Co-op Horror Games Like Lethal Company: 14 Steam Picks

The best games like Lethal Company share one simple recipe: a small crew, a job that is obviously a terrible idea, and the moment a friend’s voice goes quiet somewhere in the dark. Lethal Company makes horror and comedy come from the same place, which is you and your friends panicking together while a quota hangs over everyone. These 14 Steam picks hit that feeling from different angles, starting with the closest matches.

What makes Lethal Company what it is

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In Lethal Company you play a contracted worker for “the Company”. Your crew lands on abandoned, industrial moons, searches the facilities underneath for scrap, and sells it to meet a profit quota that keeps climbing. Money buys flashlights, shovels, walkie talkies and stun grenades, or silly decorations for your ship. Miss the quota and the run is over.

Three things make it special. First, proximity voice chat: you only hear friends who are physically near your character, so someone wandering off really does go silent. Second, role splitting: one player can stay on the ship, watch the radar and open locked doors from the terminal while the others go inside. Third, time pressure: things get far more dangerous at night, so every trip becomes a debate about whether one more piece of loot is worth it.

Zeekerss released it in Early Access (Steam’s label for games still in development) on October 23, 2023. Steam lists single-player and online co-op, and Windows as the only platform. When judging games like Lethal Company, look for at least two of these: a risky haul or job, voice chat that makes distance scary, and a shop loop that pushes you to go deeper next time.

Scavenger horror games like Lethal Company

These four copy the core loop most closely: go somewhere awful, grab stuff worth money, get it home, spend it on better gear. If you want games like Lethal Company that feel like the same night out with a new coat of paint, start here.

R.E.P.O.

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R.E.P.O. is the most direct follow-up to the scrap-hauling formula. A mysterious computer intelligence sends your crew into the haunted remains of a lost humanity to extract valuables, and every object is physics-based. You grab things with a tool, and that piano or fragile ceramic vase can bump, drop and lose value on the way out.

That physics layer is what makes it different. Carrying a heavy item becomes a group effort, and even the monsters react to gravity, which leads to some ridiculous moments. Cash buys upgrades and weapons. Proximity voice chat is built in, with a clear warning to stay quiet near danger. Steam lists single-player and online co-op for up to six players, and it is in Early Access. It suits bigger groups who enjoyed the slapstick side of Lethal Company most.

MIMESIS

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MIMESIS feels like Lethal Company’s paranoid cousin. Your team gathers anything valuable from a threatening building and gets back to the tram before midnight, when contaminated rain makes the outdoors deadly. Collect enough and you can restore power to a service station to buy and upgrade equipment.

The twist is the monsters: they imitate your friends’ voices and behaviour. If you loved the moment in Lethal Company when you weren’t sure who was still alive, MIMESIS builds the whole game around that doubt. The store page says a microphone is required and recommends four players with headsets. Steam lists online co-op for four players and no single-player mode, and it is in Early Access.

Murky Divers

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Murky Divers keeps the dark corporate humour. Your employer, Pharma Corps, wants every corpse removed from its abandoned underwater labs so no evidence of failed experiments survives. You drag bodies back with a caddie, shred them for credits, and spend those credits on items, upgrades and sub modules.

The submarine is the standout. It is blind, so the crew relies on sonar and stations to steer it, which recreates the fun of one player guiding others from Lethal Company’s ship terminal. Oxygen can run out faster than expected, and things lurk in the wrecks. Steam lists single-player and online co-op, with sub sizes for one or two, up to four, or five to eight players. It is a strong choice for large friend groups.

Content Warning

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Content Warning swaps scrap for footage. You ride a diving bell down to the Old World, film as many scary things as you can before oxygen, camera battery or friends run out, then upload the results to SpöökTube and watch the views roll in. Ad revenue pays for better gear.

Each run lasts three days, which mirrors Lethal Company’s quota deadlines, and the watch party afterwards is where much of the laughter happens. It suits groups who mostly played Lethal Company for the funny clips. Steam lists online co-op and cross-platform multiplayer but no single-player mode, and the store itself strongly advises against going alone.

Co-op horror exploration with proximity chat

These picks drop the scrap economy but keep the part where your crew splits up in the dark and someone gets lost. They lean more toward exploration, puzzles and investigation.

