People often ask us, “Hey, what’s the story behind Deathground? Who do we play as, when and where are we, and what are our goals?’’ and we always tell them the same thing;
[REDACTED], [REDACTED] and of course, [REDACTED].
And that’s for good reason - you’ve likely seen the ‘AEON technologies group’ logo around the place, and they’re very secretive about what exactly went on in the complex and why it all went wrong.
Well, we’re here today to reveal a few of those secrets, leaking classified information from the D.A.R.T. team, which will give you a better understanding of the setting and story of the Deathground.
Let’s tackle the Who, What, and Why
In Deathground, you and your friends take on the role of a member of ‘D.A.R.T. ’ (the ‘Deathground - Asset - Retrieval - Taskforce’), a specialist group of operatives composed of The Scout, The Engineer, The Survivalist, The Medic, The Hunter, and The Observer - each one closely connected to AEON in some way.
After some sort of catastrophic systems failure, the AEON facility became overrun with prehistoric creatures, leaving no survivors. You’ve been sent into the complex, which has now become known as ‘The Deathground’, to recover valuable research, samples and data left behind by the long-dead scientists and workers.
But things aren’t always as they seem, and AEON haven't told you the complete story - so questions remain:
What were AEON really working on, and why were they so desperate to keep it secret?
What are the true motives behind the D.A.R.T. recovery operation?
Why can’t you remember what happened - did someone want you to forget?
And where the [ REDACTED ] even is this complex located??
You’ll have to explore the Deathground and figure all that out for yourself.
The un-redacted information is there; you just need to search for it!
Many of the scientists, researchers and workers of the AEON complex didn’t have time to carefully redact or shred their documents while being eaten alive by raptors - And so one of the ways you can start your (off-mission and unapproved) investigation is by collecting those documents and items.
You’ll find items of interest hidden throughout each facility, and once picked up, those items will be added to your collection menu for examination in between missions.
Some are classified reports, others are surveillance transcripts or even e-mails written by staff. Each collectable you find gives you additional information, background and insight into the relationships between each member of facility staff, which you can use to piece together the answers to each of the above questions, and more.
There will be plenty of collectable items for you to find throughout each location, with more added in future missions and sub-missions as the game continues to expand.
Colonel Wells wants the mission completed, so get to it!
Restarting the powerplant, spraying the greenhouse and securing the specimen are the first three ‘primary missions’ you’ll tackle in Deathground - with the mission brief for each delivered by Colonel K. Wells.
Voiced by Will de Renzy-Martin, the Colonel is the first of Deathground's cast of surrounding characters set to appear as the story unfolds during Early Access development.
Once a high-ranking officer, Wells was dishonorably discharged due to [REDACTED] and later became head of security operations for AEON technologies group. A patriot and soldier first, he has very little tolerance for those who fail to follow orders - Wells has inserted himself as leader of recovery operations in an attempt to find and punish those responsible for the inciting incident.
Subtitles and localization options
Deathground will feature voice subtitle support at launch. This will be enabled by default, but can be toggled off to remove subtitles in the ‘audio options’ menu.
Whether you’re exploring the lore through collectibles, following critical mission dialogue, or listening for the faint sound of danger in the dark, our goal is for players all across the globe to experience the tension and terror of the Deathground without barriers.
(Well, except for all the redacted parts, those will stay redacted for everyone!)
While Deathground won’t have full localisation at launch, we’re aiming to include localisation support across multiple languages and cultures over the course of development, with full support for selected languages planned for 1.0 release.
Our plan includes:
Region selection for hosting / joining games
Localised menus and user interface
Full subtitle translation for all supported languages.
Full collectable document description translation for all supported languages.
What lore do you want more info on? Do you have a specific language you want localisation for? Let us know in the comments below!
Until next time…
Cheers for checking in! We’ll see you tomorrow for another mini development feature leading up to the launch of Deathground on the 7th of October!
As always, here's your reminder of where else you can find us: Join us and the rest of the community over on Discord. Watch more behind-the-scenes on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Follow us on Facebook, X/Twitter, Threads and Bsky. See you there!
