FakeFish, the studio that created the popular 2D co-op survival game Barotrauma, is going full steam ahead to make their next project, a train survival experience called Frostrail. Recently, they revealed that they have been working hard on improving the combat to make it feel realistic with a fantasy twist, as well as changing the way the points of interest are built to make them more detailed.

Over the past months since the game’s announcement, they have made many changes to the combat. The guns now not only look and sound better, but also handle better during battles with the revenants. Your loadout is, of course, only half of an encounter. If the enemy you are fighting feels weak or predictable, it will get boring quickly. While they did not give many details on how exactly they went about this, the devs did mention that the AI is now a lot more aggressive, making a survival experience more challenging. Revenants can be found in towns or outposts you come across while driving the train.

Previously, the locations were constructed by the level designers using pre-built assets created by the art team. However, they realized this would quickly look plain and repetitive unless they made many more presets. Instead, the artists are now a lot more involved in the world-building. After all the structures are in place, they return to bring them to life with extra details like furniture or debris. This gives the world of Frostrail a handcrafted feel and makes it look as if people once lived there before everyone either died or fled due to the extreme temperatures.

What do you think makes open world environments in survival games more immersive? Let me know in the comments.