Indie dev apologizes for rough game launch, commits to turning it around: 'The critique is fair ... we got work to do'

The narrative FPS Industria 2 caught my eye in 2024 with a creepy trailer that gave me serious Half-Life 2 vibes. Set years after the original game, it tells the story of a woman trapped in a rather awful parallel dimension that's being ravaged by an out-of-control artificial intelligence. It looks and sounds very cool, but the launch has not gone well, to the point that the developer has apologized.

"It hurts to be sitting at 48% positive ratings after putting all our hearts and souls into this game over 4 years," Bleakmill wrote on X. "So much struggle, joy and difficulties our tiny team has overcome. The critique is fair. Sorry to let you down everyone. We got work to do. Only forward from here."

The studio added that it released two separate patches on April 30, "fixing saving issues and a softlock," and said more are on the way.

Industria 2 currently holds a "mixed" rating on Steam, with just 48% of user reviews coming in positive two days after launch. The general consensus seems to be that the game just isn't ready for release: Words like "rushed," "undercooked," and "unfinished" abound, amidst complaints about bugs, a lack of content, rough assets, and "the final boss sucking omega ass," whatever that means.

The bright spot for Bleakmill is that many of those negative reviews also share the sentiment that Industria 2 shows real promise: The issue isn't that it's a bad game, just an unfinished one.

The studio also received encouraging words from numerous people on X, including Gloomwood developer Dillon Rogers, who also noted that many negative reviewers seem open to changing their minds, and that "it’s entirely possible to recover from this launch."

Fingers crossed that it does, because the aesthetic is fantastic, and the story's got me curious too: I'd really like to see Industria 2 turn things around.