After a multi-year series of delays, Paddle Creek Games has made the early access launch for its survival sandbox Fractured Veil, inviting players to “kill, chill, and rebuild” in a zombie-infested version of the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Just in case you haven’t been following along, Fractured Veil has all of the sub-genre hallmarks such as base building, tiered crafting, harvesting for materials to survive, and a progression system with talents, skills, abilities. Other features include dungeons, mutant sieges that can destroy bases, and some basic fishing, all across a 64 square kilometer map.
Paddle Creek offered up a refreshingly honest dev blog that acknowledges things that need to be added and improved with this current build such as missing audio, performance improvements, base defense functions, PvP balance, and a host of social and story quest features. The post also admits that the dungeons in-game are “more of a demo of what has to come,” and the studio understands that player feedback will likely be different between the game’s Kickstarter backers versus the wider Steam community.
That appears to be reflected in the title’s Steam user reviews, which are currently sitting at a “Mixed” score. Some are calling it frustrating, clunky, and unfun; previous backers are explaining that the early access build is better than what came before, but almost all of them appreciate that the game has a lot of work to be done right now.
Today after years of development we are finally ready to unveil the survival game of our dreams – 🌴Fractured Veil🌴 Visit our Steam page – It’s time to Kill, Chill, and Rebuild paradise with your friends! https://t.co/F1vFJD5aUX#FracturedVeil #UE5 #GameDev #Steam #IndieGame pic.twitter.com/4284Xh2jZA
— Fractured Veil (@FracturedVeil) January 25, 2024
