Almost eight years after its last update, we are releasing a new patch for The Last DeadEnd.

The reason for this update is a technical issue that has recently started affecting some players on modern PCs. We received reports that The Last DeadEnd could crash on startup or during loading on certain newer processors.

The issue was traced back to the game's original technology stack. The Last DeadEnd was built using Unreal Engine 4.17, which includes an older version of OpenSSL 1.0.2g. On some modern processors, hardware SHA acceleration can conflict with this older OpenSSL implementation, causing the game to crash with an access violation error such as 0xC0000005.

The problem could particularly affect newer generations of Intel processors, including systems using CPUs such as the Intel Core i7-12700KF.

What Has Changed

With this patch, we have implemented a compatibility fix that prevents the game from using the problematic hardware SHA acceleration path on affected systems.

For most players, this update will not change the gameplay itself. It is primarily a compatibility patch designed to ensure that The Last DeadEnd continues to launch and run properly on modern hardware, even many years after its original release.

It feels a little unusual to return to the game with a new update after eight years, but we believe it is important for games that people have purchased to remain accessible and playable as hardware continues to evolve.

Thank you to everyone who still plays The Last DeadEnd, reports issues, and helps us keep the game alive.