I initially reviewed this game back when it was called Pandemic, and I had criticisms and praises, and I feel that with the incredible amount of change this game has received, I should revise my previous review.

First of all, 5K is made by an INDIE dev team, it has like 20 people max. Do not expect this to be a stunning triple A- release, and if you are expecting that, you're shooting too far.

5K has been in development for a while in many different variations, and the studio behind 5K (Affray) has had a 'shady' history that makes a lot of people that have been in the SCP community for a minute skeptical, and I wouldn't blame them, but it looks like Affray has gotten their things together with this one and actually dedicated to it.

First of all, the lore and storywriting in this game is RIDICULOUSLY good, far beyond any other SCP game. They've actually written 3 SCPs that are currently published on the SCP Wiki for you to read right now (SCP-7555, SCP-6762, and SCP-7528), for this game. That is a level of dedication beyond basically any other SCP game.

SCP: 5K I would consider to be overpriced currently, get it on a sale. It is fun with friends, but it is too buggy and lacks replayability in order to be a $20 game (although judging Triple A studio releases recently, this may be a steal). The bugs that are in-game are nothing comparable to Battlefield 2042, and they are not rendering the game completely unplayable. I've fallen through the map a few times, but this is mostly on P2P servers (which are not officially supported anyways)

SCP: 5K's AI is terrible, but better than what it previously was. They are actively working on developing it, and the guards at times can feel like a simple 'point & click' style AI. However, some of their other SCPs (Particularly 1268 and 098), despite not having crazy good A.I., can still be VERY scary. I get some goosebumps when I'm fighting 098 just because of how creepy the things are.

The animations in first person are great, and in third person they're good. Affray has recently been doing Motion Capture for their animations, which has given SIGNIFICANT improvement to its third person animations and they feel a lot less clunky and robotic. However, Affray really shines in their 1st-person weapon animations, in which the attention to detail is simply ridiculous. Your highly trained military operative actually has trigger discipline, which is nuts.

The level design is also phenomenal, and while not perfect, it makes you feel like you are in an ACTUAL GOVERNMENT FACILITY. This is not the absolute maze of Secret Laboratory or Containment Breach, this is a place where people actually work. You have large cargo lifts, detailed office spaces, meeting rooms, hallways with metal detectors, water treatment facilities, a common area for the staff, a server room, and so forth. You can really get immersed when it feels like "Hey, this is a place where people actually work."

There's plenty more I could go over, but I'd like to cut it here in a similar way I did to my original review. 5K is not Activision or EA, and does not have a billion dollar budget, things will take time. You shouldn't come in expecting the greatest game you've ever played, however, it very much has the potential to be exactly that.

Don't buy 5K if you're looking for a fully finished or even remotely finished game. It says "Alpha Testing" for a reason.