Respawn Monday #001: Abiotic Factor, Marathon Runs, and the Outward 2 Beta

Another weekend has gone by and it feels like the calm before the storm in the video game world. June is here, and that means big announcements and reveals that will likely map out the rest of 2026 thanks to Xbox Games Showcase, the next State of Play, and Summer Game Fest 2026. But it was thankfully a relaxing one, with multiple games played, and I found some interesting revelations along the way. Here's what I played. 

Abiotic Factor

Looking through PC Game Pass, Abiotic Factor caught my eye and I found myself downloading it out of sheer curiosity. The low file size had the game ready by the time I made my first cup of coffee, and I jumped right in on a Saturday morning.

To my surprise, it's a relatively engrossing survival game with a weird sci-fi setting where you play as a scientist joining an underground facility that suddenly goes into lockdown and becomes infested with monsters from another dimension. You have to use whatever you find on each floor to manage basic needs like hunger, sleep, and other health issues while crafting items that slowly progress you upward through the floors, which became the eventual goal being to escape the facility altogether.

The game has a retro '90s visual design that reminded me of Half-Life or PlayStation 1 character models. It's jarring at first glance, but it's actually one of the reasons I gave it a shot as I was never much of a survival crafting fan. This one was a big surprise: it's less about building a home base and more about creating a temporary safe refuge as you move from one area to the next breaking down computer chairs and PCs for parts and materials needed to create a key object or item to move forward. I'm surprised to find myself getting sucked in. A big difference from Subnautica 2, which didn't grab me nearly as hard. More soon.

Marathon Sessions with new friends

I've joined a new Discord server for Filipino players of Marathon, and it's probably the best decision I've made since reviewing the game. I never completely gave up on it as it's currently my go-to shooter whenever I just want an FPS session.

Season 2 for the extraction shooter is this week, and on Saturday night we had a handful of groups doing runs to burn through as much of our vault items as possible before the seasonal wipe. Once Season 2 begins, every player starts fresh, as like Tarkov, stash wiped, faction progress reset.

Marathon hits differently when you're playing with people you can actually coordinate with. I've been running with these guys for weeks now and there's a genuine sense of friendship forming. I still mark Marathon as a hard sell for newcomers, but we'll see if Bungie has done enough to turn things around next season.

Outward 2 Beta

Sunday morning was spent covering the Outward 2 beta. I still don't have enough time in it for a solid impression, but one thing is already clear: developer Nine Dots Studios is doubling down on the open-world RPG's signature difficulty. Not Soulslike difficulty, more like a deliberate lack of handholding. The missing features are actual features: maps don't show your exact location, there's no fast travel, and survival elements like food and stamina slow everything down and demand serious planning before heading out on any adventure. This game throws you into the deep end and expects you to figure it out, and with how modern open world and RPGs games nowadays, there are people looking for this type of adventure, despite its glaring issues.

More soon. The Outward 2 beta runs until June 8, with early access launch set for July.

That's the weekend. Busy in between responsibilities, but enough time to squeeze out some good insights. I do feel the itch of booting Abiotic Factor again later and willing to stop playing it if anybody is looking for an extra player to do a few runs in Marathon. Outward 2 will likely be spent later after the week ends as its rough edges don’t excite me that much to spend too much time on it as I’m getting a clear understanding on what they are focusing on in the sequel.

What did you play? 

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About the Author - Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.