If you feel like the MMO genre is crowded right now, Pioner is the irradiated answer you’ve been looking for. It’s a Stalker-like Soviet FPS with Escape From Tarkov PvP and MMO mechanics all rolled into one. Best of all, beta sign-ups have just opened. There’s nothing I love more than grounded sci-fi with a grubby aesthetic, and Pioner has that in spades.
In a lot of ways, Pioner feels like the lovechild of Stalker and Escape From Tarkov. At first glance, it’s a survival FPS game with the grungy tone, old-school Soviet sci-fi, and radiation-infused hellscapes of Stalker, but there’s a lot more going on under the surface – Pioner is actually also an MMO.
Its open-world will support both PvE and PvP gameplay, with multiple dungeons available to explore alone or with friends. Think of it like wandering around the tense raids of EFT, but with a unique sci-fi twist. Everything’s dirty, mutated fauna roams the land, and gangs will try and take all your resources from you.
That doesn’t mean Pioner won’t have more traditional single-player elements, though. According to GFA Games, you’ll have multiple quest types to complete, from daily activities to more traditional mission lines. “For [an] easy comparison, you can take the classic side quests from The Elder Scrolls or Fallout,” the developer says. “In narrative structure, the game is very similar to the Bethesda games.”
You’ve got a story with campaign quests, too. These will be scripted events more akin to what you’d expect when playing a traditional single-player game, while the open-world activities will be more fluid.
Pioner beta testing applications are live now, and the release date is set for 2024. Simply head here and give your email, but keep in mind that GFA Games doesn’t guarantee that everyone will get access to the game.
If the beta isn’t enough for you, we’ve put together all the best apocalypse games and multiplayer games to add to your backlog in the meantime.
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