Unlike most looter shooters, The Forever Winter isn’t a traditional power fantasy. Trapped between two giant megacorporations locked in endless mech warfare that’s turned the world into an ashen battlefield, you and your friends are little more than rats scrabbling in the dust to survive. The new April update, however, offers a chance to fight back. Befriend the latest quest giver to arrive in town, and find enough allies to help you out, and you might finally get your hands on a weapon capable of unleashing serious destruction.
The Forever Winter April update is here. Titled ‘Nosebleed,’ it brings lots of upgrades to the grimdark co-op game that falls somewhere on the spectrum between extraction shooters and pure survival. A terminal has been introduced to the Innards that allows you to craft weapon parts. The Stairway Gate map can now take place at night, and the iconic Mother Courage mechs are smarter and more responsive to your actions. The third-person camera has been improved, computer-controlled recruits will now act on your orders more reliably, and there’s a greater range of potential loot to be found in containers.
The big details, however, begin with new quest giver Bunco, who will become available once you’ve performed enough actions in the world to catch his attention. Once you’re on good terms with him, he’ll start offering quests that build towards a powerful new weapon: a mounted railgun. You’ll need to complete specific missions to get your hands on the components, and then put them together at the weapon-parts crafting terminal, before taking it out into the field.
Setting up a railgun is no easy feat, however, and it can’t be done alone. Each of its three pieces must be carried by an individual Scav, so you’ll need a trio of people to put it together. Once it’s locked in place, it can’t be disassembled – so choose your position carefully. That also means you must leave it behind when you extract from the raid, and will need to craft new parts to build another, although developer The Fun Dog says it’s considering adding recovery operations in the future.
If that sounds like too much work, one look at the results and you’ll probably change your mind. Place it down and man the turret, and you’ll be able to unleash powerful blasts capable of taking out a tank in a single hit. With concentrated fire, it can stun some of the biggest foes in the game, and could even “reveal a unique piece of loot” when you do so, Fun Dog notes. “It might be worth bringing a drill or two into a region when you have a railgun.”
The Forever Winter April update is out now. You can buy the game at a 30% discount through Thursday April 24, meaning you’ll pay $20.99 / £17.49, or download a free demo to try it first. “This update is the first step forward for the expanded meta and for co-operative goal setting and gameplay,” The Fun Dog remarks. It also teases that you should “hold onto the drops from those bosses, that shit’s gonna be useful later.”
If the thrill of fighting on the back foot inspires you, here are the best horror games right now. For something a little less intense that’ll still put you to the test, try the best survival games in 2025.
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