Early access of my most anticipated shooter of the year has just been launched and the community is now fighting about the importance of regular water consumption.

PC Gamer has a lot of fans of extraction shooters, but I haven't been able find one that really floats my boat. The Forever Winter is a gloomy, ambitious PvE extractor game with survival vibes, and a penchant to ruthlessly kill players. It was just what I wanted.

It was released yesterday and I survived a few scavenging missions last night. It's a great game, but it still has a few kinks. The game has a Mixed rating at the moment on Steam, largely due to performance issues. I haven't had any issues myself, but my rig is pretty beefy with an RTX-4090 and an Intel i9-13900k.

It's not surprising that one particular mechanic has caused a lot of controversy. The Forever War takes place in an apocalyptic world where two heavily mechanised groups have ruined the planet by hurling cyborgs, mechs and other weapons at each other. The players are not mechwarriors or super soldiers, but rather scavengers who are trying to survive in Hell. The missions are based on you running across battlefields and looting while trying to avoid being spotted by a death machine the size of a building or a squad.

You can find anything from booze to packs of cigarettes to tech that you can sell for a premium at your hideout. This will give you money that you can use on weapons, upgrades, and consumables. You can't get your loot back unless you return to where you died. You only get one chance to make everything right.

Water is probably the most valuable commodity you will find in a warzone. Water keeps your hideout going, and you'll need to have enough water for certain days in order to access some of the facilities. The real punishment comes when the water runs out. All that's left are your character and their experience points.

The Steam forums have been awash with criticism of the mechanic, but it has also attracted a number of defenders. I'm kinda split. I think that the ruthlessness of the game is bold and in line with its tone. However, it can be difficult for people to fit in multiplayer games. And worrying about digital water before you go on vacation for a week seems a bit excessive. It's not too difficult to obtain a surplus of water, as it tends to spawn on specific maps.

Early access is still about getting feedback. Players are giving a lot of feedback. Finding someone to play with is another issue that frustrates them. I'm in a similar situation. Quick play doesn't seem to work and I haven't been able to join any squads that are open. A hotfix has been sent to the Design Director Jeff Gregg.

Even when I play solo, I have a blast. I was hiding behind a wall during one of the scavenger huntings last night as a group soldiers took out a heavily armed mech and left its burning remains for me to loot. I was able to get some advanced weapons technology, but it turned out to be more of a problem than a reward. I had stolen valuable loot and not just random junk. This meant that the faction to which it belonged was alerted, and immediately sent hunter-killers to me. I sprinted to the extraction point and only managed to outrun the pursuing cybernetics by dragging the cyborgs into a conflict between another horde. Mechs started falling from the sky. A couple of tanks appeared, and I turned around just before extracting to see this huge bastard bearing me down.

It's a great time.