Escape the Backrooms

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Escape the Backrooms sends up to four players through more than 30 eerie levels based on the backrooms creepypasta, the internet legend about endless, empty, familiar-looking rooms. Each level has its own way out and its own hostile entities with distinct behaviour to learn.

It shares Lethal Company’s best trick: proximity voice chat where the entities can also hear you. Teammates can no-clip into other parts of the map, and everyone has to reach the exit alive. Steam lists single-player and online co-op for one to four players. Pick it if your favourite moments were creeping through facility corridors rather than counting cash.

Labyrinthine

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Labyrinthine takes one to eight players into a haunted hedge maze and a set of case files. The story mode follows Joan, a mysterious fairground worker, while the case files are procedurally generated mazes (layouts built fresh by the game each time) that scale with your level.

You solve puzzles, collect items and run from monsters with their own AI. The procedural case files give the same “new map every run” feeling that Lethal Company’s facilities do. Steam lists single-player, online co-op, controller support and VR. It suits groups that want a bit of story and puzzling between the screaming.

FOREWARNED

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FOREWARNED casts you as archaeologists exploring haunted Egyptian tombs. You use your tools to work out the name of the mummy, called a Mejai, haunting the ruins, then enter the inner chamber for a sacred relic, picking up other treasure along the way.

Treasure grabbing gives it a looting feel, while identifying the Mejai adds investigation. Each mummy has its own strengths and weaknesses, and they physically manifest to stop you leaving. There are twelve maps with procedurally generated tombs. Steam lists single-player, online co-op for one to four players and VR.

Phasmophobia

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Phasmophobia is the elder statesman of co-op voice-chat horror. Your team of paranormal investigators enters haunted locations and uses EMF readers, spirit boxes, thermometers and night vision cameras to identify one of over 20 ghost types.

The link to Lethal Company is your voice. The ghosts are listening, and you speak to them through Ouija boards and spirit box sessions. It is slower and more methodical, closer to detective work than looting. Steam lists single-player, four-player online co-op, controller support and VR, and it is in Early Access. For more in this style, see our list of ghost hunting games like Phasmophobia.

Tense survive-together horror

If your group wants less comedy and more dread, these two are harder-edged games similar to Lethal Company.

DEVOUR

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In DEVOUR, up to four cult members race to find ritual items and banish the goat demon Azazel while possessed cultists hunt them. Some of those items are alive and unwilling. Each themed map brings a new form of Azazel, new environments and new rituals.

It is more of a sprint than Lethal Company’s slow creep, with sessions lasting up to an hour. The store calls single-player “for hardcore players only.” Steam lists single-player, online co-op for one to four players, controller support and VR, and it runs on Windows and macOS.

The Outlast Trials

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The Outlast Trials puts you inside a Cold War Murkoff Corporation facility as a test subject in mind-control experiments. Complete the trials and challenges, and you might earn your release.

Lethal Company jokes about a heartless employer, and this game makes that idea genuinely nasty. Co-op is never forced for required objectives, so you can go solo or in teams of two, three or four. Steam lists single-player, online co-op and controller support. It suits players who want a more cinematic, intense take on co-op horror.

Crew games that trade scares for teamwork

Sometimes your group loves Lethal Company for the teamwork and the company jokes more than the monsters. These four keep that crew feeling with lighter or different kinds of danger.

Deep Rock Galactic

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Deep Rock Galactic is a one-to-four player co-op shooter where dwarven miners take jobs on the planet Hoxxes IV. You explore procedurally generated, destructible caves, mine minerals and hold off alien swarms.

The fit is the blue-collar company framing and the role split. Four classes (Scout, Gunner, Engineer and Driller) each solve problems differently, much like assigning a terminal operator and runners in Lethal Company. It is action rather than horror, so it works for friends who scare easily. Steam lists single-player, online co-op, controller support and subtitles.

Barotrauma

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Barotrauma is a 2D co-op submarine simulator set in the ocean beneath Jupiter’s moon Europa, with survival horror and RPG elements. Your crew steers the sub, fixes leaks, mans the guns, runs machinery and fights sea monsters.

It is the deepest pick here, and the most chaotic when communication breaks down. Missions can include a traitor trying to sink the ship, which adds suspicion on top of teamwork. Steam lists single-player, online co-op, online PvP, Steam Workshop and a level editor, on Windows, macOS and Linux. It suits patient groups who want a long-term crew game.

