Let’s start this one with a definition: Lethal Company is “one of those kinda games.” By that I mean it’s a four player co-op title that doesn’t really adhere to a particular genre, predominantly prioritising mechanics that allow you and some friends to get up to some shenanigans. Like Content Warning, or REPO, you know, one of those kinda games! Now we’ve got that out of the way, let me introduce you to Roadside Research, one of those kinda games, except this time you are an incredibly poorly disguised alien running a gas station in order to research humans. See what I mean?
It’s a delectably silly concept, right down to said disguises literally just being bits of paper taped to the grey (and not grey) aliens’ faces. In terms of the moment to moment gameplay, you’ll be doing things a perfectly regular human working at a gas station would do: restock shelves, refuel customers’ cars, “exchange goods for cash.”
You’ll need to cook and clean too, I’m assuming that second one is those hot dogs that roll on those spinning poles you’re 100% sure have never been cleaned. Once you’ve finished a day’s work, you can upgrade your gas station – again, a typical human thing to do – to help bring in more people the following day.
There’s Men in Black-looking government officials to avoid too, for a bit of a threat. Overall it just looks like a silly good time, I’m not massively into online co-op games generally, but this recent trend of comedy online co-op games where there’s often not really any violence is certainly appealing to me.
Roadside Research doesn’t have a release date just yet, but you can wishlist it on Steam here.
