Draft:Don't Even Think

Don't Even Think is a 2019 asymmetrical survival game with battle royal elements. The game was developed by Dark Horse Game Studio, and published by Perfect World Games. The game had an initial release date of July 10, 2019 for the PlayStation 4. Don't Even Think marked the first game launched by Dark Horse Game Studio, and the first product published by Perfect World Games using Unreal Engine 4.

On May 14, 2020 the shutdown of the game was announced, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the reasons for the shutdown. The game was shutdown on September 30, 2020.

Gameplay
Don't Even Think is an asymmetrical multiplayer game where a few players take on the role of humans or the werewolf / werecat from the Beast Clan.

The humans objective is to survive against other humans and werewolves on the map, as well as to keep warm. The werewolves take on the role as another human with an axe, and after a select time interval, they transform into werewolves and hunt the other players down.

As the map closes in, humans may acquire more supplies from supply drops across the map. Werewolves also have a higher healthpool than the humans, and are the only class that can regain health by consuming bodies. The werewolves must eliminate all humans before they evacuate via rescue helicopter, which arrives near the end game. They are weak to silver bullets, and are the only team that is not affected by the cold temperatures.

Plot and Setting
Don't Even Think takes place on research base Prism City, established by the security company DET-i, in the year 2037. Participants from various global locations are deployed into Prism City for a battle simulation, during which DET-i collects data for security research. Various disaster scenarios are deployed.

In the east coast of Prism City, after the first virus sample leak there was an evacuation. Following that period creatures described as wolves have been spotted at night.

In Blood Paw Valley, there was a crash exposing a DET virus to tribal inhabitants. Those infected became werecats, of whom allied themselves with the werewolves and joined the Beast Clan.

Farside
Don't Even Think was initially a mobile title named Farside: An Athletic Game. The game incorporated typical battle royale features such as the use of vehicles, skydiving into the battlefield, and a progressively shrinking play area.

On June 8, 2018, Perfect World Entertainment announced that the title would be ported to the PS4, in conjunction with the release of ReVolve. The project was later renamed to Don't Even Think during the 16th ChinaJoy conference, held in Shanghai on August 2, 2018.

Open Beta
In November 27, 2018, Dark Horse Game Studio released the open beta of Don't Even Think on PlayStation in Hong Kong. The game later debuted in North America in 2019.

Werewolves were not initially part of the open beta, and were instead a later introduction. The open beta ended on December 27, 2018. Vehicles were one of the features that were removed on it's launch in North America.

The player size of the game would also progressively increase during the game's development, starting with 8 during the open beta, 27 during season 1, and later 31 during Season 2 after a rebalance.

Shutdown
On May 14, 2020, the development team announced the discontinuation of Don't Even Think. The announcement, made when players logged into the game, cited the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic among other reasons for the decision. The developers expressed their gratitude for the community's support and outlined the schedule for the game's gradual shutdown.

The game was removed from sale on June 15, 2020, and the servers were shut down on August 14, 2020. Additionally, the game website and social media accounts were scheduled to be closed by September 30, 2020.

Reception
As of it's release at the time of launch, Don't Even Think reached the #1 spot for Free To Play game downloads. The game held an overall #7 placement at the end of the year of 2019 as reported by Jason Massongill, a Content Communications Manager for Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game received "generally unfavorable" user reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic, with the game receiving sparse editorial coverage in North America.

Shortly after the game's launch in Japan, and an update patch, Ayuo Kawase in their coverage of the game for Automation Media noted the developers had mostly improved issues of performance- involving matters such as frame rates.