Fleshgrinder

From the Devs

EVOLUTION WITHOUT WAITING

Fleshgrinder tries to present a possible dystopian world where a digital virus that can infect humans goes on its own agenda, since the infection vector is really high after most of us will have cybernetic augmentations to upskill our species with invasive implants like Neur@link.

In the game's story, SynTech is the company responsible for research and development of these implants.
Their slogan, Evolution Without Waiting was marketed under the Convergence brand, which popularized these implants that enhance and upskill the human race in the 2040s.

Their latest research in Terminus Point's Genesis Chamber which aimed to digitally accelerate our evolution through DNA mutations went terribly wrong. They accidentally created an intelligent, digital virus that appears to behave in a hive-minded manner and takes over the minds of anyone equipped with SynTech augs. Since they are running proprietary software inside our bodies connected to our nervous system, the threat surface proved to be extremely high.
Infection spread through their wireless protocols, direct contact with infected tissue, or other supply-chain based attacks.
The virus harvests DNA by collecting biomass, while rare-earth metals and other synthetic materials are also a vector so that it can create mutants and evolve them, especially that it took over the minds of over 70% of the already augmented population. Its original purpose therefore is somewhat preserved in a twisted way, resembling todays AI systems when their prompts are misunderstood, or when unexplained hallucinations happen. 

Ingame, this is reflected by the Fleshgrinder infrastructure with machines like the Fleshprocessor and Fleshprinter, which takes humanoids as inputs and outputs different types of monsters while collecting materials that can advance the Genesis Tiers - strengthening all monsters throughout the world and spawning attacks on the player.
NPC interactions and dialogue is deeply fused with philosophical converstaions that tackle these questions.

Those who were lucky (or unfortunate) enough to survive the initial outbreak half a year ago, they are usually categorized as:

THREE KINDS OF SURVIVORS

PURISTS

Refused the technology back when there was no reason to. Being right about the largest question of the century has not made most of them pleasant company, and they have little patience for anyone who had to be cut clean.

DISCONNECTED

Augmented, until somebody took it out of them. Gutters worked out of abandoned buildings and makeshift labs with salvaged or stolen instruments, charging whatever the desperate could pay. Most patients survived. Most came out crippled. One man's implant had fused to his Broca's area; when they cut it free they took his speech with it, and he has understood every word spoken to him since without being able to answer one. He'll tell you it was worth it. No more Signal whispering in his skull.

IMMUNES

Rare, and alive by accident. A manufacturing defect, an illegal modification, an implant that never worked properly to begin with. The virus reached for them and found nothing to hold onto.


The main job of the player is to stop the advancement of the Fleshgrinder virus by finding where its production sites are, hiring operatives of up to three - leading a squad of them on this desperate mission with each different operative having their own distinct roles, class resources and skill trees allowing tons of build possibilities through synergies:

THE OPERATIVES

        Butchers hold the line.                             Hacksmiths keep the gear running.                         Mindrippers fix people.

BUTCHER: Ex-SynTech security, veteran of the Resource Wars, long since used to being torn apart and stitched back together. A laser fried his neural implant and melted part of his brain along with it. It's a wonder he can still do simple math. They specialize in firepower and have the highest armor and health while being able to provide extended survivability to the squad as well.
Utilizes Rage as his main class resource to activate and maintain his skills.
His passives focus on survivability, utility like carry capacity, item drop chance, or firepower through weapon categories damage, accuracy and criticals, and ammo efficiency.


HACKSMITH: An engineer who has spent his whole life inside other people's machines. He runs on gadgets, internal and external, and turns enemy systems against their owners. His problem was never competence. It's that he genuinely believes he's the smartest thing left alive. They can spawn ammo, bots, turrets and drones utilizing nanobots that cost scrap - the main resource the player can collect while also helping the team with important support capabilities like hacking terminals, repairing gear or providing a presence that enables increased situational awareness.

MINDRIPPER: A therapist whose years in the field left her psychotic, and whose tumors, mercifully non-lethal, left her able to alter physical reality. She found out on a patient hiding a pirated implant, and the room was still raining blood when she caught herself laughing. Push it too far and her own head goes the same way.
They are responsible for putting or taking apart people, healing skills, psychotic destructive powers, all through her own resource called Strain which can damage her own self if used too much.

One skill point and 5 stat points are granted after each levelup.

Stat points affect a deep pool of attributes through Strength, Vitality, Agility and Intelligence, which determine accuracy, reload speed, criticals, XP acquisiton, health and regeneration, carry capacity, inventory size and movement speed while also required to equip higher tier gear.

THE GEAR

Over 30 weapons within 7 categories

Pistols, SMGs and assault rifles: the reliable spine of any loadout

Shotguns: close, loud, and the fastest way to remove a limb

Machine guns: including spin-up gatlings that demand you commit to a firing position before the barrels are even turning

Sniper rifles: up to an experimental antimatter platform

Energy weapons: the largest category in the game, salvaged from Quantum Arms Incorporated research: lasers, plasma, electrical, and a singularity cannon that folds space where it lands

Explosives and flamethrowers: for when the corridor matters more than the target

Friendly fire at 50% on Fleshbuilder, 100% on Apex difficulty. At the top, your own rounds are exactly as lethal as theirs. All NPCs can be killed at any time with friendly fire.

