Far Cry meets Valheim in gorgeous new open-world adventure

There’s something quite magical about stumbling across a game you’ve never heard of only for it to earn a place very high up on your ‘most anticipated’ list.

That’s essentially my experience with Blind Descent, an upcoming PC survival craft game that’s very Valheim-esque albeit with some FPS action you may find in the Far Cry franchise.

Blind Descent has been developed by Pokuch and is set to be published by META Publishing.

Unfortunately, it’s not due to be released until 2026, but that’s only six months away - and you can actually play it early, but more on that later.

Blind Descent is an open-world survival title set “deep beneath the Martian surface”.

“A team of up to four pioneers has been sent to uncover the fate of a missing crew within a vast, uncharted underground world. What was supposed to be a routine expedition has become a fight for human survival,” the synopsis reads.

“As exploration begins, the subterranean world reveals itself as a living, reactive ecosystem. It is no longer just a mission, it’s a transformation, a challenge to integrate and thrive in a world where survival hinges on your ability to learn, adapt, and symbiotise.”

Alongside attempting to figure out what happened to the lost crew, you’ll also have to build shelter, deal with hazardous life forms, craft survival tools, traverse a dangerous world, and take advantage of mutation-enhanced abilities.

But you don’t have to go it alone as Blind Descent allows you to team up with up to three fellow pioneers.

As I said, the game isn’t expected to launch for some time but it is prepping for an early access period by running a playtest.

You can join that playtest by heading on over to Steam where, on the game’s store page, there’s a big ol’ green ‘Request Access’ button.

Hopefully, that should be followed by an acceptance from the developer, granting you access to test this one out.

It’s likely also worth wishlisting the game so that you can be notified of any further demos, updates, or playtest ops.