Lethal Company

Lethal Company is a 2023 co-op indie horror video game developed and published by Zeekerss. It takes place in a retrofuturistic post-apocalypticdystopia where players take on the role of contracted employees working for a corporation named the Company, collecting scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons, while having to avoid traps, environmental hazards, and monsters.^[1] Zeekerss had prior experience as a Roblox and itch.io game developer.

Gameplay

Lethal Company is played only from a first-person perspective. Players are tasked with collecting scrap from abandoned, industrialized moons to meet the Company’s profit quota. The game offers a balance between risk and reward, with a focus on exploration, survival, and strategy. It is characterized by a realistic atmosphere, where player characters can face intense situations, including dismemberment or decapitation via creatures, traps, or environmental hazards.^[1][2]

Players must monitor their stamina level and weight carried visible on the heads-up display, as stamina can be depleted by sprinting, swimming, and carrrying weight. They can gain money from selling collected scrap, which can be used to purchase items using a terminal console inside their ship.^[3] Players can also collect these said items without having to buy them. Items like flashlights can be used to navigate through dark areas, melee weapons such as a shovel and a stop sign to fight hostile creatures, other types of weapons include stun grenades, a ranged weapon called a “zap gun”, a walkie-talkie to communicate with other players outside of proximity chat, and ship decorations.^[4]

The game offers seven different hazard levels in total, depending on the respective moon, which dictates how difficult the creatures will be or even how many enemies the player may see. There is also a rank system that depends on the player’s skill and success in missions.^[5][6]

Development

Lethal Company was developed by Zeekerss, who had prior experience as a Roblox video game developer.^[1] The game was released into early access on October 23, 2023.^[7]

Reception

Lethal Company has received critical acclaim on storefront Steam,^[8][9] with an approval rating of 97.28% as of November 27, 2023, topping the platform’s Global Top Seller list behind the Steam Deck, surpassing games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake.^[8] Kelsey Raynor of VG247 noted that the game “…might not look like much given its grisly cell-shaded graphics, but fans are wholly obsessed with Lethal Company [sic], and its gruesome aesthetic is clearly just another part of its charm.”^[9]

References