By Grant Taylor-Hill

Copyright insider-gaming

In December 2024, we reported that Escape from Tarkov’s ‘next competitor‘ could be wishlisted on Steam. Fast-forward to today, and that game, PIONER, is preparing to enter an open beta state for the first time. Only now, it has undergone so many changes that you could happily refer to it as an awesome cross between Fallout and Escape from Tarkov.

This ambitious MMO FPS plunges players into a post-apocalyptic world and forces them to survive against all odds against other players, mutant creatures, and all manner of environmental hazards. It’s a lethal formula that combines those two games above, as well as a little bit of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

When is PIONER’s Open Beta Starting?

The team at GFA Games just revealed that PIONER will enter open beta in October, but they didn’t mention when exactly it’ll start. In the meantime, until they do, you can wishlist the game on Steam.

To celebrate this announcement, a new trailer was released to showcase the game:

PIONER represents a fusion between Fallout and Escape from Tarkov, throwing players into a post-apocalyptic open-world filled with mutants and anomalies and charging them with surviving a PvPvE environment while looting, shooting, and resolving quests.

At first blush, it looks like the kind of game that will do remarkably well, provided the initial delivery ticks all the boxes.

In the trailer above, we see multiplayer gameplay, base building, weapon customization, combat, emotes, weather systems, and much more. The map looks phenomenal, weapons are varied, and combat looks intense. I’d even go so far as to say that some areas of the map look pulled straight out of Escape from Tarkov itself!

The difference here is that it’s more ‘arcadey’, boasting a tangible UI, crosshairs, on-screen prompts, and more.

It’s almost a too-good-to-be-true kind of trailer that has my expectations loaded, and I’ll find out next month how the game delivers.

Let me know on the Insider Gaming forum if PIONER looks like your kind of title.

For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news about the Arena Breakout: Infinite release