HUNGER Enters Steam Early Access on December 3 With Zero Progression Wipes and a Free Open Beta
The original creators behind Hell Let Loose are ready to drop players into a plague-ridden Napoleonic nightmare. Independent studio Good Fun Corporation, led by co-founder Maximilian Rea, has officially announced that its first-person horror extraction RPG HUNGER will launch in Early Access on PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 10:00 AM GMT (5:00 AM EST / 11:00 AM CET). Even better, PC players will be able to jump in for free ahead of release during an Open Beta running from Friday, November 27 to Sunday, November 29, 2026.
A Free Steam Open Beta From November 27 to 29 Ahead of Launch
Before kicking off its Early Access campaign and joining the December 2026 game release calendar, Good Fun Corporation is opening its servers to everyone for a full weekend test. From November 27 through November 29, 2026, anyone on PC can join the final Open Beta without a pre-order: players simply need to head over to the official HUNGER Steam page and click the "Request Access" button to secure their spot.
When Early Access goes live on December 3, 2026, at 10:00 AM GMT, the game will be offered in three tiers: the Standard Edition, the Veteran Edition, and the Imperial Edition, with the upper editions bundling exclusive period-themed weapon and character cosmetics.
A Plague-Ravaged Post-Napoleonic France and the Chateau Social Hub
HUNGER is set in an alternate post-Napoleonic Europe devastated by an eldritch biological catastrophe known simply as the Bacterium. Once-prosperous French provinces have collapsed into quarantined wastelands crawling with grotesque mutated monstrosities and desperate scavengers.
Between expeditions, survivors (known as the Livings) gather inside the Chateau, a fortified social sanctuary heavily inspired by the towering architecture of Mont-Saint-Michel. Inside this safe hub, players interact with quest givers, merchants, crafters, bounty boards, and their own upgradable personal keep. Once geared up, squads deploy solo, in duos, or in trios (up to 3 players) into hostile 1 km² maps such as Jacques Bridge, Sombre Forest, and Sarlat Farm, navigating misty woodlands, ruined villages, trenches, monasteries, and claustrophobic underground networks.
Zero Seasonal Wipes: True RPG Progression Meets Black Powder and Brutal Melee
Where genre heavyweights like Escape from Tarkov or Hunt: Showdown rely on periodic server resets, Good Fun Corporation is taking a fundamentally different route: HUNGER features zero progression wipes. While dying during an expedition still costs you the loot and gear carried on your back, your survivor's long-term RPG growth is permanent.
- Permanent Level 100 Cap and Mastery Trees: each character progresses up to level 100 across an extensive skill tree featuring over 100 passive, tactical, and ultimate abilities that are never reset.
- Crafting Professions and Personal Keep Upgrades: resources extracted back to the Chateau fuel gathering and crafting professions, allowing players to forge weapons, brew consumables, and permanently expand their personal quarters.
- Black Powder Firearms and Directional Melee: PvPvE encounters blend loud, slow-reloading flintlock pistols, muskets, and portable mortars with brut close-quarters combat using axes, flails, and daggers governed by directional parrying and stamina management.
- Weapon and Armor Durability: firearms and armor pieces degrade under combat stress, requiring constant maintenance and creating a player-driven economy around skilled repairs and crafting.
My Take
Dropping mandatory seasonal wipes in favor of persistent RPG progression is the smartest move Good Fun Corporation could make in today's crowded extraction shooter market. Plenty of players love the high-stakes tension of risking their loadout in a raid, yet burn out when a seasonal reset erases months of character building. Combine that permanent sense of growth with a grimdark Napoleonic plague aesthetic and the gunplay pedigree of the original Hell Let Loose founders, and the November 27 Open Beta becomes an essential test run for anyone craving a fresh tactical obsession.
SEO consultant for over 20 years and digital entrepreneur, Charles "Grimtag" is the founder of Pro-Gamer.gg, Retrocharting.com, and Gamescharting.com. A competitive gamer, streamer, and retro game collector, he has worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, notably as a consultant for leading game price comparison platforms. Passionate about real-time performance data and gaming technology, he analyzes competitive esports, gaming hardware benchmarks, and creator workflows on Pro-Gamer.gg with an authentic player perspective.
