Stalker-inspired battle royale game Fear the Wolves set for launch in February

Fear the Wolves, a post-apocalyptic battle royale being developed by the ex-Stalker folks at Vostok Games, will go from Early Access to full release on February 6. The launch will be accompanied by a "massive update" featuring a new artifact system, a new Wolf Matriach mutant, "anomalous lockdown areas," two new anomalies, and more.

One of the new artifacts sounds like an interesting piece: It's actually the Wolf Matriarch's heart. You kill her and cut it out of her chest, and can then use it to summon friendly mutant wolves to help you out in fights. That's an odd way of hooking up with allies, but you can also pick up the hearts in the lockdown areas: They're highly radioactive, but on the other hand you don't have to hack organs out of corpses. The other artifact, "Spore," will enable you to briefly see enemies through walls.

"These new items should add a lot of tension and diversity throughout matches, as well as offering new strategies in late game," Vostok said. "Waiting for the evacuation hidden in a bush isn’t such a good idea anymore when you have a pack of wolves rushing towards you!"

The big update is expected to go live on February 6 with the full game launch, but Vostok said that it might go for a "soft launch" a few days earlier to ensure that everything is working like it's supposed to. If you're not familiar with the term, it's basically the same as a regular launch, but nobody says anything about it.

Fear the Wolves will be free to play from February 6-12, if you want to see what it's all about without committing yourself to the cause, and if you dig the whole radioactive lupine Soviet battle royale thing (and really, who doesn't?) it will also be half-price during the same period. A full rundown of what's coming in the update is available on Steam.

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.