Ravenbound where its combat is concerned? According to Systemic Reaction, the game is built around a fast and tactical combat system. Equipped with weapons that are imbued with magical properties, players will, of course, be tasked with dealing out deadly damage through their own attacks, but apparently, it will be just as important to pay close attention to your enemies’ movements and attacks and pick the right time to dodge their incoming blows. Of course, the way your character powers up and the abilities you unlock will also change up the moment to moment experience in various ways- more on that in a bit.

ENEMIES

Systemic Reaction is describing the world of Avalt as a beautiful yet deadly fantasy land, which, of course, means you’ll be squaring off against plenty of dangerous enemies as you traverse the map. Like the world itself, the enemies you face will also be inspired by Scandinavian folklore. According to the developer, players will be locking horns with creatures like trolls, Huldras, undead draugr, and more. Enemy variety can be a crucial aspect of the experience in any game, more so in roguelite titles than most other, so hopefully Ravenbound will have plenty of enemy types in its locker to throw at players.

PERMADEATH

Ravenbound is, of course, a roguelite game, which means dying time and time again is going to be baked into the core experience. The central loop of the game revolves around building up the Raven’s power to the point where it can fulfil its ultimate purpose, which means you’ll be sacrificing plenty of Vessels along the way. Each run will see you playing as a different Vessel, and once the Vessel dies, they’ll be gone forever, which means you’ll be moving on to the next one. That said, that doesn’t mean your progress will reset completely every time. Speaking of which…

PROGRESSION

Finding the right balance when it comes to permanent progression can be tricky for roguelite experiences, and Ravenbound seems to be going about it in quite an interesting way. Its progression system revolves primarily around cards and a deck building feature. Cards will grant various bonuses, including the likes of new character classes, improved armour, more powerful weapons, relics to enhance your abilities, and more. Each time a Vessel dies, you’ll pick new cards to equip your next Vessel with, while you’ll also get access to new cards during every run itself, some of which you’ll be able to find in the world itself, while others you’ll happen across by chance. Building the right build and equipping your Vessel with the right deck for the run will be crucial to making progress in Ravenbound.

LAUNCHING FOR PC ONLY

Interestingly enough, Systemic Reaction has confirmed that when Ravenbound launches on March 30, it will be available only for PC. There’s no word yet on when or if console versions can be expected, but one would assume that at some point down the line, the game will be headed to additional platforms. Systemic Reacton’s previous game, Second Extinction, originally only launched for PC in early access, before also coming to Xbox consoles via Xbox Game Preview, so there’s a chance that Ravenbound ends up following a similar path (though nothing along those lines has been confirmed just yet).

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

When Ravenbound does launch for PC later this month, it won’t require a particularly beefy rig for you to be able to play it. On minimum system requirements, the game will need either an Intel i5 6400 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600, along with either an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 4 GB or an AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 4 GB, and 8 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended system settings, the requirements do get cranked up a little bit, with the game needing either an Intel Core i7 4770 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, along with either an Nvidia GTX 1070 8 GB or an AMD Vega 56 8 GB, and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll also need DirectX 12 and 25 GB of free storage space.

PRICE

As you may have guessed, Ravenbound isn’t going to be a full priced title when it releases for PC. Upon its launch, it will be available for $29.99. Given the fact that publishers are raising their games’ prices one after another these days, a game launching for a relatively lower price point is certainly a bonus.

Set in the fantasy realm of Avalt, the story centers on the Vessel for a powerful Raven. You must traverse the world, battling enemies like Trolls, Draugr and Hudras to become stronger. There are five regions to choose from, and defeating bosses in three will unlock the sixth door to The Betrayer, the final boss.

Locations change with each playthrough, and as players clear out camps and complete trials, they’ll receive more powerful gear, relics and weapons through cards. More cards are unlocked with each new life, as new Vessels have unique skills and starting weapons a la Rogue Legacy.

Ravenbound also has a live element, though no details have been revealed yet. Stay tuned in the meantime for more updates and gameplay leading up to its release.

As a Vessel for the Raven, players traverse five regions of the world through various doors. Only one is available from the outset, and as you clear enemies and explore landmarks, new weapons, equipment, and artifacts become available. Towns also exist to provide weapon and armor upgrades, but once you’ve obtained three keys, you can go straight to the boss’s tomb.

