25 September 2026UpdateClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
Mission briefings now show the whole site next to the briefing panel on every screen, and names on the holo-table map no longer pile on top of each other.
- On phones (and smaller laptop screens) the projected mission site used to sit partly under the briefing panel, hiding part of the route; the view now fits the whole site, route and objectives into the free part of the screen, and re-fits when you rotate or resize.
- City names and operation names on the holo-table map never overlap any more: an operation's name sits just above its city's, and two operations at the same city sit either side of their markers.
- Briefing labels are tidied the same way, so objective names stay readable instead of stacking on top of each other.
25 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
The holo-table now sweeps into place when you open it, and mission briefings are much easier to read: a violet route you can spot at a glance and far less glare.
- Opening the holo-table now plays a quick 1.5-second animation: the map starts small and spins up to full size, then the operations board slides in. Press any key or tap to skip it.
- The city markers on the holo-table are now see-through holographic bubbles floating above each city, instead of solid glowing balls that cut into the map.
- In a mission briefing, your route is drawn in its own violet colour with a dark outline, so it stands out from the teal grid. A small legend explains what each colour means.
- The holo-table and the briefing map glow much less: walls and floors are drawn with thin, crisp lines instead of a bright haze, so objectives, breach points and hostiles are easy to see.
25 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
The intro now tells you plainly who you are up against, and the base is easier to use: a lit back wall, room menus that switch with one click, and painted art for every research project.
- A rewritten, fully voiced and subtitled opening: WARDEN-9, the rogue AI that runs the island's grid, introduces itself first, then the Director explains what it is doing and why Task Force AIRGAP has to cut the network by hand.
- The city's windows in the opening no longer flicker and crawl as the camera rises over Port Calder.
- Base menus no longer trap you: with a room open, click another room to switch straight to it, or close it with the new X button, Esc, a click outside or B on a controller. Tab and the shoulder buttons step between rooms, and the Armoury's Recruit and Close buttons are back where they belong.
- The Cleanroom's back wall is no longer pitch black: it is lit, with a pool of light over every room.
- Every research project now has a painted illustration, with a larger picture and the full details when you point at it, move to it with a controller, or tap it.
25 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
Night missions now glisten and breathe: lamps reflect in rain-soaked ground and the sea, fog glows around every light, and the weather changes as the turns go by.
- Every lamp now reflects in wet ground, puddles, metal and water. On rain-soaked concrete the reflections stretch into long streaks, and they go dark when you cut the power to that part of the grid.
- Rain now soaks everything out in the open. Real-looking puddles fill up as the weather gets worse, and raindrops ripple across the standing water.
- The sea and the harbour water move. Swells catch the lamplight and the sky, and foam laps against quay walls and ship hulls, especially in Cold Storage.
- Lamps glow in fog and mist, and the ground haze lights up around them. Wall floodlights throw visible beams, and indoor metal now reflects each room's own light colour.
- Dark areas no longer turn pure black at night, so crates, containers and soldiers standing in shadow stay readable.
- The weather changes during seven missions, and the game tells you when it does. A storm peaks and then breaks under moonlight, the sun rises over the harbour, rain settles in over the freight yard, and Cold Storage's sea fog turns to drizzle and then grey dawn light. Heavy rain and wind gusts can be heard too.
25 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5
Two new Custodian machines built to beat your overwatch: the Usher shields an escort through your cones, and the Proctor circles round to strike your watchers from behind.
- New enemy: the Usher, an escort drone that wraps one machine in a hard-light shield. The first overwatch shot at that machine glances off, so it can walk straight through a single cone. Kill the Usher, stun it with an EMP, jam its escort, or cover the lane with two cones.
- New enemy: the Proctor, a stalker that never steps onto a tile your overwatch is watching. It circles to the side a watcher is not facing and strikes from behind for extra damage, breaking the cone. Wide cones fence it out, and operatives who cover each other's backs leave it no way in.
- The enemy forecast, the overwatch set-up and the threat preview show both of them: which machine an Usher is shielding, where a Proctor is stalking, and when your cones have it pinned.
- Two new research projects answer them: Split Rounds lets overwatch punch through the shield at reduced aim, and Rear Sensors stops Proctors from blindsiding your watchers.
- Ushers and Proctors now appear across Act II and Act III missions and side operations, each introduced by the Director on first sighting. A mission you are in the middle of keeps the rooms you have already cleared as they were.
25 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
Operatives and enemies get real surface detail, the Bailiff and Gilt bruisers swing their weapons for real, and shots read clearly from the tactical camera.
- Every operative and enemy now has worn, detailed surfaces: ripstop fatigues, chipped armour plates with bare metal showing, scuffed Custodian shells, gun finishes and hoodies, instead of flat plastic colours (medium and high quality).
- Bailiff androids carry their shock baton one-handed and strike with a real overhead swing, and Gilt bruisers smash down with the shock maul two-handed, both with a motion trail and a swing sound, instead of poking like a rifle butt.
- Bailiffs are easier to tell apart at a glance: a red and blue light bar on the shoulder, a dark tabard and restraint cuffs on the belt. Warden shields and Registrar seals now look like hard-light energy fields.