Abiotic Factor

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Abiotic Factor makes you a scientist at GATE, a secret research company, after a containment breach unleashes anomalies, interdimensional invaders and a hostile military order. You and up to five colleagues craft, survive and make the underground facility your base.

It keeps the “trapped employees in a dangerous facility” mood but adds survival crafting and character progression with a 90s sci-fi flavour. Steam lists single-player, online co-op, LAN co-op, cross-platform multiplayer, controller support and subtitles. If your group wants more of this, our guide to survival games like Valheim is a good next stop.

PEAK

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PEAK turns a group of lost nature scouts loose on a mysterious island, and the only escape is climbing the mountain at its centre. The mountain changes every day, across four biomes, and injuries cut into your stamina.

There is no horror, but it nails the same co-op chaos: helping friends up ledges, placing ropes and spikes, eating questionable food and watching someone fall at the worst moment. Steam lists single-player, online co-op and controller support. It is a great breather between nights of horror.

How to choose between these games like Lethal Company

The right pick depends less on which game is “best” and more on your group. Here is a quick way to narrow it down.

1. Count your players. For six, R.E.P.O. or Abiotic Factor. For seven or eight, Murky Divers or Labyrinthine. For four or fewer, almost everything here works.
2. Decide how scary you want it. MIMESIS, The Outlast Trials and DEVOUR are the tensest. Content Warning and R.E.P.O. lean funny. Deep Rock Galactic and PEAK barely scare at all.
3. Check the loop you loved. Scrap and quotas point to R.E.P.O., MIMESIS and Murky Divers. Ship-terminal guidance points to Murky Divers and Barotrauma. Exploring dark corridors points to Escape the Backrooms.

A worked example: a group of five that loved the laughs more than the dread should skip MIMESIS (built for four) and try R.E.P.O. first, with Murky Divers’ large sub, which takes five to eight players, as backup.

Mistakes to avoid

• Buying a co-op-only game to play alone. Content Warning and MIMESIS do not list single-player on Steam.
• Forgetting the microphone. MIMESIS requires one, and proximity chat games lose most of their fun without voice.
• Expecting a finished game. R.E.P.O., MIMESIS, Phasmophobia and Lethal Company are in Early Access, so content and balance can change.
• Ignoring platforms. Every pick runs on Windows. Mac players should look at DEVOUR and Barotrauma, which list macOS.

Want more? Browse the best horror games on Steam, the best co-op games on Steam, or every list in our games like the ones you love section.

Questions and answers

Is R.E.P.O. better than Lethal Company?

It depends on what your group enjoys. R.E.P.O. takes the scavenge-and-extract idea and builds it around physics: valuables can break, heavy objects need teamwork to move, and it supports up to six players instead of a small crew of four. Lethal Company leans harder on quota pressure, night falling and one player guiding the others from the ship. Many groups enjoy both, since both are Early Access co-op horror games on Steam.

What are some games similar to Phasmophobia?

If you like gathering evidence with ghost-hunting tools, look at FOREWARNED, where you identify a mummy haunting Egyptian tombs, and Ghost Watchers, which has you studying and catching ghosts in abandoned houses. DEVOUR and Labyrinthine keep the co-op horror but add more running and hiding. Gamescape has a full list in its guide to ghost hunting games like Phasmophobia.

Is Lethal Company a mobile game?

No. On Steam, Lethal Company lists Windows as its only platform, so it is a PC game. It launched in Early Access on October 23, 2023, from solo developer Zeekerss, and supports single-player and online co-op. Apps on phone stores that use similar names or art are not the same game, so check the developer name before downloading anything.

Which games like Lethal Company can I play solo?

Several picks list single-player on Steam: R.E.P.O., Murky Divers (which has a small sub sized for one or two players), Escape the Backrooms, Labyrinthine, FOREWARNED, Phasmophobia, The Outlast Trials, Deep Rock Galactic and PEAK. Expect them to feel quieter and harder alone, since much of the fun in this style of game comes from friends panicking together. Content Warning and MIMESIS do not list single-player.

What does friendslop mean?

Friendslop is an informal, half-affectionate label players use for chaotic online co-op games that are at their best with a group of friends on voice chat. They are usually simple to pick up, a bit janky by design, and full of moments that are funny to watch go wrong. Lethal Company, R.E.P.O., Content Warning and PEAK are often grouped under the term.