PC gaming's best free multiplayer shooter continues to be preposterously generous, with its latest update adding 50 new maps, custom music and more: 'We definitely want Straftat to live as long as possible'

Straftat protagonist character pointing gun at other Straftat main character

(Image credit: Lemaitre Bros)

I'm beginning to grow concerned for Straftat creators the Lemaitre brothers. The rate at which they put out new levels for their brilliant small-scale FPS is simply not human. Have they been locked away against their will, forced to design levels by some crazed kidnapper with an unhealthy attachment to late nineties deathmatch? Or are they secretly some weird new type of game developing shark that dies if it stops mapping for more than a few seconds?

Whatever the reason, Straftat just got a whole lot bigger for the Nth time, with its 1.4.0 update adding over 50 new maps to the shooter. Titled the Bazaar update, the patch adds 24 maps appropriately themed around covered marketplaces, as well as 18 'basket' maps, 10 Hushardzan maps (I don't know what a hushardzan is, but it's fun to say), and four additional maps with no shared theme. Overall, there's 56 maps for you to blast up to three of your pals on. Double that number (minus the four random maps) if you own Straftat's DLC, which adds all the alternate versions of these maps.

Update 1.4.0 also adds twelve new musical tracks composed by artist Major Axis, and a custom music system in case you'd prefer to murder your friends to your own tunes. These come bundled with a bunch of other new features such as customisation options for crosshairs and player outlines, a lobby ban button for dealing with troublesome randos, toggleable mute for voice chat, leaderboard cheating prevention (honestly, who the hell cheats at Straftat?), an updated map shuffling system and much more.

If you're unfamiliar with Straftat, it was named the best FPS of 2024 by PC Gamer thanks to its fast-paced, wilfully silly gunfights that hark back to the days of LAN parties. "There's an inherent ridiculousness because of the collection of random levels that lays things out like Mario Party for murderers," Jake Tucker explained. "In one you'll fight in a maze of corridors with assault rifles, in another you're sliding down an icy slope hurling landmines at each other."

Indeed, Straftat was created because the Lemaitre brothers simply couldn't find a shooter that provided gratifying 1v1 action. Since remedying that with the initial launch, the brothers have added support for 2v2 tdm and four-way deathmatch, just in case your friends group stretches beyond one person. And as the pair mention in the update's Steam post, they're far from finished yet. "We definitely want STRAFTAT to live as long as possible."

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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