Dreadweave Early Access Blends Tarkov Looting With Stranger Things Horror
A new indie extraction shooter has landed on Steam with a pitch that’s hard to ignore: loot like Tarkov, run from a monster that hunts you by your pulse. Dreadweave, developed and published by DeadGrass Games, launched into Early Access on Steam on July 22, and its store page frames it as a post-Soviet extraction horror shooter set in a ghost town split between reality and its dark reflection, where a creature hunts your heartbeat. The concept has already drawn comparisons to Escape from Tarkov crossed with the Upside Down of Stranger Things, a framing Insider Gaming used when covering the launch this week.
A Secret Soviet Experiment Splits the Map in Two
According to the game’s Steam listing, players find themselves trapped in a sealed-off town deep in the Far North, where a secret experiment has gone catastrophically wrong, shattering reality into two realms: our world and the Other Side. DeadGrass Games elaborated on that premise in its own developer blog, describing Dreadweave as a cooperative extraction horror shooter set in the grim environment of a Soviet northern military town, where secret experiments have gone wrong, leading to the opening of portals into a terrifying parallel dimension.
Asked about its influences in the game’s community FAQ, the studio didn’t hide its reference points, stating plainly that they were inspired by many of Stephen King’s works and the Stranger Things series, with the frosty setting drawn from stories about secret Soviet cities up north, and anything mystical, mysterious, and military-related with experiments.
Heartbeat Mechanic Turns Panic Into the Real Enemy
The hook that separates Dreadweave from other extraction shooters is its titular monster, which stalks players by sound of their own pulse rather than sight or footsteps. The Steam page warns that exploring the city and collecting resources and crafting gear comes with a catch: panic is more dangerous than bullets, as a creature hunts players by tracking their heartbeat, and the higher the pulse, the closer it gets. DeadGrass Games’ own blog post described the same system, noting that the main monster from the otherworld senses human heartbeats, detecting the player if it is close enough on the other side, and that the game is designed for maximum replayability with no two sessions alike thanks to different spawn points, monsters, loot and quests.
Runs can be tackled alone or with friends. The developer’s blog confirms Dreadweave is primarily a horror game that can be played either solo or in cooperative mode, where players fight monsters from a parallel dimension, with base building and crafting layered around each extraction attempt.
One-Year Early Access Roadmap, No Price Hike Promised
DeadGrass Games has committed to a defined Early Access window rather than an open-ended one. On the Steam store page, the studio states that Dreadweave will remain in Early Access for about one year, giving enough time to expand the content, add new features, and improve the game based on player feedback. The current build, per the same listing, includes the core gameplay loop, the first act of the story, the main map, and key mechanics — heartbeat, the Other Side, base building, and crafting.
For the eventual 1.0 release, the developer says it plans to add the complete story across all four acts, additional map zones, more monsters and mini-bosses, an expanded quest system and deeper progression, alongside improved visuals, performance and audio. Crucially for early buyers, the studio has also pledged that the price will remain the same during Early Access and after the full release, with no plans to raise it once the game leaves Early Access.
Mixed Demo Reception Ahead of Launch Day Hiccup
Dreadweave wasn’t a surprise arrival. DeadGrass Games ran a free public demo starting February 22, 2026, which Steam’s own review aggregation currently lists as Mixed, with 51% of the 41 user reviews for the demo positive. The Early Access rollout itself slipped by a day, with the studio posting on its official Steam community hub that it was sorry to move Early Access to tomorrow due to some technical stuff sorted out that’s out of my hands, while appreciating players’ patience for being so close.
Since going live, the studio has continued pushing patches. A July 17 update, published to Steam Community, states it improves inventory and progress saving, adds new atmospheric sound effects, weapon inspection and enemy behavior, and fixes a wide range of bugs across combat, the map, and the interface. A follow-up patch layered in progression systems, with the notes confirming it brings new progression systems, armor durability and repair mechanics, additional skills, dynamic difficulty balancing and expanded monster behavior, taking the skill trees to 16 of a planned 40 total skills.
Early community chatter on Steam has leaned into the Tarkov comparison too, with one player in the game’s discussion boards asking outright whether Dreadweave is essentially just co-op Tarkov with eldritch horrors, since the store page looks like Tarkov with eldritch horrors — something they said they very much wanted in their life. For a crowded genre that already counts Escape from Tarkov, Hunt: Showdown and this year’s Arena Breakout entries among its heavyweights, a horror-first spin built around a single terrifying chase mechanic gives Dreadweave a clearer identity than most Early Access hopefuls managed at launch.
Dreadweave is available now on Steam for Windows PC, with DeadGrass Games saying it intends to keep shaping the game’s remaining three story acts and additional zones around community feedback gathered through its Steam hub over the coming year.
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Article By News Desk
