- A couple of new screenshots from Critical Shift - 18 September 2026
Hey everyone! Got two new screenshots to share That railway lantern is EXOID "Tunnel Vision", one of our EXO weapons. And the tree... that's the Knowledge Tree. Its fruit might make you smarter. Trying to collect its leaves, however, will most likely trigger a violent Shift...And here’s a look at the caves and excavation site at the bottom of an Antarctic lake.What do you think? Let us know in the comments :)
- Critical Shift Open Playtest Is Live — Watch the New Gameplay Trailer - 14 September 2026
Hey everyone!Our new Critical Shift gameplay trailer is here, and the open playtest is now live.More importantly, you can download the playtest build and start playing right now from the Critical Shift Steam page.There are no forms, keys, invitations, or approval queues. The page will ask you to click Request Access, but access is granted automatically. After that, simply download the build and jump in.What’s in the playtestThe current build includes the first three missions, featuring tactical battles, exploration, and story content.Critical Shift is still in development, so you may encounter bugs, unfinished elements, balance issues, and other rough edges. Your feedback will help us understand what works, what doesn’t, and what still needs improvement.Once you’ve played, join our Discord server to share your impressions, report bugs, and talk directly to the development team.Download…
- A New Closed Beta Wave Begins! - 29 July 2026
Hey everyone!We’re starting a new round of the Critical Shift closed beta and inviting some of the players who previously requested access through Steam. We’re starting with a smaller group for now and will gradually invite more people. If you wanted to join but didn’t receive an invitation, feel free to email us at cm\rhinotales.com. We have a limited number of spare keys and will be happy to send you one while they last. We’ve also enabled Steam’s option that allows every invited player to bring up to three friends into the playtest.A few things to know before you playThis build includes three playable missions with tactical battles, exploration, and story content.We’ve made a lot of improvements since the previous playtest: optimization, UI updates, balance changes, bug fixes, and plenty of smaller additions. At the same time, the game is still very much in development - and this bui…
- Green Paradise of ICE-1 - 3 June 2026
Hello, friends!We hope you're doing great and enjoying your summer days. And today, we'd like to tell you a little more about our secret base. ICE-1 might surprise you. Deep under the South Pole, its underground levels hide a real garden.This recreation area was meant to give the base personnel a quiet place to breathe, relax, and pretend they weren’t buried beneath endless ice. There’s even a bar with things no one outside ICE-1 has ever seen.These days, though… you probably don’t want to meet the garden’s regulars. We’d love to know what you think! Thank you for being with us! ❤️
- From Draft to Final: Locations Showcase - 7 May 2026
Hello, agents!Hope you’re doing well!)Work on the game is in full swing, but we still wanted to take a moment to share a few locations from the Critical Shift with you - from their first drafts to their current versions. This is where our game begins: the entrance to a seemingly abandoned Antarctic research base that was still online and active just a few days ago. This dining room is currently closed to guests - unless you’re in the mood for a chilling story. What happened here? The ice was surprisingly tricky to get right, and the lighting carries a huge part of the atmosphere. This reception hall looks suspiciously calm and inviting - probably by design.It’s there to calm you down before you head right, toward the morgue. Or left, where the crematorium waits.That's all for today! Thank you for being with us and for your support - we really appreciate it❤️
- Your Safe Haven - 13 April 2026
Hello, everyone!Last Saturday, we launched our first closed playtest.The first 100 participants are already getting access to the beta version - thank you all for such a quick response, it truly means a lot to us!If you didn’t make it into the first wave, don’t worry, we’re continuing to accept applications. You can still sign up and join the next stage of the closed playtest (still under NDA). Apply here: https://forms.gle/WkzrRcgyA4doYFMK8 In addition, today we’d like to show you a place where an important part of the meta-gameplay takes place. This is a massive cargo elevator that travels through a shaft along the levels of the ICE-1 base, going almost all the way down.Once agents gain access to it, they turn it into a kind of hub they return to after missions. Some agents stay in the hub, where they can craft or conduct research at improvised workstations, earning skill points just…
- PLAYTEST! - 17 March 2026
Greetings, agents!We’re preparing to start playtesting this spring, and the first step will be an early closed beta. At this stage we’d like to invite around 300 players to join the test and help us improve the game through feedback before moving on to the next beta phases. A few important notes:- PC only. We have not prepared a Steam Deck version yet.- NDA required. It’s a simple one. During this stage we ask participants not to stream or share gameplay publicly.- At the moment, the beta version is available only in English. If you’re interested in participating, please send your request through this form: https://forms.gle/WkzrRcgyA4doYFMK8 Selected players will receive further instructions by email.Thanks to everyone who wants to help us shape the game!
