GTFO comes just in time for the holiday season with the premiere of its full release. If you love hardcore first-person shooters, you are in for a treat with GTFO, featuring cooperative gameplay with friends and since its full release, playing as a solo. With the introduction of player AI to help you navigate the depths of the dark labyrinth that is the Rundown, players can now traverse the game with a full group of AI players to command. No longer do you have to confront enemies alone. Along with the introduction of bots, you can unlock a variety of gear and clothing to help in your journey.

Rewinding for those who are not familiar with GTFO, it was created by a team of Swedish independent game developers, 10 Chambers Collective, formed in 2015 by nine industry veterans known for titles such as PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2. As stated before in previous reviews of the development of the game, some aspects do resonate from the Payday games, focusing on stealth elements mixed with nonstop FPS action. Not for the faint-hearted, GTFO is truly for the hardcore gamer!

As for the game’s story, you and your fellow teammates play as prisoners held captive by a mysterious entity called The Warden. You are sent down on deadly expeditions to carry out different tasks and retrieve various artifacts.

What lies waiting along the way are unimaginable horrors that you and your fellow teammates must overcome to survive. To show you how your expedition starts, you are presented with the Rundown, an ordered list that breaks up each level of the underground complex you must explore, with each level increasing in difficulty as you go. As stated by the developers, the Rundown has a timer that is present on the top of the screen, and when the timer ends a whole new Rundown is created.

Getting back to the new bots for solo gameplay, getting used to using the new AI was a little overwhelming for me at first, but once I got into the swing of things, I still died a horrible death a few times, especially when encountering several enemies, but it does make a huge difference compared to when I used to play solo. Having a full squad makes all the difference.

As for the new gear, it was great to change up the look for your character rather than the usual, and these can include buffs to help on your fight in The Rundown. I am keen to see what other masks can be unlocked and will be available in future updates – maybe a cool-looking Doom mask or other nice Easter eggs. That would be cool to see.

Aspects of the game’s core gameplay have not deviated from previous updates and the core gameplay still holds true with the stealth and run-and-gun mix. Having those intense moments trying to unlock a door while also trying to defend your position against an unflinching enemy, navigating dark corridors, attempting nervously to dispatch enemies using stealth to avoid conflict, and conserving ammo for tactical reasons, are what makes GTFO a game that stands out from most other hardcore games out there.

The atmosphere for GTFO may not be for the faint-hearted, with the dimly lit corridors and rooms to even just staring straight into darkness, the lighting and sounds play a huge part of the game’s overall dread-inducing feel. Enemies may hide in every room and every corner, and they can scare the hell out of you and test your very nerves, and having limited ammunition or micro-managing almost every aspect when moving from room to room, your heart will be pumping the whole time.

Overall, GTFO is an insanely difficult game that relies heavily on 4 player co-op, and now the addition of bots allows players to go at it solo but never alone, and now you can change up your character with different looks and gear to give you that slight edge or that extra cool factor. I do have to say that GTFO gives players a reason not to join in on the action, but for those who aren’t scared to go at it alone, or those who want to get back into the Rundown with friends, you now have an opportunity to make your character look like a badass.

Written by: Simon Hayward