A brand-new co-op shooter coming to Steam titled Exterminauts looks like a mix of Helldivers 2 and Warhammer 40K, putting up to three players to work exterminating hordes of hostile aliens. Developed by Behaviour Interactive, the upcoming game’s combination of chaotic cooperative combat, corporate satire, industrial sci-fi equipment, and overwhelming alien threats makes it one of the more distinctive new Steam games on the horizon.
Behaviour Interactive is best known for Dead by Daylight, but Exterminauts represents a very different kind of multiplayer project for the studio. Rather than another asymmetrical horror game, Behaviour is building a cooperative third-person shooter centered around three-player squads and large groups of alien enemies. The developer has experimented with other multiplayer genres over the years, but Exterminauts could give it an opportunity to reach an audience that has grown considerably since the success of games like Helldivers 2.
Exterminauts Could Be One to Watch for Helldivers 2 Fans
Rather than casting players as elite soldiers or space marines, Exterminauts on Steam treats alien extermination like another day at work. Three players form a crew that accepts jobs from corporations competing for energy supremacy, while hostile creatures are drawn to a valuable substance called Polymorphic Plasma. Every work order also costs the company money, and the Steam description encourages players to protect their crewmates while tracking expenses and surviving each shift. The intentionally mundane treatment of an extremely violent job gives the game a corporate-satire angle reminiscent of Helldivers 2, though Exterminauts trades patriotic soldiers for contractors simply trying to survive another shift.
Drag weapons to fill the grid
Drag weapons to fill the grid
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The equipment available to those workers is considerably less ordinary. Exterminauts combines traditional firearms like shotguns and rifles with industrial power tools and experimental equipment repurposed for killing aliens. Examples listed on Steam include an Ice Cannon and Acid Foam, while the OVERDRIVE system can transform otherwise practical blue-collar gear into considerably more destructive weapons. Heavy armor, oversized equipment, alien gore, and the game’s heavy industrial aesthetic also give the action some Warhammer 40K flavor, even though Behaviour has not presented the franchise as an official inspiration. The result is a third-person shooter on Steam that appears to embrace spectacle without making its characters conventional sci-fi heroes.
The obvious comparison here is Helldivers 2, which demonstrated just how effective chaotic PvE combat can be when players are given enough freedom for missions to go spectacularly wrong. Exterminauts appears interested in a similar audience, but its three-player squads, weaponized work equipment, adaptive ecosystem, and blue-collar premise give Behaviour room to establish its own identity. The bigger questions concern progression and mission variety, since fans have been given very little about the systems meant to keep players coming back long term. Those details could determine whether Exterminauts on Steam develops into another lasting PC co-op obsession or simply an entertaining variation on an increasingly popular formula.
Players may have some time before that question can be answered. Exterminauts is currently listed as coming soon, while even its minimum and recommended PC specifications remain unfinished. Steam does confirm cross-platform multiplayer and in-game purchases, but a release date and more detailed progression information have yet to be announced. For now, the mix of corporate cannon fodder, absurd industrial weaponry, adaptive alien hordes, and frantic three-player co-op gives Exterminauts enough to compete with obvious comparisons. For Steam players who want the chaotic alien extermination of Helldivers 2 between updates mixed with a heavier industrial sci-fi aesthetic, it could be one to watch.