- Devlog #3 - 5 March 2026
Hey everyone! Before we proceed with talking about game mechanics in future posts, today we want to talk about the story in Critical Shift and explain one important decision we made early in development. When we started building the game together with our narrative designer Guiltythree, we quickly faced a classic question. Should the story branch with lots of player choices, or should it remain a single focused narrative?In theory, branching stories sound great. But in practice they require a huge amount of additional content. If you want those choices to feel real, every path needs proper development, dialogue, cutscenes, and consequences. Otherwise the branches become shallow or misleading and the main story becomes weaker.As an indie team we had to be honest about what we could do well. Instead of spreading our efforts across many smaller narrative paths, we decided to focus all of o…
- New ICHOR file! - 18 February 2026
Dear agents, our systems have detected new material in the Archive. It is particularly relevant given the recent events of February 14. Link: https://critical-shift.com/archive/sadjourney.html Love happens at ICHOR too, and like many things in our organization, it is unpredictable. Remember that we are all biological organisms subject to the effects of hormones. This is important, but serving humanity is even more important. Sincerely yours, Administration
- Devlog #2 - 9 February 2026
Hey everyone! Heads up: today’s update is a slightly longer read behind-the-scenes story about a combat system that used to be at the heart of Critical Shift - and why we ultimately moved on from it.Early on, we were obsessed with making a tactical game that didn’t rely on the classic “90% chance to miss” moments. So we built our own approach: Concentration - a stamina-like resource that absorbed most incoming fire. The idea was simple: in a real fight, you can dodge and stay sharp… but you’re spending something. Focus, breath, reaction speed - stamina. Concentration was that “evasion stamina.” Enemy shots didn’t just magically miss - they forced you to burn that resource to avoid turning mistakes into injuries. Early alpha version of the game As long as you had Concentration, you could survive through smart movement and good positioning. When it ran out, then your health started taking…
- Warlock. From the first sketch to the final 3D model! - 5 February 2026
Hello, everyone!In this video, we want to show how Warlock - a master of totems and manipulation - came to life step by step: from the early concept, searching for shapes and details, to a fully-fledged 3D character.A lot changed along the way: proportions, mood, elements, and everything else to make the character feel organic in the game. We would love to hear your thoughts and impressions! :)
- Sprint Updates #2 - 3 February 2026
Greetings, agents!In January, we took another step forward and want to share the details with you:The combat chance system has been improved (previously we used pure random, but that turned out to be too harsh on players).The first iteration of pre-battle placement has been implemented (when you start the fight first).Improvements were made to camera behavior during combat.The meta-gameplay has moved to the next stage of development; we’re actively testing and refining the UX.A gameplay prototype of one of the bosses has been created and tested for further production (at first, we kept dying and changed the balance several times).We’re testing exploding barrels and teleportation (it’s fun).Additional work:84 bugs fixed.Large-scale optimization work has begun.Numerous technical and content improvements. These are just the main highlights - a lot more work has been done besides this. Than…
- What's going on at the Antarctic base? - 28 January 2026
Hello, agents!We decided to show you a short recording of what our out-of-control artificial intelligence is doing at the base in Antarctica! 👀Aside from that, we wish you a pleasant day, a productive week, and no hostile and dangerous cyborgs along the way!
