Survive a zombie outbreak and screw over other players in The Walking Dead: Betrayal's open beta

The world may be ending, but that doesn't mean you can't be horrible to your fellow survivors.

The Walking Dead: Betrayal is a third-person survival-and-murder sim in which a group of eight people must work together to survive a zombie outbreak somewhere in rural Canada. It sounds, and looks, a lot like the outstanding 2019 survival-deception game Project Winter—which makes sense, it's being developed by the same studio—but with one intriguing twist: Roaming hordes of zombies means there's not always time to think about your next move.

Complicating matters further is the fact that while most of the people in your group are doing their best to stay alive and get away, there are one or two who—for reasons I don't entirely understand—are determined to sabotage the effort and get everyone killed. Maybe they're worshippers of some secret brain-eating cult, or maybe they're just nihilistic jerks: Either way, they're trouble, and on top of everything else you've got on your plate, it's really important to suss out who's trying to gum up the works and deal with them.

Sounds like a good time, right? Especially if you're into deep thinking about how even end-of-the-world scenarios can't prevent some people from indulging in their worst possible tendencies. Why are we such a self-destructive species, anyway? Hey, this is just a videogame, and one you can try for yourself very soon: An open beta is set to kick off at 9 am PT/12 pm ET on August 25, and will run until the same time on August 28.

To get into The Walking Dead: Betrayal beta, just head around to the Steam page and click the "request access" button—you'll receive an email when it's ready to go. Developer Other Ocean Interactive also recommends joining the Walking Dead: Betrayal Discord channel to stay abreast of game updates and announcements.

The system requirements for the beta are pretty minimal, even at the recommended spec:

The Walking Dead: Betrayal doesn't have a launch date yet, but given that it's reached the "open beta" state of development, I'd expect that it can't be too far away.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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