The Forever Winter officially launches in Steam Early Access, but its two biggest features have left many players disappointed

If you haven’t heard of the name The Forever Winter over the last several months, you’ve likely been recommended a video of/about the game at some point on YouTube. That name may not be memorable, but the main tagline of “you’re not the guy” certainly grabbed the attention of many sci-fi fans.

Part extraction shooter, part survival game, The Forever Winter is a third-person shooter set in a war-torn world, where humanity isn’t a key player in the conflict for a change. Players simply try to eke out any resources they can while they try to avoid battling armies engaged in their own conflict.

That particular pitch is what got many players excited about The Forever Winter leading up to its release. The game officially launched in Steam Early Access on Tuesday, peaking at a little over 12,000 concurrent players on Steam.

Unfortunately, many of those who decided to pick up the game were left disappointed, and some even surprised about the way a particular survival mechanic has been implemented. By most accounts, this is a very early build of the game, with so many rough design edges and an unoptimised performance.

The game’s review rating on Steam currently sits at ‘Mixed’, based on over 500 player reviews. The most common complaints are unfortunately all about the elements of the game that got players excited to play it in the first place.

Starting off with the giant war machines roaming the game’s world, many players complain that their AI is simply lacking. Reviews talk about the enemies running in circles, following predictable routines that water down the sense of immersion - and the big one: an uncanny ability to detect players through walls and kill them.

A large part of gameplay in The Forever Winter revolves around sneaking around the ongoing skirmishes between the game’s factions. Your player character is too weak and too poorly equipped to do anything but hide from danger, so it’s extra frustrating to get spotted and die without understanding why.

The biggest source of criticism, however, is one of the game’s survival mechanics. More specifically, how everything revolves around collecting water, and maintaining a sufficient supply of it. Water is both necessary for survival as well as progression through the game, as having enough of it unlocks traders at your underground hideoutm and expands what it could offer you between runs.

If you run out of water, however, everything you worked for vanishes. NPCs die, the hideout goes to ruin, and you even lose items and materials you’ve accumulated over various runs. The only thing you don’t lose is XP, meaning water acts as a reset/rogue-lite mechanic.

Some reviews have said this current state of the mechanic creates unnecessary anxiety and encourages FOMO, because water consumption ticks down in real-time, not in-game time. In other words, if you don’t log in regularly to keep your water supply topped up, you’re going to lose all progress. It’s sort of similar to how some survival games require members of any given clan to always be online to defend against attacks.

Outside of those criticisms, many players called out how particularly “janky” movement and game feel are. Some of that lack of smoothness in animations is intentional, of course, given the theme, but it seems most players simply want the moment-to-moment to be a little more predictable.

The Forever Winter’s Early Access journey has only just begun, and developers appear to have taken note of player feedback, so there’s every chance we’re going to witness fundamental changes to the core game over the next several months.