Let me tell you, I thought I'd seen it all in gaming by 2026. I've weathered the storm of Escape from Duckov, danced through the chaos of ARC Raiders, and finally got my hands on Escape from Tarkov on Steam. I was convinced the extraction shooter genre had shown me its final, terrifying form. Then, like a zombie bursting through a barricaded door I thought was secure, The Midnight Walkers shuffled into my life, and holy smokes, it’s the most deliciously terrifying cocktail of Dying Light and Tarkov I never knew I needed. This isn't just a game; it's a high-stakes, multi-floor panic attack waiting to happen, and I am utterly here for it.

The core premise is simple yet brutal: survive, loot, and escape the Liberty Grand Center. But executing that plan? That's where The Midnight Walkers becomes a masterpiece of tension. Oneway Ticket Studio calls it a hardcore extraction shooter, but that feels like calling a hurricane 'a bit of wind.' The looting is pure, unadulterated Tarkov DNA. You go in with almost nothing, and your survival hinges entirely on the gear you scrounge from the environment while dodging zombies that move with the relentless, swarming precision of a kicked hornet's nest and players who are just as hungry for your loot as you are for theirs.

What truly sets this nightmare apart is its vertical playground. We're not talking about a flat map here. The Liberty Grand Center is a multi-storied deathtrap, and the game distributes players across its various floors like sprinkles on a very dangerous, very moldy cupcake. You could spawn in the relative calm of a hospital floor, only to have to descend through a zombie-infested shopping mall to reach an extraction point. The floors themselves are themed, offering wildly different battlegrounds:

🎲 Casino Floor: High-risk, high-reward loot among abandoned slot machines and poker tables.

🛍️ Shopping Mall: Wide, open spaces perfect for ambushes, with zombies lurking in every storefront.

🏥 Hospital: Claustrophobic corridors and unsettling silence, where every gurney could be hiding a threat.

And then there's the Toxic Gas. This isn't just a circle that closes; it's a living, breathing entity that forces the action. It creeps through the complex, floor by floor, herding survivors together like a malevolent sheepdog. One minute you're looting in relative safety, the next you're watching a green haze seep under the door, and you know you have to move now. The ensuing scramble to find stairs or elevators while other desperate players and zombies are doing the same is pure, unadulterated chaos. It creates moments of frantic, unscripted drama that are as unpredictable as a game of Jenga played on a washing machine.

Now, let's talk combat, because this is where the Dying Light vibes hit you like a pipe wrench to the face. Firearms exist, but they are precious, loud, and attract every threat in a five-floor radius. The true soul of The Midnight Walkers is melee. You'll be swinging war hammers, thrusting knives, and firing makeshift bows with a desperation that feels incredibly visceral. The combat is slow, weighty, and brutal. Each swing costs stamina, and a missed hit against a zombie horde can be a death sentence. It demands precision and punishes panic. Facing down the larger, mini-boss style zombies—creatures that look like they escaped from a Dying Light tech demo—with nothing but a reinforced crowbar is an experience that will make your palms sweat. While I haven't seen the iconic dropkicks yet, the grounded, survival-focused melee is its own kind of terrifying ballet.

The extraction process itself is a brilliant little puzzle. You're not just running to a static point on the map. You need to use a Pod Tracker to locate active extraction zones. Even better, you can find an active Escape Pod, download its code, and essentially create your own extraction point later. This adds a fantastic strategic layer. Do you use your one saved code now to get out with some decent loot, or do you press deeper into the hellscape, gambling for a bigger score?

Oneway Ticket Studio has announced that this beautiful nightmare enters Early Access on January 29, 2026, and it's already one of my most anticipated titles of the year. The fact that the studio is launching with patches shaped by player feedback from earlier tests shows they're listening. This isn't a game being thrown into the wild; it's a carefully cultivated terror, entering its final tuning phase.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what you can expect when you dive in:

Feature	Description
Modes	Solo or Trio (no official word on Duos yet!)
Combat	PvPvE - Fight zombies AND other players
Classes	Four distinct classes with unique perks
Weapons	Melee-focused, with rare firearms
Zombie Types	Various types, each with unique behaviors and difficulties
Core Mechanic	Toxic Gas forces vertical movement between themed floors
Extraction	Dynamic points located via Pod Tracker, codes can be saved

Playing The Midnight Walkers feels like being a rat in the most beautifully designed, ever-shrinking maze, where the walls are other rats and the cheese is trying to kill you. The fusion of Tarkov's ruthless, gear-fearing loot cycle with Dying Light's intimate, gruesome melee combat creates something wholly unique. It's a game that demands your focus, punishes your mistakes, and rewards your cunning like few others. If you have the nerve for it, wishlist it on Steam now. January 29th can't come soon enough. My crowbar is ready.