Somehow, fate has brought yet another cooperative horror game to my attention where you spend the majority of your time completing objectives while trying to outsmart – or eliminate – a bloodthirsty and highly agitated monster. First it was Macabre, a fairly unremarkable and thoroughly undercooked project I didn’t have a particularly high opinion of; now it’s Species: Unknown, a sci-fi Alien: Isolation-esque co-op romp that is in a desperate need of content… but is actually fun to play. Thank god.
Like a box of chocolates
The concept is kind of brilliant, really: you and up to three others investigate a mysterious space station, and upon arrival, are greeted with nothing but corpses, all killed in unusual ways. Turns out there’s an alien creature loose on the station, and it’s up to you and your friends to complete your objectives while trying not to become the beast’s next dinner. Everything in Species: Unknown screams that it was inspired by the brilliant Alien: Isolation – the look and feel of the space station gave me vivid flashbacks to the Sevastopol, and even the soundtrack conjures up an eerily similar mood to that of Ridley Scott’s 1979 film.
As for gameplay, the game uses a mission-based structure and the tried-and-true formula of “you never know what you’re gonna get”, meaning it’s completely random which of the five potential monsters you’ll have to deal with during a given mission; in that sense, Species: Unknown is indeed like a box of chocolates, except every piece of chocolate is an alien trying to add you to its long list of victims. As you take on more difficult missions, the objectives will begin to feature restrictive modifiers for an extra layer of challenge: these include things like not being able to use certain types of weapons, or having each use of the ammo/healing terminals cost a certain amount of money that will be deducted from your end-of-mission pay. Speaking of pay, in-game money can be spent on various upgrades such as more stamina for longer sprinting, better armor for your character, or even a better battery for your flashlight so it lasts longer. You can also purchase additional tools to help you on missions, such as a portable medical syringe for instant healing, or even a handheld shield that lets you block hits from the creatures.
What makes the game interesting is how each monster has a different way of hunting down and killing you: there’s one that reanimates nearby corpses to harass you, another might jump on your head to try and decapitate you, while yet another will literally tear your face off if you stare at it for too long. Naturally, they each have different weaknesses and unique characteristics as well, forcing you to tackle them in different ways; I also really love the idea that you need to inspect the station’s corpses and look at the way they were killed in order to figure out which monster you’ll be dealing with during the mission. As for what you actually need to do (other than not die), the game gives you a small number of mission types to pick from: you can 1. kill the monster, 2. capture the monster, 3. retrieve the station’s black box, and 4. blow up the entire station by activating its self-destruct sequence. Naturally, these all require different things from the player, and that, combined with the randomization of the monster, can make for some truly terrifying scenarios and grade-A shenanigans.
Ups and downs
Right now, the game’s still in Early Access, and while its foundations are solid, it certainly needs more content and some tweaks here and there. For example, even getting into the game proper can take an excruciating amount of time, as you have to run all the way across your unnecessarily spacious home base, then run down to the hangar, board your ship, and THEN watch a minute-long cutscene of your team arriving at the destination. And then you can play. Conversely, take something like Deep Rock Galactic, for example, where you select your mission, hop onto your ship (which is right next to the mission selector, by the way), and within a few seconds, you’re in. The difference is day and night.
Furthermore, I can only describe the current monster lineup as somewhat hit-and-miss. Some of them are absolutely terrifying, and even the ones that seem relatively harmless at first can surprise you in unexpected ways. But some of the others are just… sort of boring. The ghost-like creature that you need to look away from? A minor inconvenience at best, like when you accidentally pour coffee all over yourself; annoying, but not the end of the world. Honestly, whenever I got this monster for a mission, I could feel my excitement draining away. Also, the game only has one (1) level at the moment, and it’s not procedurally generated or anything – it always has the exact same layout. Which is good for memorizing where everything is on the station, but I would’ve enjoyed some randomization.
In terms of game modes, solo play is doable, but you’re taking on bigger risks and bigger challenges this way, as the game really feels like it was designed with co-op in mind. I mean, think about it: if you have teammates on your side, some of them can at least distract the creature while the others hurry onwards to complete the mission objective. If you’re alone, the monster is focused entirely on you, and will never, ever leave you alone. Which means it’s slightly more difficult to complete objectives, but admittedly, this also makes the game considerably more tense and survival horror-y. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Yay or nay?
Well, it depends. The concept is great, and the game manages to be fun despite its Early Access shortcomings, but its slightly lacking monster repertoire and singular, never-changing level can lead to some repetition, even with multiple mission types. However, for those who have friends to play with and love the Alien-inspired atmosphere and visual style, this is a generally worthwhile – albeit somewhat content-thin – experience that could potentially evolve into something genuinely fantastic later down the line.
Species: Unknown is available on Steam.
