God Save Birmingham will hold its second public playtest from November 2 through November 9, 2026. The upcoming Beta 2 gives players another opportunity to try Ocean Drive Studio’s physics-driven zombie survival simulator, now with an alpha version of co-op, a save feature, broader cooking and crafting choices, and additional weapons.
Published by Kakao Games, the game’s test begins at 3:00 p.m. PT / 6:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 p.m. GMT on November 2. It ends one week later at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. GMT on November 9. Players can join through the game’s Steam page by selecting Request Access once the test opens; access to the build is described as instant.
A second public look after June’s beta
Beta 2 follows months of closed testing and is the second public chance for most players to spend time with the game since a June beta. The first public beta drew more than 67,000 participants, giving the development team a substantial set of player feedback to work from ahead of this next test.
That context matters because Beta 2 is not being presented merely as another opportunity to see the same work-in-progress. Several of its changes directly address parts of a survival game that players repeatedly interact with: the danger posed by infected enemies, the usefulness of clothing, the process of securing a building, and the ability to maintain progress over multiple sessions.
As with any public beta, the build should be understood as unfinished software rather than a statement of the final game’s complete feature set. In particular, the co-op offering is explicitly labeled an alpha build. In development language, alpha generally describes an early implementation: a feature has reached a state where it can be tested, but its systems, stability, balance, interface, and technical performance may still change considerably.
Co-op arrives in alpha form
The headline addition is co-op play. Survival games can change significantly when another player is introduced, even before considering any game-specific mechanics. Decisions that would otherwise be made alone—whether to search for supplies, prepare food, craft an item, take a risk, or fortify a route—become shared decisions. Co-op also increases the number of situations a test can expose, from coordination and resource distribution to unexpected physics interactions involving multiple players.
There are no further specifics here on player count, progression rules, hosting, matchmaking, cross-platform play, or how saves interact with co-op. Players should therefore avoid assuming those details from the phrase “alpha build of co-op.” What is confirmed is narrower but meaningful: multiplayer is included in Beta 2 for public testing, and it remains at an early stage.
For Ocean Drive Studio, an open alpha test of co-op can provide feedback that is difficult to obtain in isolated internal sessions. Different groups naturally create different priorities and approaches. Some may focus on gathering materials, others on weapon use, food preparation, defenses, or simply staying together. Those contrasting approaches can reveal whether the game’s survival systems remain understandable and useful when more than one person is acting in the same space.
Related coverage includes God Save Birmingham Beta 2 Sets November 2–9 Public Playtest.
The game’s physics-driven design is also relevant. Physics-driven means that interactions are shaped by simulated physical behavior rather than being entirely predetermined animations or fixed outcomes. In a zombie survival setting, that framing places particular importance on how players, enemies, environmental objects, entrances, and makeshift defenses behave when they meet. Beta testing is a suitable stage for identifying where those interactions feel readable and where they require adjustment.
A save feature changes the shape of a playtest
Beta 2 also adds a save feature. It is a deceptively important addition for a survival simulator, where experimentation often takes time. Players may need to explore, gather materials, try recipes, make equipment, assess clothing, and establish shelter before they can meaningfully evaluate whether the systems work together.
Saving allows a player to return to ongoing progress rather than treating every session as a fresh start. That can make it easier to test longer-term decisions: whether a crafted item stays useful, whether a fortified area remains practical, or whether a cooking and equipment plan is worth the resources it requires. It also permits players to revisit a scenario after a break instead of trying to compress everything into a single sitting.
The supplied details do not define the save system’s limits. There is no confirmation of how many saves can be made, whether saves are local or shared in co-op, or whether they persist beyond the playtest. The useful expectation is simply that the feature is newly included for this beta and is part of the work players can evaluate.
More ways to prepare, make and fight
Alongside co-op and saving, the test expands three central survival-game areas: cooking, crafting, and weapons. Beta 2 has expanded cooking options, more craftable items, and new weapons.
Cooking typically turns acquired food or ingredients into a more deliberate survival decision. More cooking options can give players additional ways to plan around what they find, although the test details do not specify recipes, ingredients, effects, or equipment. Similarly, more craftable items broaden the set of objects players can make from available resources, without confirming the exact item list or their roles.
