HeatWave Has Guerillas In The Midst

We all know the world is coming to an end. We don’t need to decipher Nostradamus blog posts for guidance if we take a peek at the events of 2020. Knowing that a climate catastrophe is on the way, HeatWave will show us how we’ll live in 2080.

Three years after Cyberpunk 2077, HeatWave has you running your own guerilla faction in Alaska, of all places. Aside from climate change, the Russians (assuming they’re ‘the baddies’) have invaded the land, and you need to exhibit some survival skills in this strategy game.

Aesthetically, and perhaps slightly in its level design too, HeatWave, from Perimeter Games, looks like a mixture of Dreadlands and Endzone – A World Apart. A pretty decent compliment, methinks. 

Anyhoo, the reasoning behind this attack is due to the United States simply abandoning Alaska so it can concentrate on establishing the rest of the states. This alerts Russia, supported by China, and will you tolerate an attack? Hell, no. Get your guerillas ready.

Key features in HeatWave (a cut and paste to tempt you will all the goodness included):

Run your own Guerrilla faction

• Form your team, enact internal laws, and adapt rules to the ever-changing environment.
• Set up your base deep in the forests of Alaska, building new structures to make your people self-reliant.

Use and upgrade your bushcraft skills

• Survive in the wilderness where resources are limited.
• Help your people meet their basic survival needs. Set up camps, obtain energy resources, and provide shelter against the cold and rain. Hunt for food, collect wild plants, or plunder local communities to prevent starvation.
• Craft items, making tools, medicines, and weapons from collected scraps and plundered materials.

Explore the world

• Visit nearby settlements. Talk with their inhabitants, try to recruit them, or at least trade with them, and complete quests they’ll assign you to establish a good relationship with them.
• Explore the vast expanses of Alaska while diving into a non-linear story with a heavy impact on both gameplay mechanics and the game’s ending.
• Make difficult decisions and fight your own path to independence.

Partisan tactics

• Stay in the shadows and avoid being discovered at all costs.
• Move your base if necessary, and implement a hit-and-run strategy that will be essential for your survival.
• Have no mercy for collaborators while constantly fighting and harassing the invaders.
• Set up traps, sabotage the oppressor’s supply lines, and incite the people of Alaska against them.

Diplomacy

• Shape your own politics while you handle diplomatic relations with other factions and settlements to make sure all your goals are met.
• Perform tasks for the local population to gain their goodwill, so they help you compete against other guerrilla groups.
• Once ready, start the revolution and take on the invaders to drive them away.
• Finally, choose your own path to independence. Either continue in the name of the United States or create your very own, brand new independent country.

Watch the HeatWave trailer here:

HeatWave is currently being developed for the PC via Steam, and also for the Nintendo Switch. Wishlist it on Steam here.