Uncompromising wilderness survival game The Last Plague: Blight now in Early Access

Original Studios just launched The Last Plague: Blight, an uncompromising wilderness survival game based on a more realistic set of game mechanics. It arrives with Native Linux support in Early Access. Note: key provided by ÜberStrategist.

For a game that's not finished, the initial impression I get from it is quite fantastic actually. Giving vibes of a mixture of Rust, Valheim and other similar games in a new and fresh setting that still somehow feels unique in a crowded genre.

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One of the key points of this game is in the game, the dreaded Blight. It's a disease-ridden world, one where you will eventually try to find a cure. That's how the game sets you up too, you're not just randomly dropped into a world. You've escaped the Blight — for now, but you're on your own and you need to survive the wilderness with nothing but your bare hands to start with.

This is a game that, if you let it, will end up consuming you and your whole week. Everything in it takes time and it's surprisingly deep mechanically already. From smashing rocks together to make a bowl, to gathering and boiling water so it's safe and actually getting a roof over your head just surviving is a constant battle. Surprisingly a little bit on the scary side too, when you're wandering through the forest trying to reach water and a bunch of Coyotes run in the distance when all you've got a small hatched and a bowl to your name.

Thankfully there's a full tutorial to guide you through all the basics steps of getting stuff done, and even the tutorial will take you a good while to get through. The UI is also thankfully rather well thought-out too, all parts of it just seem to make sense to the point that I so far haven't been confused even a single time. Same can't be said for my sense of direction though, but that's also been thought about with you able to craft markers to help you. There's also a reasonable map system too.

Even though there's plenty to it already the developer has big plans to keep expanding it including:

• Continuation of the story and tying in an actual long-term goal to the game.
• Collaboration and trading with other NPC survivors to rebuild.
• Fishing.
• Character customization including gender.
• Injury and wound system.
• Controller support.
• Taming animals.
• More localized languages (French, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, German, Italian and possibly more).

Performance is surprisingly great too. Testing it on my Kubuntu Linux desktop with an AMD Ryzen 5800x and Radeon RX 6800 XT on the Very High preset at 2560x1440 has been really smooth and always well above 60FPS.

Since it's in Early Access I'll be keeping a keen eye on this and keep checking back on it. If you're in need of a new game to get hooked on and get in deep this is a great choice right now. Great atmosphere, great game mechanics and really interesting to play. This has all the makings to be a huge hit and I'm already hooked on it.

Considering it's only £14.29 when not on sale, that's a fantastic price for what's there too - good value. It may go up in price once it leaves Early Access. There's also a demo available.

You can buy it from:

Steam