Harebrained releases its first game after splitting from Paradox. A survival horror RPG in which you can blast limbs of your enemies and attach them to your body

Harebrained Studios, the studio that created the Shadowrun RPG series and Battletech tactical combat game, has announced its first project in the post-Paradox period: Graft. It is a "post cyberpunk survival horror RPG", set aboard a dying station overrun with sticky, fleshy monsters.

The setting is vaguely BioShock. The Arc was once a technological beacon that guided humanity into the future. It was "a continent-sized space station filled with biomechanically augmented citizens, all working towards some greater purpose lost in time." The Arc, as it's known, was once a technological beacon lighting humanity's path to the future: "a continent-sized station filled with biomechanically enhanced citizens, all working toward some greater purpose lost to time."

Graft's game world sounds interesting. The Arc is full of "powerful and unsettling technologies" from eons past, whose secret you might uncover if you survive long enough. You can also form "fragile alliances" with other survivors, and perhaps even deeper relationships. But remember that they are in the same boat as you: "Anyone who is still alive is likely to be both dangerous and treacherous." Your choices will determine your journey and the fate of those you meet.

The process of grafting is where things get really interesting: You can augment and improve your own body using "grafts" that you can find hidden in the Arc or blast off the bodies of your opponents. It's certainly useful, but there's always a catch. The parts that you graft on your body contain small pieces of the original owner's mind. They are now a part you and carry memories, impulses and obsessions which were not yours before.

Steam's page warns, "You must decide what each of these fragments mean to you. And you must live with each choice."

Harebrained--formerly known as Harebrained Schemes, but the studio recently decided to drop the "Schemes" part--had a good run through the Shadowrun trilogy and Battletech, an outstanding videogame take on the tabletop classic that's only got better with age. It ran into trouble when its latest game, The Lamplighters League flopped last year, leading to a breakup with Paradox Interactive.

Harebrained, like many other studios in the past two years, made significant layoffs before the release of The Lamplighters' League. The studio stated after its break-up with Paradox that the reduced headcount "led to us revisit the scope of the projects which we are currently exploring with future publishers," indicating Graft may be a smaller project than some Harebrained previous releases. But that's fine: I'd rather spend six hours saying "this is awesome!" than 20 hours saying "let's finish this up."

Graft has no release date yet, but it will be on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.