After C1, one of the many brutal missions currently available for players in GTFO ,your expedition team will be stuck in an ancient botany laboratory. A circle of orange appears on the floor, and everyone needs to stand in the same spot to fill up a bar located at the bottom of the screen. The circular path gliding through the damp corridors and stairwells, and the group that is four men crams in its boundaries, looking down iron sights, shooting at anything that moves. A torrent of horrifying irregularities hammers at your defenses, as GTFO is a clear example of how dangerous it can be. I have watched my comrades crumble at the 98th percentile in the final round of attacks that proved impossible for our rapidly diminishing ammunition. I've witnessed a fellow member hit the trigger and wipe the group clean with an accidental team kill in the hallway's narrowness. I've watched a few of pick-up groups disintegrate by the fourth or fifth attempts as it became obvious that our coordination wasn't top-notch. It's among the most painful experiences I've been through in a video game. However, the more GTFO shatters my heart I've come to develop an unsavory taste for its unending cruelty.  
  
Your objectives differ with each stage, but the majority times, your team will be asked to dredge up some sort of deserted Mcguffin from under the rock and return to safety intact. However, in contrast to its clear source of inspiration of Left 4 Dead, Payday, and their ilk - GTFO needs a serious high-quality, consistent level of execution. There's not a scenario in which this can be a straightforward shooting gallery - victory is rarely achievable by dumping clippings in blindly into the horde - instead it brings back how to handle the white-knuckle requirements of a hard World of Warcraft dungeon. There are some sequences that require your players to move through the maze without a sound, so as to not be alerted by the goliaths walking around in your wake. There are twisted, toothy enemies that can wipe your group out in a nanosecond; it is imperative to keep them at night in complete darkness. My group of friends once spent about 15 minutes dispersing around resources and sealing off chokepoints prior to a very elaborate encounter, only to die within a few seconds.  
  
The difficulty is going to dissuade a lot of people who come looking to play casually, but I was awed by GTFO's determination to punish me repeatedly and over, until I produced results. There are many shooters that require littleest amount of brainpower but here I was obliged to try something I hadn't since a while: wander into a random Discord channel, broadcast an LFG beacon, and sign up to a chat channel with strangers in the hopes they could be those kind of dedicated players I required.  
  
It's an old-fashioned slant. The games we've played have become increasingly simple over the years including the likes of Monster Hunter losing some of its signature impenetrability. GTFO is a bold, proud step in the opposite direction and that's its most appreciated feature among those of people who enjoy its. It's exemplified by the fact that, in order to get situated in every zone, members of the group will need to walk over to one of the terminals scattered throughout the area, log in and use the DOS command prompt, for instance, to locate health packs or uncover keys. To top it off the compound doesn't offer any signposting in the complex; however, each player gets an outline of the map that they can traced on with their cursors, as if at the end of a D&D smash karts multiplayer game. It's also fun to see how the whole party needs to count down from three , and combine their melee strikes at simultaneously to silently topple some of those larger foes. Your heart is pounding check to see if it's dead and move on to the next one. There is something strangely intimate about drawing a rushed escape route on a mapor climbing the walls of a dark space, just inches from sleeping monsters. GTFO declares the fact that there's nobody that will come to your rescue, and the only way to escape is to trust the people who are in charge. No matter what happens the outcome of our lives is in our hands.  
  
This emphasis on the analog aspect of teamwork allows GTFO a fantastic sense of respect and tact. The firefights are fine however, the best moments come at the point that you and buddies are back at the drawing board after a few clean-ups. (Should we set up a guard near the eastern flank? Perhaps our mines were off center.) Because of its vast array of options in weapons and equipment, GTFO never made me think I was rummaging around in the dark looking to find a certain solution.  
  
That's not to say that GTFO does not have modern FPS trappings. Each level is packed with restricted-use perks that could apply to future expeditions and they all are able to boost the usual FPS features, such as regeneration speed, damage output and ammo availability among others. I also unlocked a handful of cosmetics that outfitted my greyscale trooper with virtually invisible costume modifications. (Notably, though, GTFO is a 100% microtransaction-free game.) Everything seemed pretty tacked-on and weirdly contrary to the rest of the hardcore GTFO ethos. This is a video game where I might need to defend myself from a bunch of mutants by using the help of a speed-reducing foam gun, while someone else bangs codewords on computers. It's not exactly a pleasant experience returning to our lobby where you can all strap on our seven percent increases in our projectile resistance.  
  
A game such as this live and dies by how much content is offered, and to be fair, there are at present a good 10 missions in GTFO. However, the developer 10 Chambers Collective makes the unorthodox choice of throwing away all its difficult work each time it gets an upgrade and completely scrap the existing levels, replacing them with fresh ones. (So when GTFO gets its next patch every level I've played are gone to create a new campaign.) That ephemerality adds to GTFO's fascination with mystery. It's eye-opening to interact with veterans who can regale them with tales of war from previous crusades.  
  
The world 10 Chambers has created is relentlessly, almost hilariously brutal. From what I've learned I could tell you that you're basically an inmate, frozen in a kind of permanent stasis. We're defrosted in order to make the most horrible, suicidal contracts conceivable. Thus, GTFO does not come with a riveting story. The information most of it is relayed via one of the worst techniques for video games that exists: random voices coming from intercoms. (To clarify, some gamers are passionate about the lore, and the studio has experimented with some ARG-like strategies to expose its universe.) That meant, I was thrilled by the plot curveballs 10 Chambers was able to put in several of its gameplay sequences. A majority game play takes place in the complex, but without giving too much away you could find them transported to more lively arenas, if you play with the right kind of doodad. It's a refreshing change of scene from the regular dark and concrete, and also a proof that GTFO is changing in its own way as GTFO is finally able to end its early access program in the space of two years.  
  
Naturally, this means that GTFO is subject to all those social repercussions that come with several cooperative games. The levels are lengthyaround two hours , which is why it's so frustrating when someone drops out halfway through. (Though you can still join in mid-mission in the event of a need.) It's particularly frustrating when a slight hint from lingering early access junk comes to the forefront; one of my parties actually had to call it one night after a compulsory terminal was faulty. GTFO is already a painful affair, but instances such as that, which are the least your own fault are often aggravating. Oftentimes, I found myself in search of a save feature so that my team could avoid losing. Then, at 2am, it became clear that the two of us were not going through the brutal conclusion of C1. What would it mean to break the GTFO concept to allow us a chance to return on the next day to give it another shot , without getting back to the start?  
  
But it's hard to believe that I've had a sport that so effectively put me on a highwire. As I approached GTFO's more advanced missions, I found that my own neural thoughts were being affected. My voice was reduced to just a whisper when the group made their way into another dark chamber full of creatures that could send the whole horde after us if they were disturbed from their sleep. I was sure they wouldn't be able to understand me because of the screen and it was still a struggle to make sense to speak to them. This kind of level of immersion can only be reached by putting four people in total blackness, scribbling instructions on a paper map, or smelling a wipe around every corner. It's because of the knowledge that GTFO will break your spirit and crush you into a ball - and then will you feel alive.  
  
GTFO is a shrewd take in the Left 4 Dead co-op shooter formula. This is a game to be performed with three or more friends who you know for a fact can come to fight off a myriad of fleshy, gruesome monsters while playing through the advanced Destiny-style raid mechanics. If you've got the right group as well as the necessary perseverance, GTFO eventually reveals itself as one of the most enjoyable games that can be played cooperatively. There are many first-person shooters who seem disinterested and uninvolved in testing our capabilities however when you hit the point of extraction with GTFO it truly makes you feel like you have escaped the jaws of death.