Cyborg immersive sim Core Decay still has those System Shock, Deus Ex vibes in a brand new trailer

Cyborg espionage game Core Decay has a new trailer out showcasing different approaches to the conundrum of being locked inside one of its sprawling, post-societal-collapse facilities. Our semi-cyber protagonist is faced with escaping a facility, which means traversing a living area to the director's office to flip a switch. The gameplay trailer showcases violent, social, and stealthy approaches to the goal.

The violent approach has the player gunning down anyone who gets in the way, ambushing poorly armed security guards with a heavy-looking assault rifle and breaking through a security door before shooting out the window of the office to leap inside. The social approach involves finding a friendly employee to give you a keycode to get into a specific room where you can find a keycard for the office door. The third is some real classic old-school game stealth, hiding in the shadows to takedown guards silently before breaking open an air duct and crawling through to the objective.

The new trailer aired as part of Realms Deep 2023, 3D Realms' annual show, a bit of proof that despite prior delays and a probably increase in scope Core Decay's still in-progress and looking good.

The developers describe Core Decay like so: "Explore vast facilities across a dying Earth and uncover a sinister plot to preserve humanity no matter the cost - even if it means redefining what makes us alive - in an atmospheric immersive sim that explores the nature of consciousness and individuality."

Which is basically always the kind of thing I want to hear from a sci-fi immersive sim, so call me on the hook for this thing whenever we can play it.

We first got interested in Core Decay back in 2020, when it was a one-person project funded via Patreon. It's more than a bit bigger now, clearly, with entire dev studio Slipgate Ironworks involved alongside original developer Ivar Hill.

You can find Core Decay on GOG and on Steam, and on 3D Realms' website.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.