Heavy Boots and Stiff Swings
First-person movement here feels stiff right out of the airlock, and that changes the whole rhythm of how you run. Your contracted worker has real weight, stamina bars deplete fast in a panic sprint, and jumping over metal catwalks requires deliberate timing instead of floaty bunny hopping. It took me two runs to get used to the mouse turn rate while dragging heavy scrap, but once that clicked, the weight started making sense. You are carrying junk for a living. You are not a high-speed ninja.
Melee combat is bare-bones and mean. You buy a shovel from the terminal, hold your ground, and swing. The active swing window is delayed, the recovery takes long enough to get you bitten, and the hitbox is narrow. If you miss a strike against whatever skittering nightmare just dropped from the ceiling vent, you eat damage immediately. It is crude, but landing a clean hit with that shovel feels earned because the margin for error is razor-thin.
Meeting Quota Under Terminal Orders
The loop on these derelict moons is dead simple on paper. You land your ship, pop the doors, and run into steel-and-concrete facility underbellies to haul scrap back before nightfall. The Company always demands its profit quota. If you hit the target, you spend cash to travel to harder moons with higher risks or blow it on ship suits and boomboxes. If you come up short, your run ends on the spot.
That pressure forces smart team roles. One guy can sit inside the ship watching the green radar screen, typing commands into the text terminal to pop secure doors open or warn field runners about incoming red blips. Out in the dark, you manage inventory slots between tools and loot. Taking a walkie-talkie means one less slot for an engine part or brass bell. The game is fully in English for interface and voice, and Zeekerss uses localized proximity chat to devastating effect. Hearing your teammate's voice cut out midsentence down an iron corridor tells you everything without a single UI marker.
The Dead of Night and Creature Scans
The exterior terrain gets ugly once the clock ticks toward evening. Fog rolls in, lightning cracks across stormy moons, and outdoor beasts start roaming the dirt tracks between the facility doors and your extraction ramp. Navigating blind while lugging a two-handed cash register back to the drop ship is pure panic. You cannot sprint effectively while overloaded, so every step through the mud is a test of route planning.
You can whip out your scanner to ping scrap value and log new lifeforms into your bestiary, which gives field scouts a reason to eyeball dangerous fauna before sprinting away. But scanning takes your eyes off your footing. I have fallen down bottomless pit shafts and stepped onto live landmines just trying to ping an extra bolt on the floor. The horror works because the environment does not care if you slip.
Budget Production with Sharp Edges
At ten dollars on Steam, Lethal Company is clearly an early access project from an indie developer, and you see that rough finish in places. Some surface geometry has awkward collision where you snag on doorframes or low pipes during a retreat. The graphics use low-res textures and retro post-processing filters that look grim and dirty, which fits the industrial vibe but can turn dark corners into muddy soup if your flashlight battery dies.
Yet the game runs without stuttering, maintaining steady performance even when three teammates are shouting, alarms are blaring, and a turret is chewing through the hallway walls. The network sync between client and host felt solid across all my multiplayer sessions, with shovel hits registering exactly when the metal connected. It is rough around the edges, but the core mechanics do what they are supposed to do without breaking down.
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ngl the shovel swing feels terrible. It's totally unbalanced with zero cancels, but honestly that clunkiness is kind of the charm.
just got this on steam deck and dude the proximity chat static when my teammate went silent mid sentence had me actually shaking lol the shovel swing is so weird but it works like you have to commit to every hit no take backs just pure panic energy
chat was SCREAMING when i hit quota solo on the deck at 40fps docked -- isitoveryet you a legend for that number -- my mods said the proximity static when teammate mic cuts is PURE CINEMA -- zero dodges on shovel makes every swing a COMMITMENT -- chat had mixed feelings on the staircase snag but i say its FEATURE not bug -- ten dollar early access stealing my sleep schedule
ten quid for early access and the melee still feels like swinging a wet noodle through treacle mate. review mentions the shovel hit windows are narrow but doesnt half explain how often youll clip a doorway frame mid-sprint and watch the scrap counter tick down while some spider thing eats your face. proper classic vibe that, reminds me of the good old days when game manuals actually told you which key dodged and which one swung. reckon zeekerss nails the dread alright but the movement weight feels like controlling a forklift on ice skates. played three runs last night on steam deck, made quota once. the proximity chat crackle when your mate gets snatched round a corner is proper brilliant though ill give it that.
