Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Critical Shift
Rhinotales · Published by Rhinotales · Official site ↗
Content notice: Critical Shift contains mature content, including depictions of dead bodies, blood, corpses, zombie-like and mutated creatures, paranormal elements, and scenes of armed combat. The game includes gunfights, tactical violence, injuries, and death as part of its story and gameplay. Some scenes may contain disturbing imagery and references to dangerous experiments, anomalies, and supernatural events. The game does not contain sexual content, nudity, or sexual violence.
Last updated 3 Oct 2026
In this tactical RPG, command a squad of operatives at a secret Antarctic research facility. Master positioning, manage weapons and resources, turn enemies against each other, explore diverse levels, and uncover the mystery beneath the ice in this intricate paranormal sci-fi thriller.
Adventure, RPG, Strategy · More free games
Explore a frozen research facility's secrets as you lead a squad of operatives, managing resources and positioning to outmaneuver enemies. Discover the hidden truths beneath the ice in Critical Shift’s strategic adventure.
About this game
Feature List
About the Game
Inspired by XCOM, Resident Evil, and CONTROL, Critical Shift is a tactical RPG that fuses turn-based squad combat with thrilling real-time exploration. Answer a distress call from ICE-1, a classified research facility buried beneath the Antarctic ice. The station has gone silent – and whatever it is that breached containment cannot be allowed to escape.
Master deep tactical gameplay
Experiment with a wide variety of character builds, weapon progression systems, and tools
Control environments and turn enemies on each other
Explore and uncover horrifying secrets and paranormal artifacts in an abandoned frozen facility
Every move matters in turn-based combat. Use cover, control distance, and choose the right weapon for the range – rifles dominate from afar, while shotguns excel up close. Move your squad across a tactical grid and think before you act – attacking an enemy provokes an immediate counter-attack, while turn order follows each character's initiative, so every decision is a trade-off. Deploy items and abilities to set traps and scout ahead. Manage resources carefully – every medkit and every bullet is hard to come by.
Manage your squad and the environment they fight in. Build your team from 11 playable agents, each with distinct skills, personality, and a role in the story. Level up your roster, improve weapons, and decide who – and what – to bring on each mission. ICE-1 is swarming with mutants, an AI that creates flesh-and-metal hybrids, desperate survivors, and entities that defy explanation. Make the environment your weapon. Use noise and other distractions to lure enemies into traps or turn them against each other. The choices are all yours across over 30 handcrafted levels with more than 40 hours of gameplay.
Research at ICE-1 went horribly wrong. The facility has gone silent. Communications are down. The experiments created anomalies and paradoxes across time and space and unleashed horrors that were never meant to exist. Time flows faster, a parasitic hive-mind has taken the staff, and the station's security machines hunt anything that moves. The facility stretches for miles beneath the ice, from research chambers and living quarters to technical zones and sealed sectors. Explore richly detailed environments, read notes, listen to conversations, and uncover the mysteries that ICE-1 holds.
Critical Shift is a multi-layered story with plot twists and drama, written in collaboration with Guiltythree, the acclaimed author of the web novel Shadow Slave. Can you save and protect those you care about? Are you fighting the right enemies, or is the real threat coming from elsewhere? Allies may betray you, and enemies may become friends. Experience this gripping, mind-bending sci-fi story in over an hour of stunning 2D hand-painted cutscenes, complemented by more than two hours of motion-captured in-game story scenes.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system Windows 10 x64
- Processor: 6-core 64-bit processor
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 1650 / Radeon RX 570 (4096 MB)
- Storage: 40 GB available space
Recommended
- OS: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system Windows 10 x64
- Processor: 8-core 64-bit processor
- Memory: 32 GB RAM
- Graphics: Geforce GTX 3060 / Radeon RX 6600 XT
- Storage: 40 GB available space
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
PLAYTEST ENDS OCTOBER 9TH
Hello, Agents! If you’ve been thinking about trying Critical Shift, now’s the time to dive in.We’re still collecting your feedback and working through the playtest results to make the experience better. The game will keep changing, and your honest thoughts might help to shape them.Don’t put off your first trip to ICE-1. The playtest is open until October 9.Below, a special statement from the ICHOR Directorate.Read full article on Community Announcements (Zumrath)AnnouncementsOfficial
Post-Playtest Genre poll
Hey, Agents! We’ve got a quick question for everyone who’s played the Critical Shift playtest. We’re curious how the game reads to you in terms of genre. Not what you think we intended it to be, but what it actually feels closest to after playing. If you’ve had some time with the playtest, please take a minute to answer this short survey: After playing Critical Shift, which genre feels like the closest fit? Turn-based Tactics — focuses on combat mechanics: positioning, action sequencing, and tactical decisions. Tactical RPG — combines tactical combat with character progression: builds, abilities, and equipment. Party-based / Squad-based RPG — focuses on the team: composition, roles, ability synergies, and individual characters. Story-driven RPG — focuses on the narrative: plot, characters, dialogue, and discovering the game’s world. Other — please specify. Thanks to everyone who’s been playing and sharing feedback. It helps us understand not only what works, but also how Critical Shift is actually perceived by players.Read full article on Community Announcements (Zumrath)AnnouncementsOfficial
A couple of new screenshots from Critical Shift
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 :)Read full article on Community Announcements (Zumrath)AnnouncementsOfficial
Critical Shift Open Playtest Is Live — Watch the New Gameplay Trailer
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 the playtest, assemble your squad, and enter ICE-1.Read full article on Community Announcements (Zumrath)AnnouncementsOfficial
A New Closed Beta Wave Begins!
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 build is still pretty rough in places. You may run into bugs, unfinished interface elements, balance issues, or things that simply don’t feel right yet. That’s completely expected at this stage, and it’s exactly why your feedback matters so much to us. The build is currently available in English, with Russian text localization also included.Please tell us what you thinkOnce you’ve played, please take a few minutes to fill out our Google feedback form. Don’t worry about being too critical: hearing what didn’t work for you is every bit as useful as hearing what you enjoyed. You’re also very welcome to join our Discord server, share your impressions, report bugs, talk to other players, and chat directly with the development team. There’s still a lot we can improve, rethink, and change - and we’d love to make the game better together with you.Thank you for giving Critical Shift your time. We hope you enjoy the new build, and we can’t wait to hear what you think!Read full article on Community Announcements (xk)
