Try the demo for military RPG Long Gone Days

Long Gone Days is a modern military RPG which developer Bura describes as an eclectic mix of visual novels and shooters. It will launch on Steam Early Access in March and fully release later this year, and it already has a free Steam demo you can try. 

Starring Rourke, a soldier who deserts the military after learning "the awful truth about the operation he's part of," Long Gone Days tells a story of inescapable war, Bura says. It's set in the underground city of Kaliningrad and features an intriguing mix of game modes. 

Combat, for example, comes in two forms: first-person turn-based combat where you build and command your party, and a sniper mode where you hunt find-it-style for targets. Bura says there are "no random encounters or grinding," which sounds like a nice departure from turn-based norms. Similarly, rather than tanks or mages or other fantasy classes, you have medics and translators. 

Then there's morale, which is determined by your dialogue choices and affects your allies' combat effectiveness. Expanding the morale system was one of many reasons Long Gone Days is now slated for later this year rather than, say, now, according to Bura. In a post to its Tumblr dev blog, the studio said delaying the game also allowed it to double the main story's length, broaden dialogue choices and rework fundamentals like UI. 

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.