Multiplayer survive 'em up Miscreated lurches out of early access

My DayZ are numbered. After spending the past week being murdered in the original multiplayer survival sandbox, I'm not sure I can stomach another. Although Miscreated does have varied zombie types, aggressive wildlife and more interesting weather than 'rain or not rain'. It's fresh out of early access, though somehow they're still calling version 1.0 "a beta release".

"Version 1.0 is a major milestone for Miscreated", goes this announcement post, "because it means that Miscreated is leaving early access (alpha) and is now considered a beta release of the game." Come on now. Non-early access betas are not a thing.

Version 1.0 does add a fair whack of new stuff - and signifies that "the majority of all planned features" have been implemented. There are now 20 new weapons, a cupla new map bits, acid rain and blizzards, building materials and farming gear.

The problem with DayZ, apart from it still being broken, is that moment to moment survival just isn't very interesting. Relying on novel encounters with other players can't sustain hours of uneventful hiking, but peppering those hikes with occasional bear attacks and showers of acid rain might do the trick.

You can also keep yourself entertained by giggling about the random people you may or may not have poisoned: "As a devious player, you can choose to fill a canteen with diesel fuel and leave it for some future traveller to find and hopefully consume".

When Marsh Davies prematurely evaluated Miscreated four years ago, he called it "one of the better" DayZ wannabees. Given how the version of DayZ I've been playing feels underwhelmingly similar to the DayZ I played six years ago, I'd say there's a fair chance this has eclipsed it.

Developers Entrada Interactive say they'll continue to "evolve" the game's current features, "as well as general game optimization and polishing".

Miscreated is available on Steam for £16/$20/€18.