Is Lethal Company the new Among Us? All this and more in gaming this week.
Who saw Lethal Company’s viral popularity coming? Not me. It’s easy to see why the game has become such a streaming darling, though: tasking players with random jobs to complete in a hostile environment always leads to shenanigans, and shenanigans are a good time. This week, we’re taking Lethal Company out for a spin and watching Godzilla on TV - two things we never thought we’d say at the start of the year.
What we’re playing this week
There’s this little game that’s been trending recently. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it, but it's called Lethal Company. Oh, so you have heard of it? Did you discover it through viral clips online like this one?
Or this one?
Or this one?
Okay, you get the gist: this game is a lot of fun with friends. For anyone out of the loop, Lethal Company is a co-op horror game where players are tasked with collecting resources from abandoned moons to meet the Company’s profit quota. They have to work together to gather tools and resources before leaving the moon with their lives intact. That’s easier said than done, considering these locations also house a colourful variety of very angry beasties.
Lethal Company is in early access right now, which means that there is likely more content in the works for players to test out soon. Aside from that, there are a few new games launching this week, starting with SteamWorld Build on December 1. This is the latest entry in the SteamWorld Dig franchise, and it tasks players with breaking ground on an Old West-inspired SteamWorld town. The strategy sim will have you dig into local land to produce resources, defend your mine from creepy varmints and trade resources with other visitors to advance your town.
If you’re into retro pixel art, Pixel Cafe also launches on November 30 with a melancholic coming-of-age story about coffee making and discovering oneself in a big city. The game mixes visual novel and management gameplay as you navigate the city Karstok, with a plot that follows a small-town girl building connections and finding her worthwhile mastering the art of coffee-making.
What we’re watching this week
If none of these strike your fancy, don’t worry - there’s plenty to watch on the telly this week. I’m really enjoying A Murder at the End of the World, a whodunnit mystery series that follows an amateur detective named Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) as she heads to a retreat hosted by a reclusive billionaire in a remote location. When one of the eight other guests with her dies under strange circumstances, Darby decides to pursue an investigation into who killed them despite a sudden tide of competing interests rising against her. I love cosy whodunnits and while this is definitely on the more serious side, it does have a futuristic Gen Z-forward angle that makes it unique.
If you’re in the mood for something more lighthearted, The Artful Dodger also comes out on November 29 with a new take on characters from the Charles Dickens book Oliver Twist. Set in 1850s Australia, Jack Dawkins has taken up a new life as a seemingly respectable surgeon. When an old acquaintance from his crime-ridden past returns, however, he turns back to his old London-based pickpocketing alias Artful Dodger for more shenanigans.
If I have one recommendation to make, it’s to watch Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on Apple TV+. Whether you’re a kaiju fiend like me or not, this is shaping up to be a pretty great monster drama that delves into conspiracies and family drama against the backdrop of a post-Godzilla world. The blockbuster budget shows every time a kaiju appears to endanger our protagonists, but the family drama at the heart of this decades-spanning show is what keeps it all afloat.
What are you watching or playing this week?