Death will send the player back to the starting area, where they can choose from new Vessels, each with unique traits and weapons. While story details are relatively ambiguous, the main antagonist seems to be a mysterious force called The Hatred. How players will stop it remains to be seen.

Ravenbound is coming to PC via Steam, with a closed beta arriving sometime in the future. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBPiCI4Dl3M

PREMISE

Second Extinction has the sort of elevator pitch that instantly grabs your attention. It’s a first person shooter where your primary enemies are dinosaurs. And these aren’t ordinary dinos either. In Second Extinction, the world has been taken over by a mutated breed of dinosaurs that grants them terrifying size, mutations, and abilities, with only a few human survivors left, all of whom have banded together and retreated to a base in Earth’s orbit. What’s left of humanity is waging a war on the dinosaurs in order to take the planet back, with regular incursions send down to the planet to that end.

SOLO AND CO-OP

Second Extinction can be played solo, if you wish to do that, but it does, of course, also feature 3-player co-op, allowing you to take on dinosaur hordes with two other players. In fact, it’s very much been designed around that, with Systemic Reaction saying that the co-op is what the game is is built on first and foremost. If you decide to go in alone, you’ll be facing a much tougher challenge.

DINOSAURS

The dinosaurs are obviously the starts of the show in Second Extinction, and there’s a number of different kinds that you’ll be crossing paths with as you play the game, from raptors and t-rexes to different variations of types. Of course, given the fact that they’re all mutated, they will have unique abilities and attacks as well, including being able to generate electricity and spit acid. Dinosaurs in Second Extinction also work together, and can call for reinforcements.

CHARACTERS

Second Extinction has several playable characters that come with different classes, abilities, and weapons. For instance, there’s Sunetra, a field researcher who specializes in detecting enemies’ weaknesses and functions primarily as a support character. Jurgen is a long-range specialist armed with a sniper rifle, and even has an ability that grants him temporary invisibility. Rosy, meanwhile, is a tank with plenty of health and a minigun, and is perfect for people who like to brute force their way through challenging fights.

MORE CHARACTERS

Second Extinction has six playable characters, three of whom we’ve talked about. In the remaining group, Amir is a particularly useful one, not only because he has a grenade launcher, but also because his ability lets him sense surprise attacks from enemies. Ortega, meanwhile, is a Trooper class character, who is perfect for those who want to focus on dealing out steady damage and enjoy quick movement. Finally, there’s Jack, another Enforcer who can charge into enemies headfirst with deadly attacks and high damage resistance.

WEATHER AND TIME OF DAY

Dropping down into incursions to complete quests and dinosaurs while seeing progression for your character is the central loop in Second Extinction, but the game throws in other wrinkles to make things interesting in other ways. For instance, weather events such as snowstorms and sandstorms can make things trickier in the heat of combat, while certain missions also take place at night time, which has its own flavour.

THREAT LEVEL

Second Extinction’s metagame is all about the threat level. Systemic Reaction has built this as a live service experience that reacts to how the community is performing as a whole and sees changes from week-to-week. The more players successfully complete missions and objectives, the better the threat level will be. The threat level of an area, in turn, will determine how heavy its dinosaur population is. The four threat levels in the game are low, medium, high, and emergence.

1.0 CONTENT

As you’d expect, Second Extinction’s looming 1.0 launch is going to add a new chunk of content to the game to bulk up its offerings further. While we won’t know the specifics until the game has launched in full, as per the brief details provided by System Reaction, the game’s full launch will bring a revamped progression system, a couple of new dinosaur species (one of which is a flying creature), new mutations, improvements to the weapon upgrade system, being able to start new missions in the map without have to begin a new session, and the ability to free roam maps without having any missions activated. There’s also an enhanced user interface, improvements made to onboarding and the user experience, the ability to change loadouts by visiting bunkers, changes made to the War Effort metagame, an increase of the level cap to level 99, expanded difficulty options, additional customization options, a revised contract system, new cosmetic rewards, and more.

HORDE MODE

For those who’re in it for the pure thrill of shooting dinosaurs and don’t want to get distracted by missions or objectives, Second Extinction’s “Emergency Landing” mode is for you. It’s essentially a horde more where you find yourself on the planet equipped only with a pistol, and are tasked with taking on increasingly formidable waves of dinosaurs. The better you do, the more credits you earn, which in turn allows you to make purchases to help you progress further. It’s the horde mode formula we’re all very familiar with, except it also has mutant dinosaurs. There’s also a leaderboard to add a bit of a competitive edge to the proceedings.