New weapons are also part of the update. Their names, categories, damage values, durability, ammunition needs, and crafting requirements have not been outlined. Still, their inclusion alongside changes to zombie behavior suggests Beta 2 will be particularly useful for judging the relationship between threat variety and a player’s available responses.
That relationship is fundamental to survival design. A system can offer many tools, but their value depends on whether players can understand the circumstances in which each is worth using. Conversely, an enemy roster can contain different types, but that difference needs to be apparent enough to affect player choices. A public test gives players a chance to report on that clarity—not just whether something is difficult, but whether the game communicates why a strategy did or did not work.
Zombies are becoming less uniform
Ocean Drive Studio says it has made numerous adjustments following player feedback, including more variation in zombie aggression and behavior depending on zombie type. This is a notable change because it moves the infected away from a single, uniform threat model.
Aggression concerns how readily an enemy pursues or pressures the player. Behavior is broader: it can refer to the ways enemies react and act in the game world. The confirmed point is that both now vary by zombie type. The studio has not described the individual types or listed their traits, so players should not expect a published taxonomy before entering the beta.
In practical terms, variety can make observation more important. If different zombies do not all create the same danger, a player may need to identify what they are facing before committing to an approach. The success of that system will depend on whether the distinction is legible in play: players need enough information from enemy appearance, movement, responses, or other cues to make decisions with purpose. That is analysis of the design implication, not a claim that every zombie type will be immediately recognizable in the beta.
Feedback on this area can be especially valuable when it is precise. Rather than only reporting that an encounter felt hard or easy, players can identify whether a zombie’s reaction seemed inconsistent, whether its aggression was understandable, and whether its behavior meaningfully differed from another type. Specific feedback is more actionable because it connects an impression to a circumstance the developers can investigate.
Warmth and shelter gain more survival weight
Beta 2 changes clothing so that warmth levels depend on material. This gives apparel a survival role beyond appearance. The announcement does not list the materials or explain any wider temperature system, but it confirms that clothing choice now involves varying warmth.
Warmth is a common survival-game consideration because it makes equipment selection situational. A player may have to weigh protection, availability, and other needs against the warmth offered by a material. Exactly how that balance works in God Save Birmingham remains for the test to show, since no numerical values, conditions, penalties, or benefits have been provided.
The shelter side of the update is more concrete. Additional door and window types can now be barricaded or latched. A barricade is a physical obstruction intended to make an entrance harder to pass. A latch is a fastening mechanism that keeps a door or window secured. Both actions are about controlling access, but they can imply different levels of commitment and different uses within a building.
More eligible doors and windows should give players greater flexibility when deciding how to treat a location. Rather than viewing a structure as either fully safe or fully exposed, they may be able to assess individual entry points and decide which ones need attention. It is also an area where a physics-driven game has significant design questions to answer: securing an opening needs to feel clear to the player, and its results need to be understandable when pressure arrives. The beta is an opportunity to test that readability.
How to join God Save Birmingham Beta 2
- Wait for the public test to open on November 2, 2026.
- Visit the God Save Birmingham page on Steam.
- Select the Request Access button.
- Access to the beta build is stated to be immediate once the test is live.
The schedule runs for a full week, but players should note the precise closing time: 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. GMT on November 9. Anyone planning to try the test near the end should account for that earlier-in-the-day cutoff in North American time zones.
What Beta 2 can meaningfully answer
There is a sensible limit to what can be concluded before the public build is available. The test announcement does not establish a release date, a final feature list, or the ultimate state of co-op. It does, however, set out a clear group of systems being put in front of players: cooperative survival, saving, cooking, crafting, weapon options, zombie differentiation, material-based clothing warmth, and broader options for securing doors and windows.
Those features are linked by a consistent goal: making survival decisions more varied and persistent. Co-op changes who makes those decisions. Saving lets choices carry across sessions. Cooking, crafting, and weapons expand possible preparations. Zombie variation changes the threat being prepared for, while warmth and fortification make clothing and shelter part of that same calculation.
For players interested in other upcoming PC projects that foreground physical interactions, see DUNK’s planned first-person, physics-driven arcade basketball approach. God Save Birmingham applies that broad physics-driven idea to a much more precarious survival premise, with Beta 2 serving as the next opportunity to see how its interconnected systems hold up.
