Lethal Company is a horror indie game that has become very popular in recent months, despite it not being a full release. The game starts on a ship with 1-4 people, where a loudspeaker welcomes players to the company, who they signed a contract for. In the game, players work for the company by going to abandoned facilities on moons, collecting scraps to sell. Each time that a team successfully meets the quota, they are given a higher quota and another three days to complete it. This is repeated until quota is not met, and everyone is fired and ejected from the ship out into space.
The simple premise along with its confusing instructions and low-level graphics make the game feel more horrifying due to the lack of information. This may be seen as a negative to some game enthusiast, but it games the game a raw, realistic feel. Going into the game blind is like trying to see in a dimly lit room, with horrifying monsters and deadly traps.
Lethal Company conveys its horror in the lack of information in the HUD and the lack of very powerful items. The HUD of the game provides a clock (which can only be seen half the time), a stamina bar, and “health bar” which takes the shape of a silhouette of the player both of which lack any quantifying numbers. Having to guess how low your health is or if your stamina is going to run out soon can both confuse the player and also scare them, especially in situations where they are running from monsters.
The less information that is given, the more scary the situation is and the more fun the game is. Lethal company does not tell players how to avoid danger and succeed. Instead, the player has to discover behaviors and tricks to deal with the monsters themselves, which feels very rewarding.
The various situations and landscapes also make this game fun to play again and again. Each run is different in what monsters spawn and the layout of the facility. Each moon has a different exterior, with the interior being randomly generated with two different presets. Each moon also has a chance to spawn different weather events which range from raining, which creates mud pits that the player can fall into, to an eclipse, which makes enemies start spawning as soon as a team lands. The different challenges and settings keeps the game interesting.
Though Lethal Company is a horror game, the mix of monsters and traps combined with the proximity voice chat makes for a hilarious playthrough. The game puts the player in multiple hysterical situations that make you laugh (after you all die). This is refreshing and makes the game better than other horror games because it has a light touch that uplifts the player instead of bringing them down.
Lethal Company is only $10 on steam, a PC gaming platform making it perfect for people who want to play with their friends, while also being cheap.
