After nearly 3 years in Early Access, one of the best co-op horror games I've played miraculously gets full launch amid stellar Steam reviews

Forewarned, a severely underrated gem in the Phasmophobia-dominated indie co-op horror space, just got its 1.0 update after almost three years in Early Access, and the developers call it the game's "largest and most ambitious update yet."

I've been recommending Forewarned to folks with a taste for frightful fun with friends since its Early Access launch in September 2021, at which point it already felt like a relatively polished and fully fledged co-op horror game. It's clearly inspired by Phasmophobia, but it's also tonally and mechanically very much Its Own Thing, tasking teams of four with plundering grand Egyptian tombs while being stalked by malevolent spirits called Mejai, with the added threat of dead crewmates respawning as ghosts that can either be helpful or hostile depending on their mood.

I'm a big fan of Forewarned's atmosphere, unique PvP mechanic, and gameplay loop, and now with its 1.0 update adding a new boss, two new maps, a "complete ritual revamp," and loads more, it's an even easier recommend. It would take more time than I have in a work day to go over every update in the change log, but here's the full release from developer Dreambyte if you fancy a gander.

It's somewhat of a minor miracle that a game like Forewarned, whose time in Early Access has seen a deluge of loosely similar titles vying for a share of Phasmophobia's pie, is now just fully out there, but I think it's a testament to innovations like PvP and Mejai mechanics, as well as the fact that it's actually pretty flippin' scary. Dreambyte also said Forewarned's 1.0 update isn't the end of new content, but rather "the finalization of the game's base foundation." 

Looking for a handy round-up of the best horror games? You know where to click.