CROSS-PLAY

Second Extinction’s multiplayer-centric nature means that it needs to have as little friction for its players as possible on that front. Thankfully, the game features support for cross-platform multiplayer, which means all players on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store) can play with each other. Second Extinction also comes with support for voice chat and matchmaking lobbies.

GAME PASS

Second Extinction is going to be available for purchase upon full launch for those who want to buy it, of course, but if you’re still on the fence about the game but want to give it a shot, there’s good news for you. The shooter has been available via Game Pass since it launched in early access last year, and when it launches in full on October 20, it will continue to be available to all subscribers of the service.

PC REQUIREMENTS

If you’re planning on playing Systemic Reaction’s co-op dino shooter on a PC, you’ll be glad to know that it’s not a terrible demanding game where system requirements are concerned. On minimum settings, you’ll need either an Intel Core i5-3570 or an AMD Ryzen 3 1300X, along with either an Nvidia GTX 780 (3 GB) or an AMD R9 280 (3 GB), along with 12 GB of RAM. Meanwhile, on recommended settings, you’ll need either an Intel Core i7-4770 or an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, along with either an Nvidia GTX 1070 (8 GB) or an AMD Vega 56 (8 GB), and 16 GB of RAM. On either setting, you’ll need about 50 GB of free storage space.

Ravenbound starts the player in a room with many doors. Only one is unlocked in the beginning and takes you to one of the five regions in the world. As you defeat that region’s boss, another door unlocks. Once three bosses have been defeated, the sixth door with the final boss, The Betrayer, opens. There’s also the seventh door – it unlocks when the game goes live and seemingly ties into the live experience.

Upon entering a region, players can fly around in raven form, going to different landmarks and fighting enemies. Each location has a difficulty rating, with one skull being the lowest and five the most dangerous. Clearing the location gives you cards like weapons, equipment or artifacts, and other items like healing potions. Combat consists of quick and heavy strikes, the latter capable of staggering foes, but you can also dodge, block and perfect block to stun surrounding foes.

There’s also a town which provides weapon and armor upgrades, and a potion shop for acquiring more health potions. Once you’ve obtained three keys in a region (with their locations easily discerned on the map), you head to the boss’s tomb. Unfortunately, in this playthrough, Laserna fell to the guardian before the boss.

Upon dying, the player returns to the starting room. You can spend any Legend earned during the run and choose a new Vessel. Each Vessel has unique traits – like one that only uses dual axes – but you can reroll the choices with Legend.

Ravenbound is coming to PC via Steam. A release date has yet to be confirmed, but a closed beta will be coming “soon.” To register, head here.

System Reaction has announced that Second Extinction will exit early access in October. Its 1.0 update will, of course, bring plenty of new additions, a new map and biome, two new dinosaurs, improvements to weapon upgrades and progression, and a number of other quality-of-life improvements, a revamped War Effort metagame, tweaks to the UI, new cosmetic rewards, and more.

A trailer has also been released to accompany the game’s full launch date. Check it out below.

Second Extinction will launch on October 20 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. The game is also available via Game Pass.

Along with random elements and permadeath, there’s also deck-building and fast-paced melee combat. Speaking to IGN, lead game designer Simon Laserna said, “It’s really exciting to be entering a new genre for Systemic Reaction. It’s been a fun challenge to combine our open-world legacy with rogue-lite mechanics and the monsters from the Swedish woods!”

Ravenbound is in development for PC and coming to Steam. Other platforms and a release date have not been announced. Though it wasn’t officially confirmed, Henderson’s report indicated that players could choose from one of three Vessels when starting a new run. Each would have different skills and weapons, and players could loot enemy camps for coins to acquire new cards.

There also seems to be a seasonal structure with new quests and enemies coming each month. Stay tuned in the meantime for more details.

Currently in early access, Second Extinction allows up to three players to team together and utilize a variety of weapons and abilities to tackle the prehistoric threat. The key hook is the ability to impact the Threat Level of missions for other players, resulting in an increased challenge. It’s still fairly rough but offers promise.

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