@peter griffins kneesteam deck runs at 40fps docked rn. hit quota 4/5 times solo. shovel timing is muscle memory not luck. beat my time then talk to me rn
@isitoveryetchat was SCREAMING when i hit quota solo on the deck at 40fps docked -- isitoveryet you a legend for that number -- my mods said the proximity static when teammate mic cuts is PURE CINEMA -- zero dodges on shovel makes every swing a COMMITMENT -- chat had mixed feelings on the staircase snag but i say its FEATURE not bug -- ten dollar early access stealing my sleep schedule
@peter griffins kneeDid the shovel hit feel off for you guys too? How does the audio cue for nearby threats sound on your end?
@timberThe shovel hit window is tiny and you can't cancel out once you start swinging. Sound bounces crazy in those metal hallways too, makes it super hard to tell how close a monster actually is. Pretty sure that's why someone has to watch the radar and call things out over radio.
quick question: does the shovel have a hitbox or is it just a suggestion? also why does the radar operator always sound like theyre reading a grocery list while we get mauled? asking for a friend who definitely didnt panic-drop 40 credits of scrap into a pit yesterday. am i bad at this or is the rng personally offended by me?
@Rory Py'all are fixin to make me lose my mind here with that radar operator comparison cause that is EXACTLY the energy my wife brings to the grocery store when im holding the list and three toddlers are staging a coup in the cereal aisle. the proximity chat static when someone goes quiet mid-sentence? chef's kiss. makes the quota deadline feel like a hostage negotiation. shovel combat is janky as hell but that's the point far as i can tell - you aint doomguy you're a temp worker with a rusty spade. played four hours on pc last night, made quota twice, lost a perfectly good flashlight to a bunker spider cause i got snagged on a pipe. worth every penny.
bought it for the grandson last week, nine ninety nine is a steal for how much screamig we did over discord. the facility clutter gets us stuck on corners constantly but honestly that just adds to the panic! dont worry about losing that first fleet mate we all had to learn the hard way! - David
@wombat_23grandson's got better survival instincts than my last three random lobbies combined
why did the scrap collector bring a ladder to work? because the quota was through the roof! *rimshot* thought this would be the greatest thing since sliced bread but the melee is pretty stale folks! zero cancels zero dodges just swing and pray. got snagged on the same staircase three runs in a row and the company doesnt care about your workers comp claim. proximity chat is fun until your buddy screams directly into the mic at 2am. refunding for now maybe revisit in six months.
ten bucks gets you maybe three breakfast platters at the waffle house down the road. this gives more scream per dollar than any plate of hash browns ive ordered. yall fixin to get your moneys worth even if the shovel feels like a wet sponge
does the company pay hazard pay for ladder-related spinal compression or do we just file that under team building exercises? also why does every facility have that ONE corner that eats flashlights for breakfast? asking for my chiropractor
bind shovel to scroll up so you dont fat finger it mid sprint -- radar operator should ping regular not when they remember -- stair snag is fixed by hugging left wall on descent -- hte quota timer keeps running in ship menu so dont afk there
the sudden silence on proximity chat right in the middle of someone talking will never not be scary. dude was literally midsentence asking for a flashlight, heard a thud, then nothing. ten bucks well spent honestly
Proper classic vibe that, reminds me of the good old days mate. Figures they barely explain how the shovel works, you just gotta wing it. Good times.
ngl the shovel swing feels terrible. It's totally unbalanced with zero cancels, but honestly that clunkiness is kind of the charm.
tbh looks fun lol
just got this on steam deck and dude the proximity chat static when my teammate went silent mid sentence had me actually shaking lol the shovel swing is so weird but it works like you have to commit to every hit no take backs just pure panic energy