Penetration mechanics: Ammo types have their own penetration and armor piercing mechanics based on real life where materials of objects define what sound is played on hit while penetration value is required to pierce them: wielding a sniper rifle easily punches through wooden doors taking down monsters locked behind them while dont expect the same from a pistol.

70+ different armor pieces: Fitting in seven armor slots: backpacks, helmets, harnesses, chest, gloves, belts, boots, giving flat and percentage reduction applied against the body part actually hit while providing slot specific bonuses like increased ammo stack sizes, reload speeds, carry capacity, movement bonses and more.

Monsters hitting unarmored body parts of players still do full damage on them whereas weak ones barely able to damage them if properly armored.

The gears durability system allows them to eventually break the equipped gear, letting them damage the player once again. Gear durability also degrades over time if worn over long periods.

Unique items:

Each weapon, armor and augmentation has a unique variant that gives truly unique and distinct features which can alter builds and playstyles.

NO TWO DROPS ARE THE SAME

Every weapon, armor piece and augmentation is generated randomly when it drops. Base item, rarity tier, then a randomized set of attributes pulled from deep stat pools, eighteen for weapons alone, more for armor, with no duplicates on a single item. Two rifles of the same model and the same rarity is near impossible to have the same stat rolled on them.

PUT IT BACK IN

The world ended because of augmentations. You'll be bolting them back in anyway. Endo implants integrated through NexuGel, Exo grafts fused to the frame, targeting optics, cortical accelerators, servo filaments woven through your tendons. More slots unlock through the skill trees. The best ones carry real drawbacks: sharper criticals for a narrower field of view, until you're lethal and half blind - while endo-augs requiring Gutter services and NexuGel to be able to implant them.

The game world is violent, full of danger and surprises, with NPC factions, crazed survivors, marching hordes in controlled states, dark and abandoned facilities, urban environments, high-tech laboratories and wastelands.

WHAT'S LEFT OF EVERYONE ELSE

Eleven enemy types, in the order the virus built them:
                   Zombies                                          Sprinters                                     Harvested                            Fleshdrones
    The standard infected human.          A quick and agile, more           The virus took their DNA           Collectors of                    Expect hordes of them.                  dangerous infected.               along with most of their            flesh, blood,
                                                                                                                        flesh. Weak, but advanced        and even loot.                                                                                                                       machines can upgrade them          

                Metaleaters                                                           Fleshbots                                                        Cyberskeletons
          Wont hesitate to throw                                Will hunt you in packs and                             Are extremely dangerous            sharp objects at you and                              melt your armor with their                            and will share intelligence            consume metallic objects                                        acidic spit.                                          about you between them.                   to grow armor.                                                                                                                                              

                Fleshbuilders                                               Operator Wyrms                                 Suspended Devourer

    The backbone of the 'grinder                      Control systems, overlook                   Failed experiments snapping their          infrastructure, hauling lesser                       facilities, set alarms, lock                           jaws at nothing, causing               entities to machines, upgrading                     down terminals and alert                     hallucinations and disorientations.                or repairing them.                                 other nearby monsters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                             Apex Fleshgrinder
                                                                    Little is known about the Apex

                                                                    entities, for there is barely anyone

                                                                    left alive who met them and survived

                                                                                   to tell the tale

Horde monsters are able to follow and attack the player indefinitely even after tranistioning missions - there is no escape!

TAKE THEM APART

Damage is tracked per body part. Put enough trauma through a limb and it comes off, while the thing it belonged to is still alive and closing in on you. Headshots splatter. Explosions take several at once. Severed parts are thrown with real force and stay where they land, permanently.

NPCs, Factions and Reputation

The game features a multitude of npcs, most of which can be talked to, with their own background stories, and many giving side-quests to complete. The faction and reputation system also allows the player to befriend and get better prices, unlock additional dialogue options or even areas - or get on their bad side and make them completely hostile towards the players squad.
Some of the NPCs can be saved who can become followers aiding the player through the game - you can equip them and have them cover important choke points while you do something else. They have their own inventories, stats and level up just like a normal character.

The game also features a waypoint system for fast traveling, a detailed mini- and world map, and a journal which tracks all quests progressions and important notes about the factions encountered.

Difficulties, saves and hardcore mode

There are 4 different difficulties to choose from - Harvested, Fleshbot, Fleshbuilder and Apex Fleshgrinder.
These all allow to be played in Hardcore mode where saves are disabled (while still allowing to continue where you left off) and every action and consequence is permanent - including death.
Softcore allows the saving and loading at any time, while also featuring an autosave system that can be fine-tuned with intervals and numbers while also triggering at key moments/areas in the game.

Many props are draggable/pushable creating opportunities of barricading key positions, doors can be closed and locked to be able to fall back while monsters bring it down.

Terminals and Secrets

The terminal system can control many of the following props in missions - lights, gates, switches, alarm systems can all be connected - and even locked behind by the Operator Wyrms or requiring hacking puzzles to be able to interact with them - or simply to contain important lore parts, maps or hints about secrets - since many maps contain secret areas with important loot.

A world clock is also implemented, where time of day affects outdoors lighting.

Many missions also have randomized areas for higher replayability.

THE DEMO

A tutorial and the first two mission areas, the full combat, loot, augmentation and progression systems. Fleshgrinder is in active development visual quality, performance and ingame systems are subject to change and is coming in early 2027.

FLESHGRINDER: Evolution Without Waiting. Extinction Without Mercy.