If you're a fan of first-person shooters and haven't played Selaco, you should. Built in the Doom engine and inspired by FEAR, Half-Life and System Shock, Selaco is a rollicking, dizzyingly ambitious sci-fi FPS where you battle a mercenary incursion of a vast, city-sized space station that's home to the last of humanity.

Launched into Steam early access in 2024, Selaco's first chapter alone is as long as some entire '90s shooters. Now, developer Altered Orbit Studios is preparing to release an update that will not only double the length of the game, but also introduce a wide array of new features and rework much of its existing design.

Described by Altered Orbit as "an absolute behemoth", Selaco: The Machines of War introduces the second of a planned three chapters to the FPS. Chapter two comprises 19 new campaign maps, which apparently amounts to "6-8 hours of additional content". Alongside further story elements and a voice for the protagonist, the chapter also introduces what sounds like a persistent enemy, in the form of "an unstoppable machine" that is "hunting you down."

Naturally, this second chapter also adds new weapons and enemies, with the former including a minigun and "a heavy machine gun that fires literal explosions". I don't know how that would work, but I'm keen to find out! Alongside your equipped arsenal, players will be able to use new deployable weapons like mini-turrets and sentinel drones, while the update also introduces a "heavy ordnance system" that lets you wield large, disposable weapons scattered across the battlefield, Gears of War-style.

As well as completely new stuff, Altered Orbit says the update will also enhance a lot of existing content. The FEAR inspired enemy AI, for example, has been "rewritten almost entirely from scratch" to facilitate smarter tactics and better decision making. The rewrite also introduces a new "rally" system and NPC area patrolling when not in combat—an addition designed to give players more agency in when and how fighting begins. Oh, and the entire first chapter has been given an overhaul that introduces "improved set pieces" and "new surprises".

And those are just the headline changes. Other improvements mentioned by Altered Orbit include a new lighting system, an overhauled particle system to make combat even more spectacular, improved navigation through Selaco's massive, mazey levels, new voice lines to make enemy communication even more lifelike, better controls, new music, and more. It almost sounds too good to be true, but I've played Chapter 1 and I know Altered Orbit can cook with rocket fuel, so none of this is beyond the studio's capability.

Selaco: The Machines of War arrives on November 13. The scale of the changes means that old saves will no longer be compatible. But if you don't fancy replaying the reworked first episode, you will be able to jump in at the outset of Chapter 2.

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Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

Extracted and lightly reformatted for readability. · Source: pt