From Ishtar Games Captain’s Log comes details about characters, exploration, and the combat system
I only reserve this kind of deep dive for the titles that truly pique my interest, digging through all the devlogs and compiling every relevant detail into a single article. Needless to say, Dead in Antares is one of those games I can’t wait to get my hands on.
This marks the return of the Dead In series from Ishtar Games, the studio that gained widespread recognition with their tactical RPG The Last Spell.
For those unfamiliar, their earlier titles were part of this very Dead In series, which has built up a solid fanbase over time. And this new installment is shaping up to be their most ambitious project yet.
Story-wise, Dead in Antares focuses on ten main characters who are stranded on a hostile alien planet after a failed colonization mission.
Drawing from the legacies of Dead in Bermuda and Dead in Vinland, this new game offers a more grounded and reactive experience, set not on a remote island or Viking outpost, but in a failing space colony on a distant planet.
According to the development logs posted throughout 2025, almost every system has been overhauled to reflect the new setting and to address feedback from past titles. What’s emerging is a survival game with more structure, less randomness, and deeper character dynamics.
The first significant change came with the introduction of a new character skill system. Because the game is no longer grounded in a primitive or early-modern world, the developers had to rework many of the traditional survival skills in favor of more science-oriented ones.
Technical knowledge, biological understanding, engineering, and resource analysis are now part of everyday survival tasks. The setting calls for it, but it also gives the player new ways to approach challenges beyond basic physical stats or combat aptitude.
These new skills are applied in activities back at the colony’s camp, where the player is responsible for assigning duties, managing stress, and keeping the group functioning.
The second major system to be reworked is exploration. Where past games relied on abstract camp expeditions that played out in simplified event windows, Dead in Antares introduces a tile-based expedition model.
Every day, players can send a team of three characters out to explore the surrounding zones. These missions don’t play out in real-time but as a dedicated activity before the day continues back at base.
The distance between tiles now matters; the greater the distance, the greater the fatigue. Characters consume water as a resource to function while out in the field. When moving through unexplored territory, the group will encounter random events that are no longer fully hidden behind dice rolls.
Instead, the game shows which skill is being tested, what risks are involved, and what consequences are tied to success or failure. If an ambush occurs, players can attempt a stealth check to sneak past or gain the upper hand in combat. If they fail, they can retreat, accept the loss of resources, and try again another day.
These updates point toward a larger design goal: to give the player more clarity and agency. Encounters are no longer passive, and skill checks no longer rely entirely on hidden numbers. Instead, the developers want each interaction to feel deliberate, and for each success or failure to feel earned.
That applies to combat as well. Although not all details have been revealed yet, they’ve made it clear that combat is now more tightly integrated with the characters themselves, their moods, roles, and relationships. Here you can find the commented combat trailer.
Rather than treating fights as isolated challenges, the new system links each encounter to broader events and choices. How a character reacts, whether they hold up under pressure, or how much stress they carry from earlier events, will affect how fights unfold.
The upcoming demo, scheduled to launch on August 27, 2025, will provide players with the opportunity to test this new direction. The date also marks the tenth anniversary of Dead in Bermuda, the game that kicked off the series.
In the demo, players will meet four of the ten main crew members:
- Captain Amelia Rosenhart, who’s struggling with command and past trauma.
- William Eriksson, a field medic with a sharp eye and a guilty conscience.
- Liu Jian, an emotionally distant engineer who views people and machines with equal skepticism.
- Polina Shevchenko, a brilliant astrophysicist, is caught between scientific pride and family baggage.
These four, along with six other yet-unrevealed characters, make up the full cast for the main game. But what’s different this time is that all ten of them are essential. Here you can read more about each of them.
If any one of them dies, the game ends. This decision adds pressure to every task. You can’t afford to treat characters like expendable resources, they’re the only thing keeping the mission alive.
Relationships between characters have also been expanded. Instead of static interactions tied to scripted events, the system now supports dynamic conversations between any pair of characters.
Personalities, stress levels, past choices, and current needs all feed into these interactions. Over time, bonds may form, arguments may flare up, or new developments may arise that influence who works well with whom and how effectively the camp operates under stress.
Visually, Dead in Antares sticks to the hand-drawn style the series is known for but leans into a more subdued, atmospheric look. The art direction reflects the isolation of a space frontier while maintaining a grounded, character-focused presentation.
Screenshots show broken tech, alien terrain, and rugged shelters patched together with whatever materials could be salvaged. The UI has been streamlined, and the dev team has openly stated that they’ve listened to feedback about past titles.
Their goal is to reduce micromanagement while increasing meaningful choices, especially when it comes to balancing the demands of base life and the dangers of exploration.
Each update posted to the Steam page so far tells the same story: Dead in Antares isn’t trying to reinvent the survival RPG, but it is trying to refine it.
With tighter systems, stronger narrative structure, and more transparent gameplay mechanics, it feels like a natural evolution of the series. If the demo delivers on what’s been shown so far, this could be the most polished and focused Dead in-game to date.
Dead in Antares is scheduled to arrive in 2025 on PC through Steam, although a precise release date has not been announced yet. Below is the reveal trailer.
