Urban survival MMO Nether is now in beta on Steam Early Access

Nether , the urban-focused DayZ-alike we first told you about in August, has just hit Steam Early Access.

in August, has just hit Steam Early Access. The hopefully brutal survival MMO is now in Beta, and eager early adopters can get in and start checking out the game.

Developer Phosphor Games also released this live-action trailer a couple of weeks ago. Though live-action trailers aren't my favorite thing ever, this one is sufficiently gritty to sell the atmosphere of this post-apocalyptic hellscape.

Nether takes a few pages from the DayZ playbook, but replaces sometimes-slow, always-stupid zombies with a much more predatory bad guy called the Nether. Phosphor is also replacing the wide-open spaces native to Arma 2 with a dense urban environment based on the West Loop of Chicago. Looting skyskrapers and bunkering down in a burned-out apartment building is an intriguing concept, and now we finally get to see if the game can live up to the promise of its ideas.

If you buy into the beta, you'll get several extra keys to send to friends, which is a nice touch in a game where backup will always be appreciated.