Prologue: Go Wayback! – First Look: Not Quite There Yet
Behind the Scenes with PLAYERUNKNOWN
We recently got hands-on with a sort of technical test for Prologue: Go Wayback!, the upcoming survival title from the creator of PUBG. For now, it’s available for free to anyone who requests a key via their Discord. As for a full release plan? Still unclear. So we can only speak about what currently exists—both as a standalone gaming experience and a tech demo highlighting the studio’s ambitious terrain system.
“Potential” is a word I tend to use a lot with games still in development or Early Access. You know the ones—games where you can sense there’s something great hiding beneath the surface, but you have to dig through bugs, half-baked mechanics, and unclear design to find it. That’s exactly how I felt after spending time with Prologue: Go Wayback, the latest project from the minds behind PUBG. And while it’s only a technical test at this stage, it’s clear there’s still a long road ahead.
More Demo Than Game
Let’s start from the beginning. When you boot up Go Wayback, you’re greeted with a message that flat-out tells you: “This is a tech demo!” And it shows. The game is essentially a showcase for their new procedural world-generation system—think Minecraft, but with hyper-realistic graphics and a more grounded, serious tone.
And credit where it’s due: the tech powering Go Wayback is quite impressive. Each time you load the game, it dynamically generates a brand-new world from scratch, using a seed system to shape the terrain. The landscapes can be genuinely beautiful—sunlight streaming through the trees, grass swaying in the wind—it can be striking.
As a technical demonstration, it succeeds. But as an actual game, one meant to entertain or immerse you? That’s where the cracks begin to show.
Right now, there’s just… not much to do. The game tells you to go from point A to point B. That’s it. There’s no story, no characters, no enemies, no wildlife. You’re dropped into the world with only a map, a compass, and your constant battle against hunger and cold. I spent the first 30 minutes rummaging through an abandoned house, finding a pot, some potatoes, and mushrooms—then another 15 minutes trying (and failing) to cook them. The UI is clunky, the item interactions are unclear, and there’s little guidance on how anything works. Eventually, I gave up, dropped everything on the floor, and walked out into the rain—still hungry.
A Beautiful, Empty World
That’s Go Wayback in a nutshell: it looks great but feels hollow. And not just in the typical “Early Access rough edges” kind of way—it genuinely feels more like a concept or experiment than a game. You discover basic controls like opening drawers or interacting with items purely by trial and error. There’s no tutorial. No hints. It’s all guesswork.
The world is filled with gorgeous landscapes—dense forests, snow-covered peaks, open plains—but it feels fragmented. Biomes change too abruptly. One minute you’re among pines and moss, the next you’re trudging through frozen tundra. It’s visually impressive but feels unnatural and, worse, lifeless. There’s no sign of life anywhere, and that eerie silence starts to wear on you.
After about an hour, I found myself feeling… kind of lost. You forage, you try to survive, maybe light a fire (if you figure out how), and you wonder: “Why am I doing this?” With no threats, no goals, and no real payoff, the whole experience starts to feel like wandering through an abandoned movie set.
Sure, there are some buildings and huts to discover, and they seem intriguing—especially with a torch lighting the way in the dark. But there’s never anything in them. It’s like the remains of a horror game where no one ever finished adding the monsters or the plot. There’s no music either—just wind, rain, and emptiness. It could be atmospheric… if there was any actual atmosphere.
So Much Potential, So Little Game
Yes, the potential is there. You can feel it. The weather system, for example, is a neat idea—rain slows you down, cold creeps in if you don’t find shelter—but these mechanics are buried under confusing systems and an unhelpful interface. The UI reminds me of PUBG—and not in a good way. It’s clunky, outdated, and seriously drags down the experience.
I understand that the team is focused on showing off their world-generation tech. And yes, it’s cool to see a realistic, fully procedurally generated world. But maybe they should hold off on calling it a “game” until there’s more game in it. Right now, it feels more like an early sketch—a prototype with just the faintest outline of what it might one day become.
Final Thoughts
Go Wayback is undeniably beautiful. But playing it feels like driving a rusted-out Soviet tractor. You can admire the scenery all you want, but the moment you try to do anything, it’s a struggle. I experienced wild frame rate drops (even into the negatives) until I enabled frame generation, after which it became smoother. Still, it never felt truly optimized, which matches the overall sense that this project just isn’t ready yet.
So, should you play it? Honestly, not yet. Even with a free key from their Discord, it’s hard to recommend this as a game—or even as a technical demo. There’s potential here, without question. But I can’t remember the last time I saw something with so much promise deliver so little actual entertainment.
It’s a strange paradox. If you’re really curious, try grabbing a key. Otherwise? Just wait. Keep it on your radar. Because if the developers manage to build on this foundation, Go Wayback could eventually evolve into something truly compelling.
But for now? It’s just not ready.