Lethal Company reviews round-up: Is it worth playing?

As the new indie horror game hits early access, here’s what the Steam community is saying.

By Matt Poskitt

Published: Wednesday, 29 November 2023 at 16:07 PM

Lethal Company, a new indie co-op horror game that was released into early access in October, has seen a huge spike in players over the past few weeks.

Over 88,000 Steam user reviews have been posted at the time of writing for Lethal Company, accumulating to an “Overwhelmingly Positive” consensus on the PC platform.

Set in retrofuturistic post-apocalyptic dystopia, the premise has players taking on the role of contracted employees for a corporation, known simply as the Company. Your goal is to explore planets for scrap before selling it off and repeating with increased difficulty in a risk versus reward system.

With a not-so-subtle theme of capitalism, the indie game has been incredibly popular – with more than 100,000 concurrent players joining in on the action (as confirmed by developer Zeekerss).

To see why Lethal Company has become a bona fide hit with PC players around the globe, head below for a round-up of reviews.

Lethal Company reviews round-up: Is it worth playing?

A handheld transceiver in Lethal Company
Lethal Company.
Zeekerss

While no official reviews from critics have been conducted as of yet – likely due to the game being in early access – here’s a selection of Steam users’ reviews to give you an idea of its quality.

“The Steam trailer really doesn’t do this game justice,” one review by a gamer named Joe said. “Its extremely early access right now, and the gameplay itself is nothing too spectacular (yet), but the super dynamic proximity chat is what really makes this game for me.

“Hearing the muffled screams of someone getting choked out by a bug, followed shortly after by the panicked wails of another crewmember running for their life, is likely one of the funniest things I have ever experienced in a video game.”

“My friend was slowly being killed in a room and all I could do was listen to his horrified screams over the radio. Anyways, we met quota….10/10,” another user review under the name jjhamm said.

Steam user Ember, who has logged over 140 hours, shared their thoughts: “This game is amazing. It’s both horrifying and hilarious – the screams of terror coming from my teammates becoming muffled as a snare flea smothers them is just golden. The proximity voice chat is perfect. I’m hoping they add more moons to make it easier to meet higher quotas.”

Another positive review from Fred Durst (we’re assuming it’s not the Limp Bizkit rapper) simply stated: “Buy this game and go in blind with some friends.”

“I hit ‘not recommended’ because most of the recommended reviews do not mention any problems,” wrote Undy1ngWill, though, in one of the few negative reviews.

“I did enjoy this game, but I feel it has a flaw that seriously mitigates it in the long term. This game is a great time with friends and it is fun to progress, get loot, and furnish your ship. However, the game is set up where there is no ending, however the quota will keep rising until it is unachievable and you will die as a result.”