I really thought they were gonna like, run out of current content on the third major area of the game, the Labs. I thought 'Well, it'll be like Manufacturing, and like the Offices: winding and interconnected, but in terms of progress, linear. There'll be the same enemies, the same problems, maybe some new craftables, and that's it.'
And, I'm glad that I'm wrong? But also goddamn the difficulty spike is something. Thankfully I'm a geurilla warfare kinda player, stealth plus brutal and unfair tactics seem to be the way forward, but damn if they're not messing around!
It's a bigger, much more sprawling area. Lots of directions with no clear way forward. Lots of immediate alternate routes. Recolours of enemies, tougher and with some new attacks. Several new resources (which, thankfully, don't amount to many new things, but enough that there's a nice sense of progression).
And one really, really fucking annoying enemy that, initially, cannot be killed or blocked in any way, and IF it locks onto you and enrages, WILL kill you. Your only recourse is to see it before it gets too close, and stare at it until it vanishes. Which the game does not neatly communicate to you (kind of good), forcing you to learn. I first thought approaching it would make it go away! I was wrong! Thankfully, only one spawns at any one time, and they retreat for a few hours every time you repel them. You get a weapon/base object later that can destroy it, but it becomes a permanent annoyance once you've encountered it.
They're adding at least one major area per major update in the future, with, I think, 2-3 planned out at the moment - not including the little resetting portal worlds, which are clever ways to both have respawning resources and unique areas without throwing the vibe of the facility out.
Continues to straddle the line of Half-Life-But-SurvivalCraft very well IMO.