Lethal Company

Lethal Company (2023) is a stealth role-play game where you work with friends to scavenge abandoned moons for scrap. To play you creep through the environment hunting scrap and on the lookout for lurking meat dogs, thumpers and other horrors. It's brilliant at creating camaraderie and then cashing that in disastrous encounters. Much of this comes from the clever use of proximity chat that not only changes how your voice sounds in different spaces but means you often hear fellow crewmates screaming down a corridor.

You work for the Company and must collect enough scrap from abandoned industrialized moons or be (literally) terminated. As you work your way through more and more dangerous moons you discover alien threats waiting for you in the dark. The only way to survive is by working together with the three other players.

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Play involves cautiously exploring the varied abandoned environments from a first-person perspective, picking up scrap and returning to your base. Sometimes the best approach is to go in mob-handed with all of your working to protect each other on the ground. Take care though, as you need to stay close to be able to hear each other. Other scenarios are better tackled with someone back in your ship, using the radar to call out traps and open doors.

The result is a game that's as much about cooperation and communication as it is about holding your nerves when the horrors show up. Making the right decision about how to support each other, and how much scrap you can get back to the ship with, are just as important as quick reactions.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Lethal Company 5 months ago. It was re-examined by Ellen Robertson and updated 4 weeks ago.