Deep Field Games has launched a new playtest for Abiotic Factor. This time, we get to visit a new area, playtest some newly introduced weapons, and check out the new features added to the game.

The game has a variety of things trying to kill you as you go through the facility. The developers hinted at what they were researching at this location before the paranormal containment failure and what we can expect to find.

The GATE Cascade Research Facility is designed to safely contain and study dangerous and rare specimens, which are called Immurement Subjects. The facility has two types of specimens, mundane artifacts, and oddities, which are more dangerous. These are studied in a well secured location. They can be either an object or a living being, what they have in common is they are from other worlds and universes. 

One of these subjects the developers talked about before was a teak wooden door that made you lose your memory once you walked through it. 

The lab is a large, high-class facility catering to the best researchers there are. The residential quarters are extremely luxurious as GATE prioritizes keeping their staff satisfied. The rest of the location has a clean, modern look to them.

The welding spear is an upgraded form of the makeshift spear made by adding a few office parts to it. It has a fire attack and has undergone several iterations to reach its current design. The team had some more radical ideas, but they looked too cool to be the first spear design.

The thermal mallet, which is at the same tier level as the welding spear, also underwent several rounds of ideation. While the initial design was sharper and inspired by the abandoned mines in the manufacturing sector, the team eventually settled on a railroad spike welded to the shaft of the club and wrapped in high-vis material to give it a hand-crafted feel.

The developers wanted to make an item you can craft in the early game and have fun with. So the Slushie Bomb was created to freeze any character it hits, regardless of what it was doing. This is one of the new weapons available to try in the beta test.

In the playtest, you can explore an early section of the GATE Cascade Research Facility and the Tutorial. While it is only a sliver of what is to come in the full game, you can keep playing the level over again and unlocking new recipes and skills.

You can play this build alone, but if you decide to try the multiplayer feature, there is a newly added in-game proximity chat and a ping system, which is available from the emote wheel.

You can join the playtest by vising the Abiotic Factor Steam page and clicking the green “Request Access” button to get the test build added to your Steam library.

This playtest will run until January 1st, so there is plenty of time to experience Abiotic Factor.

Are you going to try the game alone or with friends? Let me know in the comments.