South African developer The Brotherhood announced that Beautiful Desolation, the post-apocalyptic adventure role-playing game, will launch on PC starting February 26th at the end of the month on Steam and GOG.com. Apparently Sweeney couldn’t win them over with any “guaranteed sales” for a timed exclusivity deal on the Epic Games Store.

The game centers around a man named Mark in search of his brother in a world governed by a new race of biomechoids in what’s described as a tribal-punk setting.

There’s a mixture of archaic villages with high-tech architecture, creating a mixture not too dissimilar to Guerrilla Games’ Horizon: Zero Dawn, which had a similar aesthetic.

In the game you’ll venture around, meeting different inhabitants in the strange world, and discovering how a cataclysmic event changed the course of history.

Along the way you’ll have to solve some puzzles, unlock secrets, and attempt to either stoke or mediate conflicts.

The game follows in the footsteps of previous outings from The Brotherhood, who are best known for their take-no-prisoners approach to storytelling and character in development in sleeper hits such as Cayne and Stasis, two games well worth playing if you’re into isometric adventure titles with some serious body-horror themes.

The Brotherhood has introduced some combat mechanics into their latest outing, along with various locations themed around South African culture.

Visually the game reminds me of a bigger, more sprawling version of Fallout 2 set in a futuristic safari. I don’t know if that’s exactly what they were aiming for but that’s what comes to mind.

The soundtrack is composed by the legendary Mick Gordon, who worked on the 2016 outing of DOOM and the reboot of Prey.

The Brotherhood isn’t one of those woke studios, so I have high hopes for Beautiful Desolation. Their previous games were quite badass and completely uncompromising, so hopefully it’s the same with their newest title.

You can wishlist or follow the game over on the Steam store or look to purchase a DRM-free copy from GOG.com come February 26th.

(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)