“You can’t charge money for this.” The open-world survival game from the creator of Steam’s biggest hit has turned out to be a huge letdown

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PLAYERUNKNOWN, known for creating PUBG: Battlegrounds, recently released a new single-player survival game called Prologue: Go Wayback! However, the launch hasn’t gone as planned. The game only had around 200 players playing at the same time on Steam yesterday, and early reviews are mixed, with about 60% being positive.

Prologue: Go Wayback! launches with mixed reviews

The game Prologue: Go Wayback! is currently available in Early Access, but many players think it’s not quite ready for that stage – they see it as more of a test version or a demonstration of the technology. The gameplay isn’t well-balanced yet. Players need resources to survive, but sometimes there are plenty available, and other times it’s nearly impossible to progress because resources don’t appear. The game’s random number generator needs to be adjusted to create a more reliable experience. While it’s intended to be a challenging survival game, it currently feels unfair rather than difficult.

As someone commented on Steam:

You can’t charge money for this

Been part of the testing phases. You can’t charge consumers for this guys.

This isn’t a new game; it’s an existing project meant to be used as a starting point for your own work. I’m a bit surprised to see it’s being sold.

Would not be surprised if it has “Mixed” Reviews this week.

With Prologue: Go Wayback!, the developers are taking the initial steps toward their ambitious Project Artemis game – a huge online world where players can freely explore and create. Currently, it seems like a lot of the focus is on testing their new game engine, Melba, which will be used for future games like Project Artemis.

A noteworthy feature is the studio’s transparency about using AI-created content on Steam. They developed their own AI system, trained using only carefully checked, publicly available data, to initially create the landscapes in Unreal Engine 5. Artists then refine these AI-generated bases, adding details like trees, rivers, and rocks to build realistic 64 square kilometer maps. Importantly, each time you begin a new game, a unique map is created directly on your computer, without needing an internet connection.

The developers have a good plan for their Early Access release, but they’ll need a strong player community right away to make it happen. Getting feedback from players is always valuable, especially when a game is still being polished. We’ve seen games turn things around before – No Man’s Sky was initially criticized for being lackluster, but it’s now a highly-regarded sandbox game. Cyberpunk 2077 also recovered from a rocky launch with optimization problems and still has a dedicated fanbase eagerly awaiting the sequel. However, things don’t seem as promising for Prologue: Go Wayback!

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2025-11-21 18:02