Rhinotales has announced Critical Shift, a turn-based strategy RPG packed with survival elements and psychological horror. Launching in 2025 for PS5, Xbox, and PC via Steam, this squad-based game dives deep into a frozen nightmare beneath the Antarctic ice.
Your mission? Investigate ICE-1, a research station that’s gone radio silent after a mysterious disaster. As your team digs deeper, they uncover broken realities, twisted experiments, and threats that could end the world. The game’s story comes from Guiltythree, author of Shadow Slave, known for dark atmospheres, intense characters, and shocking twists.
Critical Shift features no-luck combat where every move, bullet, and ability counts. There’s no 99% miss nonsense—just pure tactical planning. You’ll fight across 30+ handcrafted levels, using smart positioning, resource management, and real-time strategy swaps to survive.
The station is crawling with enemies: hive minds turning people into mutants, AI building grotesque hybrids, and eldritch horrors that defy explanation. Factions fight amongst themselves, and clever players can use that chaos to their advantage.
Explore every inch of ICE-1, scavenge precious gear, and piece together the disturbing truth hidden in secret logs and survivor stories.
Critical Shift key features
- No RNG battles – Your brain wins fights, not random numbers
- Narrative depth – A twisted sci-fi story by the author of Shadow Slave
- Survival strategy – Ammo is scarce, decisions matter, and no mistake is small
- Factions & manipulation – Turn enemies against each other with clever tactics
- Exploration & lore – Discover the chilling secrets of the ICE-1 facility
Critical Shift launches in 2025. Wishlist it now on Steam.
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