Developer 10 Chambers spent years working on this week's launch update is no slouch either. Adding in bot teammates, character customization, and a few tiny nods towards accessibility, GTFO now feels like a full package.
Taking inspiration from the style pioneered by Valve's Left 4 Dead, GTFO is a co-op-focused horror experience where a team of four prisoners must fight against hideous monsters in a vast underground complex. In addition to an impressive array of firearms, each player has the opportunity to bring in a tool that defines their role in the expedition. Whether that is laying down suppressing fire with one of several turrets or scanning the rooms ahead for enemies, each prisoner plays a vital role in keeping their teammates alive and kicking against a swarm of unspeakable horrors.
One thing that hasn't changed since GTFO's Early Access days is how hard each mission can be. Thankfully, exploring tunnels and latching onto a small hope of survival is extremely fun even when things fall apart. Random enemy placement keeps things fresh, and the teamwork required to pull off a successful run makes for invigorating triumphs. At its best, each session provides memorable encounters that players can trade stories about long after they put the controls down.
GTFO tries to counter its steep barrier of entry in a few ways. Upon their first launch in version 1.0, players will find a mission designed with completion in mind. It's an excellent warm-up for the real thing, balancing the fun of learning new systems with a small helping of the difficulty that lies ahead. The full version of GTFO also adds bots, allowing players to practice alongside AI partners before hitting the ground running with their friends. Similar Back 4 Blood have this feature, and the game would feel incomplete without it. Someone could theoretically play the game in single-player as well, but GTFO's best moments require a group of like-minded friends or strangers.
Unfortunately, heading online without a group can frame GTFO in the worst light. The playfully vague bits of narrative and the lack of universe-breaking objective markers serve to confuse players jumping in without presentation, leading to games where teammates wander into corners, alert sleeping enemies, and then quit after an instant death. Ideal scenarios can be worth the hassle, but it's still hard to convince the average gamer to go through those hoops where so many other co-op experiences don't require such a drastic setup.
With the right team in place, GTFO's core gameplay loop feels ready for primetime. Guns have significant weight to them, emitting a chaotic soundscape whenever stealth fails and the monsters begin to charge. On the flip side, sneaking around sleeping giants is appropriately tense. Even a room of the most basic walkers can pose a challenge, but it won't be long before any group runs into more sizable opposition paired with wandering scouts. With limited ammo and health recovery options, alerting the horde is never good, but it also seems inevitable, and that makes for a thrilling balancing act.
Some of the 10 Chambers team originated from Payday developer Overkill Software, and GTFO's missions structure follows suit from that style of past work. Players pick operations from a constantly shifting map, with new missions rotating in on a regular basis. GTFO makes a point to highlight its seasonal structure (called The Rundown), which changes up the entire game every so often and makes previous missions unplayable. Temporary content in online-focused games is an unfortunate trend in modern gaming, but anyone who really digs what GTFO dishes out will be happy to see new challenges on the regular.
Outside of the improvements to accessibility, GTFO's biggest upgrade from its Early Access days lies in its graphical upgrades. The sparse environments hide great details in out-of-the-way corners, and the monster design shines brightest in the shadows. Even better, those same shadows provide scares that put it well Resident Evil and other survival horror greats in of sheer terror.
It's impossible to experience the greatest moments of GTFO without a group of friends, but the launch version of the game makes it worth the effort. 10 Chambers has developed a content-packed co-op shooter where it's exhilarating to succeed - and, crucially, it can even be fun to fail. There's just enough horror and action to satisfy a wide variety of players, but finding those players and gathering them on a regular basis can be a hassle. Still, anyone willing to do so will see that GTFO has a huge chance for success in the long term, especially if the developers continue to crank out more highly refined nightmares.
GTFO is out now on PC. Screen Rant attended a review event and received a PC copy of the game for the purposes of this review.
GTFO is a horror-themed first-person cooperative survival game taking place in an underground and dilapidated prison. Developed and published by 10 Chambers, the game features tactical teamwork, creepy locations, tons of customization options, and a suite of weaponry to utilize.
