DMZ: Nuclear Survival is a new open-world survival game with crafting, exploration, and beer-swilling bears
Meet DMZ: Nuclear Survival, a new PVE and competitive PVP multiplayer open-world survival crafting game set in a post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war. It’s coming “soon” in early access so that the “brand-new, ambitious, and highly flexible” game can grow alongside its community.
It’s thought the game – which hasn’t indicated a price, but has at least confirmed it won’t be free-to-play – will be in early access for the inaugural year, although that “depends upon development progress and player feedback”. You can check it out in the teaser below, which debuted at Indie Live Expo 2025 earlier today:
Developed by a two-person team in Saitama, Japan, DMZ is the debut title from newly formed studio Wild Dog. It takes place on the supercontinent “Pangaea, a “vast, procedurally generated” environment featuring a variety of biomes, including forests, wastelands, deserts, and snowfields. The game’s lore suggests it was formed by tectonic shifts caused by the war, where “intense battles for survival” unfolded. Players can excavate ancient ruins scattered across the land – such as pyramids, Terracotta warriors, and Roman temples – and research relics, craft items, and “even resurrect powerful soldiers from ancient genes to revive a fallen civilization and fight for survival”.
You’ll also get to capture NPCs and bring them back to base to become companions, each one with a specialty that may come in handy. Non-human recruits like Bears, wolves, and, er, ostriches are also available. Players can also set up shop on dedicated servers to “play with over 100 players”, although offline single-player mode is also available.
The duo hope the final version will introduce new biomes and locations, “enhance soldier and NPC development features, improve PvE and PvP mechanics, add craftable technologies, and implement server updates that allow more players to participate simultaneously”.
For more, head on over to its Steam page, which informs me there’ll be in-app purchases and full controller support.