- Tracers and impact sparks stay visible at the normal tactical zoom, a hard hit now flashes on impact, and tracers no longer streak on past their target.
- The first baton hit, arrest, taser shot, jammer spike and drive pickup of a session now make their sound (they were silent the first time).
- If you start with a controller, the game now tells you that sound begins after one click, key press or tap, and picks the sound up on the next one.
25 September 2026UpdateClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
Every shot now shows its bullet: gunfire tracers and sparks were never being drawn, so firing looked like nothing happened.
- Every shot now draws a bright tracer from the gun to where the round lands, whether it hits or misses, for every weapon your squad carries and for the Custodian's machines and the Gilt too.
- Sparks now show up: the spit at the muzzle, sparks where rounds strike armour and walls, and the showers from explosions, cut cables and burning wrecks.
24 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
New story mission Cold Storage: board a freighter in the fog at Vessel Bay and get the Custodian's cold drives out on the VTOL's winch before she sails.
- A new Act III operation before the finale, Cold Storage, fought across three linked areas: a foggy container quay, the main deck of a freighter reached over two gangways, and its frozen refrigerated hold.
- A new kind of objective, Recover: an operative lifts a cold drive onto their back and carries it into a winch zone, where the VTOL comes in overhead and reels it up on its line.
- Carrying a drive has a cost. The carrier moves two tiles less and the Custodian's machines shoot them first; if they go down the drive drops where they fall, and any teammate can pick it up again.
- A new site with its own look and sound: quay walls and hull plating running down to the sea, deck rails, gangways, reefer containers humming, a sea-fog night and a frosted hold, new voice lines, and the ship's horn when she is about to cast off.
- Existing campaigns are safe: if you were about to start the finale, Cold Storage is offered first and the finale follows it, with your roster and progress unchanged.
24 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
The whole world now has real textures, battle damage looks burnt into the ground, every operation shows a recon photo of its site, and your operatives have faces.
- Every floor, wall and prop now has a real surface instead of a painted placeholder: power-trowelled concrete, raised server floors, metro tiles, wet asphalt, weathered pier planks, salt-crusted slabs, marble, corrugated steel, glazed tile and glass curtain walls, all with depth that catches the light.
- Floors vary from tile to tile so they no longer look stamped, low walls show the grimy foot of the wall, and puddles on outdoor ground read as flat standing water.
- Crates, server racks, shipping containers, concrete barriers and metal fittings got proper surfaces too, and the archive shelves now hold archive boxes instead of ammunition crates.
- Scorch marks, craters, bullet holes, oil and coolant spills, cracks, tyre tracks and dead leaves are now photographic, so a firefight leaves marks that look real.
- Each operation on the holo-table shows a recon photo of its site, on the card and at the top of the briefing.
- Your operatives now have personnel photos on their dossiers, squad cards and the memorial wall. Existing saves keep working, and everyone already on your roster gets a face.
24 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5[1m])
Overwatch now has a real set-up: you see a 3D cone, swing it around, dial its width and click to set it, and every weapon handles width differently.
- Choosing Overwatch now shows a cone on the ground in front of your operative. It follows your mouse, stick or finger, stops at the walls you know about, and you click (or tap Set) to lock it in.
- You can now set any width your weapon allows with the mouse wheel, Q and E, the triggers, a pinch, or the minus and plus buttons. Shotguns sweep wide but only reach a few tiles, scoped rifles are deadly down a narrow lane and far, and pistols want a narrow lane too.
- The cone is coloured by how likely a reaction shot is to hit there: teal is good, amber is fair, red is poor. A panel graphs your weapon at every width and shows the hit chance, the reach and how many tiles you are watching. Enemies inside the cone show their hit chance.
- Locked cones stay on screen through the enemy turn and flash when they fire. Enemy cones are drawn in orange and each enemy picks a width that suits its weapon.
- The enemy now reads your cones. It walks around them when it can, takes a shot from where it stands rather than walk into a bad one, and sends Replicators and Mirages in first to use up your overwatch.
- Older saves still load. Cones set in a save from before this update keep their direction and their width.
24 September 2026ImprovementClaude Opus 5.5
Overwatch is now a cone you aim, with a width that suits your weapon, and every 3D model got a full check: Warden shields no longer have carbines poking through them.
- Overwatch now covers a cone that you point, at one of three widths. Each weapon aims differently at each width: shotguns can go wide at no cost, while scoped rifles and pistols lose a lot of accuracy watching a wide arc.
- Enemy overwatch works the same way. Their cones are drawn on the floor and the red kill zone shows exactly where they will fire, so you can walk around a watcher or flank it.
- Warden Sentinels now hold their riot shield beside their carbine instead of the carbine going straight through it. Up close they shove with the shield, and they drop it when they fall.
- Robots now aim straight at their target, and operatives kneeling behind low cover now aim level instead of into the cover. Units that kneel, hunker, sit wounded or lie down stay on the floor instead of sinking into it.
- Weapons fall to the floor when someone dies or surrenders. The Tallyman mortar now leans toward its target instead of away from it, and a few props and the VTOL got their facing fixed.