Sci-fi action roguelike Deadzoned is another fab game from caiys

8 Sep 2026 at 9:31 am UTC | Last updated: 8 Sep 2026 at 12:26 pm UTC
By Liam Squires-Hand

From developer caiys who made the excellent Boneraiser Minions, along with Voids Vigil and Xenosensory has another game out now with Deadzoned. Note: this was a personal purchase.

They've quickly become a favourite indie developer of mine, because they keep releasing such interesting looking games. All of them have reviewed well by me and others too, especially Boneraiser Minions.

What's the story here then? Set in some partly-dated far-future, interplanetary wars erupted with a plague spreading across the stars that decimated human populations. On one particular planet, survivors attempt to scavenge underground zones for supplies - you're one such scavenger. It feels fast-paced but it's proper a turn-based roguelike where you go from floor to floor and attempt to find the best equipment while you take down beasts and level up to get stronger.

Just like previous games from caiys, it has a fantastic atmosphere and is very reasonably priced.

See the trailer below:

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• Every playthrough a procedurally-generated nightmare: Each zone fight through a unique layout facing random events as you level-up differently with special talents, find rusting weapons and strange gear, interact with ancient machines to boost your build, and fight or avoid the enemies that infest them.
• Fast arcade action: There's no agonising over item weight limits, grab every weapon you find and blast your way through the meanies to get the biggest score you can muster.. but keep an eye on your ammo!
• Multiple game modes: Fancy a quick 20 minute trip? Or maybe a more lengthy session? You choose how deep the journey goes with each offering their own length, difficulty, and pools of gear, enemies, and end bosses.
• Many character classes: From Bounty Hunters, Psychics, and Technomaniacs, to the humble Deprived Wretch, each class levels up differently with each class having their own Talents and stat preferences.
• Optional Difficulty: Zones can have multiple random events you can face or avoid for extra loot and bigger scores. From dealing with a camp of Cannibals to entering the domain of a skelly summoning Boneraiser. You may also find optional entrances into the more dangerous but rewarding zones such as Forbidden or Plagued Deadzones.
• Steam Leaderboards: Battle your foes, and your friends, to reach first place on the online Steam leaderboards. Every game mode and class has their own leaderboard to fight over.
• Clashful Cards: Take a cosy break from the blasting with a strategic collectable card game you can play against the AI or a local friend.
• Hat & Skin Colour unlocks: Now this is fashion zone!

Since it's in Early Access, GamingOnLinux won't give a review score or full thoughts for now to let it cook. But what I will say is that if you enjoy faster-paced traditional roguelikes with a sci-fi flair, Deadzoned is one that's already good fun to go and pick up. I've been getting that itchy feeling of needing just one more run in it.

The developer said it is quite close to being finished but they want Early Access time for feedback and to add in a few bigger extras like seeded challenges and something close to an endless mode along with a save and quit system for runs.

On Fedora KDE 44 it works great with Proton 11. No issues encountered at all.

Costs £3.99 when not on sale. Price may increase once it leaves Early Access.

Release Date: 📅 7th September 2026Platform: ⚛ Proton / Wine (Windows)Devs:caiysOfficial links:Steam Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com. Tags: Early Access, Initial Thoughts, Proton, Indie Game, New Release, Roguelike, Steam | Apps: Deadzoned 6 Likes Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:GE-Proton 11-6 released with updates for Wayland, PS5 Controllers and more upgradesvolt-gui is an AMD Adrenaline / NVIDIA Settings alternative for LinuxDXVK-Sarek 1.13.0 is a big release for older GPUs to play modern games on Linux"Yes, no AI is now a feature" - LibreOffice / The Document Foundation All posts need to follow our rules. Please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Readers can also email us for any issues or concerns.