The spiritual successor to old school pick-up-and-play Call of Duty Zombies is out now, on sale for $10 and gloriously free of battle pass nonsense

Normal Human holding gun on front row standing in front of zombie dudes rising behind her on bright blue sunburst — (Image credit: Iceberg Interactive)

Co-op shooter Hellbreach: Vegas has reached its 1.0 release after a little over a year of early access. While the pick-up-and-play FPS has gotten a $5 price increase over early access, a launch sale will keep it at the initial $10 price until August 28.

A problem I've run into with occasionally getting hooked on freakishly expansive live service multiplayer games is that all of my friends are normal people and have even less room for that sort of thing in their lives than I do. I still remember the halting, concerned tone of voice my friend who was just dipping his toe into Destiny 2 had when he joined my instance and found me practicing solo dungeon attempts for some reason. There's just something to be said for games like Trackmania, Golf With Your Friends, or older FPSes that you can just pick up and play.

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That's a quality Hellbreach definitely has, and it's a goal that the game's creator, Ashley Ellis, described to me back when it was first revealed: capture the low skill floor, high ceiling, cramped co-op magic of the first few iterations of CoD Zombies, uncomplicated by live service elements, layers of launchers, or any progression beyond simple, experience-based cosmetic unlocks.

The moment-to-moment shooting and classic survival are great, but Hellbreach also has some varied modes with a lot of juice to them. The micro-scale "battle royale" with a shrinking play area is a great twist on the concept, but my favorite is "Gun Pro," a play on the classic "gun game" mode Call of Duty cribbed from Counter-Strike modding. You have to race against your friends to score kills, working your way through a randomized weapon list, with 15 kills earning your next gun. It adds a structure, competitive element, and quicker turn-around to matches that I really dig.

The 1.0 launch introduces a few more goodies. There's a new flamethrower weapon, an extra-difficult mode with no UI and a monochrome screen filter, as well as a new hill dimension map to round out Hellbreach's assortment of Sin City and Sun Belt locales.

So if, like me, you need more multiplayer games in the rotation that don't feel like second jobs, Hellbreach: Vegas is an easy recommendation, especially at its introductory $10 sale price. Hellbreach: Vegas is available now on Steam.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.