GTFO

GTFO had a free weekend recently, so I got together with a few friends, and we gave it a shot. They had just released a new "Rundown" alongside the free weekend, which is a series of missions that is... the whole game, I guess. Seems to happen twice a year to try to keep the game fresh, which is nice. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What's the game like?

Rundown is described as a horror shooter, but there isn't much horror aside from the grotesque enemies, and there's not that much shooting unless you want to run out of ammo and lose the game. Instead, the levels rely on exploring the area, making optimal decisions on where to go, and a little bit of teamwork that includes sneaking past enemies or sneaking up to them and clubbing them in the head while they're taking a nap. A lot of the latter really, and it plays like a game of Red Light, Green Light (AKA Statues), which really makes it quite slow, especially if other players are just on standby in case things go south.
The gunplay isn't bad, but there's nothing noteworthy about it either. Equipment you can find is quite boring (another set of glowsticks no one wants, anyone?), and there isn't a lot of variety in the gameplay, at least as far as the missions I got to. Top that off with having to re-do large parts of the game if you lose and no adjustable difficulty, and you don't really have much of a case to make in favor of this game. For what it's worth, I found the atmosphere quite immersive and well-executed, but that is by no means enough to keep me interested in the game.

So, after the initial feeling of discovery wore off and the gameplay started to fall into more of a rut of just waiting for periods of time (having to repeat a part of the game 5 times didn't help either), I wasn't having any more of it. I can't even imagine what it must be like playing with randoms, where someone running off, getting frustrated, or just being incompetent will simply ruin everything. Overall, play with a group of people you know, for sure, but even then I find the whole thing difficult to recommend.