Highlights
- Content Warning by Landfall Games is a horror-comedy multiplayer game with a unique twist on content creation and viral videos.
- The game's mix of horror and comedy, along with player interaction and social media integration, creates a must-try gameplay experience.
- Content Warning's approach to horror and comedy sets it apart from similar games like Lethal Company, offering a fun and engaging playthrough.
Plenty of gags hit the internet during 2024’s recent April Fools’ Day, but not all of them were one-off jokes. Landfall Games, the indie developer behind the Totally Accurate Battle series, Stick Fight: The Game, Clustertruck, and more, has upheld its tradition of launching humorous multiplayer games on April 1 with Content Warning, and it's already turning heads. As a horror-comedy title made in the vein of Lethal Company, Content Warning has already amassed over six million downloads and 200,000 concurrent Steam players during its 24-hour free-to-keep period. It even looks primed to get more with its $7.99 USD price tag in place.
Content Warning follows in Phasmophobia and Lethal Company’s multiplayer extraction horror footsteps, and demonstrates a remarkable understanding of what made those games work. Using physics-driven gameplay and relatively simple visuals like Landfall’s other projects, Content Warning sees wannabe content creators diving into treacherous facilities to film viral videos for SpookTube. Not only does Content Warning affectionately parody viral indie horror and content creators, it integrates the social media clips associated with their popularity directly into its gameplay, as well as some of those games' other best aspects like proximity chat. Thanks to that, Content Warning recaptures the strengths of games like Lethal Company while giving them a humorous spin.
Can You Play Content Warning Solo?
If you're wondering if you can play Content Warning solo, you've come to the right place. This guide will tell you if it's possible or not.
Content Warning's Approach To Horror and Comedy Explained
Proudly sporting its tagline of “Get famous or die trying,” Content Warning sends players to do just that. Up to four people prepare their ASCII faces and items, as well as film an intro if they want, then descend into the “old world.” After securing up to a minute-and-a-half of footage, everyone alive returns to their base, gathers around their couch for an inaugural viewing, and uploads their video to SpookTube with the option to download it locally. Progress involves reaching cumulative view quotas across several days, much like Lethal Company, and the process repeats until players quit or fail — but getting good clips is the priority.
Screams and Laughter Are Both Necessary For Content Warning To Work
It strikes a surprisingly relaxed tone despite the horrors lurking below, largely owing to how players interact with them. Monsters and other anomalies must be recorded for views, so aspiring SpookTubers need to jump into the fray with their camera, flashlights, and other equipment for Content Warning's scariest footage possible. Player speech, movement, injury, death, and even emotes increase views as well, motivating players to stage the sort of clips that Lethal Company tends to produce. But when the faux-YouTuber hijinks are interrupted by the camera operator being dragged off, the ensuing tension ensures that Content Warning’s comedic relief feels like a reward for enduring its horror.
What Content Warning Reveals About Lethal Company
The gameplay loop used by Lethal Company and Content Warning is nearly identical, just with the tone defaulting to different extremes. Lethal Company focuses on stressful horror through its harsh setting, and reinforces the importance of professional efficiency via one-hit kills and end-of-day evaluations. In contrast, Content Warning wants players to make light of its darker elements, with monsters generally being less dangerous than Lethal Company’s, and healing items providing hope in bad situations. Camera footage can also be accessed out-of-game, so good clips shouldn't be permanently lost.
Mixing Comedy and Horror Are Lethal Company and Content Warning's Strength
However, it's in their internal contrasts that both games shine. Opportunities abound for group reactions in Lethal Company, dead players can riff on their peers, and good employees can carry runs. Meanwhile, the need to perform while skirting danger can get nerve-wracking as Content Warning continues, feeding back into more genuine reactions. Content Warning's relaxing after-parties are also dependent on someone extracting the camera, even with the possibility of finding lost ones later. And when one of Lethal Company’s passive and charming specimens or Content Warning’s eldritch and deadly beasts show up, the resulting emotional highs prove that there's an art to balancing tone that few games get as right.
