Dead State beta released, adds a lot to the game

Dead State should now be better than this.

DoubleBear has announced that the Dead State beta is now live. If you have Dead State on Steam, it should automatically update.

Considering the previously available version only offered the first seven days or so of the game, this… contains a lot more. The email lists the following (as well as “a whole lot more cool stuff!”).

• 75+ new locations
• 30+ new allies
• 500+ new dialogues
• Crisis events
• New enemy types & factions
• Vehicle travel
• Skill perks
• Ally traits
• Thrown weapons
• Data system (basic)
• Dog allies and enemies
• Special weapons
• Neutral encounters
• Tutorial elements
• Pause menu
• New save & load screens
• New goals
• Allies tracker on Goals screen
• Fence attacks
• New jobs
• Shelter upgrades

Okay, yes, so barring “shelter upgrades” it’s mostly the stuff at the start that’s exciting, but that’s a hell of a lot more game than was in there before.

DoubleBear really want you to know that this is still far from finished, though. “The idea behind the open beta is to expose as much content to you as we possibly can and get your feedback on both design and technical issues before we release,” the email states, but it “doesn’t include all the final story, dialogues, or levels.”

Known issues and things due for improvement include the AI, the dialogue, the scripting, the pathfinding, the combat, the crashing and hard-locking, save corruption bugs, extra polish on levels (which may be missing scripting, loot, enemies, or more), a lot of perks… etc. So yes, what’s here is a pretty big chunk of the game but it’s desperately unfinished. That’s why you’re there to beta test it, though! You point this stuff out and when it happens and how it happens, and then it hopefully won’t do that in the final release.

You can read the full update notes over on Steam. As previously mentioned, if you already own Dead State, the 220MB update should automatically download whenever you next sign in.