Despite not releasing a single-player game in the series since Fallout 4 in 2015, the franchise is in as good a place as it has been for years. Much of that is thanks to the excellent adaptation on Prime Video, so it would be little surprise if games of a similar ilk manage to put their heads above the parapet over the next year or two.
Whether it’s in the design of the environment, the minute-to-minute gameplay or the creatures you’ll be taking on along the way, there are plenty of great options out there if you’re looking for a fix of that type.
At the same time, 2026 is looking like a big year for new releases in the genre, and one in particular is free to try right now, before a full release further down the road.
Shadow Project Is Free To Try Now
Over on Steam, you should be able to find the store page for Shadow Project, an upcoming narrative-focused, horror FPS that’s set during the fall of the Soviet Union.
The narrative premise of the game is that large scale human experimentation has been taking place in the USSR. Players step into the shoes of an American team tasked with taking down a series of Soviet facilities suspected of housing shadow laboratories.
Along the way, you’ll be fighting some grotesque and terrifying enemies, with the aesthetics drawing on elements of games like Stalker 2 and the aforementioned Fallout (though it is considerably grittier in tone). If you’ve ever seen a Centaur in Fallout 3, then expect some foes designed in a similarly horrifying fashion.
The environments are a jarring (deliberately so) blend of lush green landscapes, juxtaposed with huge industrial buildings and metal structures. It’s a heady blend that you won’t have seen in too many places, and one that’s immediately appealing for fans of the post-apocalypse/dystopian.
If You Like Fallout’s Twisted Horror, You’ll Love This
As mentioned earlier, there is plenty of twisted horror in the upcoming release of Shadow Project, and if you’re at all familiar with the experimentations of companies like Vault-Tec, West Tek, Rob Co and the Enclave in Fallout, then you’ll understand exactly the kind of thing you’ll be confronting here.
The only caveat to all of that exciting stuff is that we don’t have a release date for the game just yet, beyond some point in 2026. Fortunately, there is a demo available right now, so jump on and give that a go if it sounds interesting. Or play Fallout 4 in the meantime.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
