Black Ice [Official Site] is an in-development cyberpunk hack and shoot FPS that I'm quite a fan of, this new update makes it feel like a whole new game.

Note: Due to an issue with the version used of the Unity3D game engine, mouse input for menus doesn't currently work if the game starts in fullscreen. You can use this as a launch option to help for now:

-screen-fullscreen 0

It should be fixed in more recent versions of Unity. I let the developer know with one of their last big patches and did so again today. They told me "Updating Unity is the first order of business after this patch." so that's good news. Thankfully, going fullscreen once in-game still works properly.

The first major change, is that the game now has actual weapon models and they look pretty slick too. You can now only use one at a time due to this, but it certainly makes the game feel a lot better overall. Some of the weapon effects are absolutely awesome too! In addition, there's a new recoil system, so your own skill is increasingly important.

Enemies are also smarter and harder to deal with, multiple enemies can run up a wall at the same time, they will exhibit different behaviours based on their weapons and their range, some have shields and so on. The combat has actually become a little exciting, it certainly got my blood flowing.

I took a little look today to test out the new weapon models and see the newer AI in action:

On top of the weapon models and AI improvements, there's also a new Lava zone, where the floor is quite literally pools of hot death. This zone leads into the "Aimbot Fab", an arena full of Aimbot enemies. There's also a quest-line added to the game, with you needing to save a little girl the big bad corporations don't think is profitable enough to keep alive.

After playing it today, my previous comment about it feeling a bit "lifeless" doesn't really apply any more. I would still like to see plenty more outside of the server hacking, but at least that has become a lot more interesting now. For those of you who enjoy the masses of loot in games like Borderlands 2, you will certainly enjoy this too.

See the full update notes here.

You can grab it on itch.io (not updated yet), Humble Store and Steam. Both Humble and itch provide a DRM free build as well as a Steam key.