Where to get it

Steam

2023 · Zeekerss · Action-adventure · Horror

Lethal Company

Lethal Company is a co-op horror roguelite game about scavenging at abandoned moons to sell scrap to the Company.

Released: 23 October 2023
Platforms: Windows
Genres: Action-adventure Horror Indie
Developers: Zeekerss
Publishers: Zeekerss
Modes: Co-op Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action Science fiction Horror Comedy
Languages: English
Time to beat: 9.5hmain story41hcompletionist

About

Lethal Company is an upcoming cooperative survival horror video game developed and published by American developer Zeekerss for Windows. It was released in early access in October 2023 and gained popularity on the Steam storefront.

In Lethal Company, players obtain and sell scrap from abandoned, industrialized exomoons while avoiding traps, environmental hazards, monsters, which are often referred to as "anomalies", "entities", or "creatures", and the hostile fauna. As employees of "The Company", players must sell enough scrap to meet a series of increasing profit quotas until they inevitably fail and the game starts over.

›Story

You are a contracted worker for the Company. Your job is to collect scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons to meet the Company's profit quota. You can use the cash you earn to travel to new moons with higher risks and rewards--or you can buy fancy suits and decorations for your ship. Experience nature, scanning any creature you find to add them to your bestiary.

Explore the wondrous outdoors and rummage through their derelict, steel and concrete underbellies. Just never miss the quota.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Lethal Company is a cooperative video game for up to four players played in first-person perspective. Set in a retro-futuristic setting, players work as contracted employees of "The Company". They can communicate with each other through the in-game proximity chat, as well as proximity text chat. Players are tasked with visiting abandoned moons to collect as much scrap as possible.

Each moon has one facility, either a factory, mansion, or mine, containing procedurally-generated rooms, alongside valuable scrap, hazardous traps, and malicious creatures. Players must work quickly and return to their ship before midnight, or the autopilot will leave without them. If there are no living players on board the ship as it leaves the planet, all collected scrap will be lost. Collected scrap is sold at the Company moon, 71-Gordion, to obtain Company credits.

Development

Zeekerss previously developed games on the game creation platform Roblox. Lethal Company was released in early access for Microsoft Windows on October 23, 2023, with development initially planned to be completed within 6 months. Zeekerss expressed a desire for content updates to evoke the feeling of breaking into an "alien zoo" and unleashing all the animals.

Reception

Lethal Company has received critical acclaim on the online storefront platform Steam, topping the platform's Global Top Seller list and having 100,000 concurrent players in November 2023. Its popularity has been attributed to social media and compared to the similar horror game Phasmophobia.

Kelsey Raynor of VG247 noted that the game "...might not look like much given its grisly cel-shaded graphics, but fans are wholly obsessed with Lethal Company, and its gruesome aesthetic is clearly just another part of its charm." Gabriel Moss of IGN said that "Lethal Company already instills a sense of wonder", and that the game's co-op loot hunts "manage to transcend its limited content and missing systems." PCGamesN included Lethal Company on its listing of best horror games available on PC.