- How we crafted the horror atmosphere ? - 20 January 2026
Hi everyone!:)For our turn-based horror game, we needed a lot of unique corpses. Making them by hand was unrealistic, so we took a different approach. We built a procedural corpse generator. How it works: take rigged modelsplace them into poses using IKchoose the damage level (from "fresh" to a skeleton in a lab coat)enjoy the resultEverything runs in a Unity + Houdini pipeline. In the end, all the corpses look different, and the locations feel alive (well, almost). The procedural approach saved us a ton of time and noticeably boosted the atmosphere:)
- How Critical Shift became what it is now? - 12 January 2026
Hey everyone! Today we want to share a bit of behind-the-scenes context on how Critical Shift became what it is now. Originally, we were building a story-driven tactical game. But while playtesting early prototypes, we noticed something unexpected: the exploration phase - navigating underground corridors, offices, labs, storage rooms - started giving us the same kind of vibe you get from old-school survival horror (think classic Resident Evil era). Not because we were trying to imitate anything, but because the spaces, pacing, and tension naturally pushed the experience in that direction. Of course, turn-based tactical combat isn’t “scary” in the usual sense. But in those prototypes the enemies were genuinely dangerous, resources were scarce, and we didn’t even have a proper save system yet. That meant exploration wasn’t “tourism” - it was survival. You moved carefully, you paid attenti…
- ICHOR ARCHIVE // FILE OPENED - 3 January 2026
ICHOR ARCHIVE // FILE OPENEDWe released the first file from the ICHOR Archive.Tombstone Gambit is an internal operational report documenting an incident that resulted in the loss of an agent and the recovery of an anomalous EXO object.The file is presented in its original archival form. No additional context has been provided.Access the file: https://critical-shift.com/archive.html WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FORWe invite creators to produce visual interpretations of the Tombstone Gambit file.Accepted formats: Short-form video (Shorts / Reels / Edits) Illustration, art, or concept workWe are not looking for retellings. We are interested in atmosphere, interpretation, and mood.Show us how you read this file. REWARDSSelected works may become part of Critical Shift:Inclusion inside the game(Deluxe Edition content, in-game encyclopedia entries, or easter eggs)Creator nickname listed in the game cre…
- The first file in the ICHOR archive is now open! - 31 December 2025
As a small New Year's gift, we are launching the ICHOR Archive - a collection of materials that allows you to delve deeper into the lore of the Critical Shift universe. The ICHOR Archive collects reports, documents, and records that reveal events and structures of the game world beyond the usual gameplay. This is a space for those who want to understand what is really going on. The first published material is the "Tombstone Gambit" report, which serves as a starting point for exploring the archive. You can view the first file at the following link: https://critical-shift.com/archive.htmlEnjoy your first dive into the ICHOR Archive.
- Happy New Year! - 31 December 2025
Friends, Happy New Year!🎄This year was truly important for us. For six years, we’ve been building this game - quietly, persistently, without shortcuts. And this year, we finally stepped into the light. Thank you for the warm welcome. For your comments, messages, discussions, feedback, and support. Reading them has been a real pleasure and a huge motivation for the entire team. 2026 is a pivotal year for us. We’re polishing, refining, rebuilding, and working non-stop. Our goal is simple and very hard: to make a game you’ll love in every aspect, from mechanics to atmosphere.We’re doing everything we can to bring the release closer. The light at the end of the tunnel is already visible. But the train is still heavy and we’ve got a lot more pushing to do!Thank you for being with us. Onward into the new year ❤️ Artyom Slesarenko, Dmitriy Savchenko, Daniil Kodubenko Founders of Rhinotales
- Sprint Updates #1 - 29 December 2025
Hello, agents!Here’s a development update on Critical Shift. The past few weeks were challenging, but also very productive!Not without challengesWe had to upgrade our Unity version after a security vulnerability was discovered. The transition triggered several build and pipeline issues, and the team is actively tracking them down and fixing them. Progress is steady.Overall progressDespite the bumps, work toward our next milestone is moving forward:Destructible Covers Core functionality is complete. Art integration for destructible objects on the first levels is in progress. Final polishing is underway for shootable window mechanics on the early maps.Meta GameplayThe first preview version is in its final stage.The main remaining piece is the dialogue system, which is being actively tested and refined.Meta gameplay systems are being integrated into the first playable maps.AudioSounds and…
- Working on maps #1 - 26 December 2025
Hello, folks! Today we will share with you our work on maps!:) We spent several months refining one of our first levels, carefully shaping it to feel just right. Step by step, we revisited core ideas, tested different approaches, and fine-tuned numerous details along the way. Starting with a simple prototype, we experimented with lighting, adjusted sound, and explored various techniques for pacing and environmental storytelling. What vibes does it give you?
