Abiotic Factor’s next update will bring a whole new upgrade system and fix attacks on your base: ‘We’ve heard a lot of feedback about base assaults and how they just kinda stink’

It’s only been a couple of months since Abiotic Factor‘s Dark Energy update cascaded out of its Black Mesa-ish science lab. But developer Deep Field Games is already heavily into production on the game’s next block of content. This week, it provided the first look at the new update, titled ‘Cold Fusion’, and it’s shaping up to be another substantial addition to the Half-Life inspired survival game.

Cold Fusion primarily introduces a new area to the GATE research centre, the residence sector, which is suffering from an unnatural cold snap. “Something is causing residence sector to fall well below optimal living temperatures,” writes Deep Field in its Steam update. “The important thing is you must science your way through it to see this journey to an end.” The update doesn’t specify what challenges you’ll face in the sector specifically, but mentions that you’ll experience “cold snaps, rolling blackouts and a mysterious black fog” throughout the facility, so I imagine these will factor into exploring the residence sector as well.

From the handful of screenshots Deep Field has shown, the residence sector looks heavily inspired by my favourite part of Half-Life, Office Complex. Half-Life’s fourth chapter showed players Black Mesa at its most mundane, which was precisely what set it apart from the phobos labs and slipgate dimensions of shooters like Doom and Quake. I hope Abiotic Factor’s residence sector can replicate that everyday, humdrum vibe, and the tiled corridors and tree-lined courtyard shown in Deep Field’s work-in-progress screenshots are a promising start.