Co-op dino shooter Second Extinction is getting full crossplay and a horde mode

We said last year that Second Extinction's "janky co-op dino shooting shows potential," but that it could probably stand a little more time in Early Access. Almost a year down the road, it's come a long way, and today developer Systemic Reaction unveiled the details of its biggest update yet.

Revealed last year, Second Extinction is a co-op shooter that sees dinosaurs reclaiming the world, forcing humanity to haul ass and hole up in orbital stations. From there, they send teams back down to the surface every now and then to complete missions and fight back against dinos. 

The big Pre-Season 6 update has a lot going on, including a new gameplay mode called Emergency Landing: Horde Mode. It's exactly what it sounds like: Your dropship has crashed, and you're stuck on the surface with nothing but a pistol. Lucky for you, putting down waves of dinos—"hordes," you might say—earns credits that enable the purchase of new and better equipment, so death will not be immediate. Live long enough and you might earn a spot on the leaderboards (and some attendant rewards), which are on the way "soon."

This is what it looks like:

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The update will also add a new character named Sunetra, a researcher and support character who reduces incoming damage for squadmates and can deploy pheromones that cause nearby dinos to turn on each other. Sunetra brings the total number of playable characters to six. 

Full crossplay between Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, and Steam, Epic, and the Microsoft Store will be enabled in the update, as will in-game voice chat and matchmaking lobbies. Fallen enemies will begin to drop unique "augments" that grant characters new abilities and customization options, a new wardrobe option will let players check out every item in the game without having to unlock them, and—of course—there will be new contracts to take on and rewards to earn.

Second Extinction's Pre-Season 6 update is set to go live on September 30. More info on the game is up at secondextinctiongame.com.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.