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Work on Lethal Company has slowed down a bit; it’s been four months since the last update. This is mostly due to the developer, Zeekerss, focus shifting to a new game and a creativity block. But it seems that playing the new popular co-op horror game REPO has helped them gain some inspiration.
“I’m accepting the fact that Welcome To The Dark Place is taxing to work on for long amounts of time, and I need time to stew over my ideas,” Zeekerss says in a Patreon post (via GamesRadar). “Perhaps playing REPO has also inspired me to switch back to Lethal Company. So I’ve begun work on V70.
“For the past couple of weeks, REPO has been the game for me and my friends to play non-stop. I was the most excited to try it at first, but my first impressions almost made me abandon it. I’m glad I gave it a second try, because REPO’s ‘fun curve’ was a little more gradual than I expected it would be, and I’m still loving this game after 30 hours spent!”
I’ve already said how much I’m enjoying REPO, and how it’s managed to dethrone Lethal Company as my new go-to co-op horror game to play with friends. I find the mix of monsters, maps, and various number of extraction points helps keep the game interesting for longer bouts of time, plus there’s slightly more chaos to be found in REPO. Couple that with the semibots, and you have fantastic slapstick horror on your hands.
It seems like for the most part Zeekerss agrees with some of my points: “With the multiple extraction points spread out across the map, each of which are too small to fit everything, and the limited arsenal of items, there is enough strategic depth to this that each level feels like its own story. The pacing feels just right to build suspense and let the game breathe.”
They also go on to point out how the range of weapons in REPO and the ability to fight back make the game more entertaining for players who manage to get further on in a run. While the thrill of dodging enemies and collecting loot is just fun enough to keep players wanting more. “Lastly, I want to mention how hysterical the enemy designs are,” Zeekerss says. “I mean, some of them are just beautiful to behold. My favorite is Mr. Thunder Thighs–if you know, you know.”
But it goes both ways, as I also agree with some of Zeekerss points of criticism. They raise the issue of the difficulty spike around level five or six which can make things quite frustrating as REPO just throws tons of monsters at you and expects you to deal and dodge them all: “The result is that you spend 10x as much time hiding, because that’s the only option left.”
This single enemy is so oppressive that he totally kills any sense of casual fun or banter.
Lethal Company dev, Zeekerss
Other issues that Zeekerss points towards include how you can softlock yourself in a level if you accidentally destroy too many valuables, something that I’ve almost done several times, and a couple of issues with the monsters.
My biggest gripe is with the Huntsman; he can kill you before you can hear or see him, which is just unfair. “He can hear your voice and shoot you from outside the game’s default view distance, where you can’t see or hear him,” Zeekerss continues. “This is an unavoidable death. There is no “wind-up” that allows you to duck for cover, as he seems to fire in the exact same frame that he notices you; even if he’s looking the other way, he will instantly snap back and shoot you.
“This single enemy is so oppressive that he totally kills any sense of casual fun or banter. My group will completely stop talking and only crouch.” Oftentimes, if my friends and I come across the Huntsman, we will try for a bit and then give up as he picks us off one by one.
While I’m not sure how much of this criticism the devs of REPO will take on board, something good has come from all of this. It seems like picking apart REPO has inspired Zeekerss to get back on track with Lethal Company. “I wrote up a document outlining my basic vision for Lethal Company, leading to early access, and my energy level is suddenly very high,” Zeekerss says. “Again, I don’t know if that’s seasonal or if it’s because I switched projects. It will be a little while, though.”
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Kurt Indovina
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