The next major update for Half-Life-meets-survival-game Abiotic Factor looks absolutely massive

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As revealed during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, Abiotic Factor's next update lands in February.

It's mean, it's green, and its interdimensional monsters are obscene—a new trailer for the next major update to Abiotic Factor, Dark Energy, premiered at The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted today. And it looks massive.

If this is your first time getting a good look at Abiotic Factor, a quick primer: It's a survival crafting game set in an underground research facility during a Black Mesa-like disaster that sees interdimensional monsters running amok. Instead of playing a Gordon Freeman-type hero, you play as a scientist who has to scrounge through offices for loot, invent survival tech out of supplies on-hand (like a crossbow made out of a chair leg and meter stick), and try not to crap your pants. That's not an expression—pooping is a core, dare I say crucial mechanic in this survival game.

Abiotic Factor has been in early access since April, and it's seriously a delight. My friends and I have been inching through a playthrough for six months, slowly delving deeper into the facility's hand-crafted sectors, developing our physical and mental prowess, and crafting some truly absurd tech. The skills system is surprisingly deep and really pushes a co-op lobby into specialization. True to our job titles, one friend is the culinary expert, while our botanist tends the garden and our security officer carries the heaviest weapons (which at our current tech tree level is a massive tech mace).

According to Deep Field's updated roadmap, Dark Energy will be among the last major updates planned before Abiotic Factor hits 1.0 in 2025. I'm really impressed by the quality and quantity of updates so far and encouraged that Deep Field seems keen to keep expanding on Abio even after 1.0.

abiotic factor dark energy update

(Image credit: Deep Field Games)

Be sure to watch the rest of The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted for more announcements, including the reveal of the 25 most wanted games of 2025 as voted in by The Council.

Morgan Park
Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.