Radical Heights heralds a new era of extreme Early Access

Radical Heights, a battle-royale shooter that teaches you the importance of saving money, is the latest release from developer Boss Key Productions. It is available now for free on Steam’s Early Access portal for unfinished games. And Radical Heights is very unfinished. But in 2018, releasing half a game is a smart strategy.

Less than a year ago, Boss Key released its class-based shooter Lawbreakers on Steam for $30. That game is infamous now for fizzling out with hyper-low player counts in the weeks following its release, and the company announced April 5 that it is halting development. But the developer also noted that it had something new in the works, and a week later it pushed out Radical Heights into what it calls “X-treme Early Access.” This is a battle-royale game with a game-show theme mashed together with ’80s nostalgia. It is the kind of obvious, uninspired aesthetic when you make a game in a matter of months.