12 Best Games Like Lethal Company for Co-op Horror

What Makes a Game Similar to Lethal Company?

Lethal Company is an online cooperative first-person horror game developed and published by Zeekerss. Players visit abandoned moons, enter dangerous facilities, recover scrap, return to the ship, and sell what survives the expedition to meet the Company’s quota.

A meaningful alternative should share several defining attributes:

• Cooperative missions: a team enters a dangerous location with a shared objective.
• Scavenging or retrieval: valuable objects, evidence, materials, or mission items must be found and carried out.
• Extraction pressure: success depends on reaching safety rather than merely discovering an item.
• Risk versus reward: staying longer can improve the result while increasing the chance of losing players or resources.
• First-person immersion: restricted sightlines and direct movement make information incomplete.
• Horror-driven uncertainty: enemies, darkness, sound, traps, or procedural changes make runs unpredictable.
• Communication: players share directions, threats, plans, and status information.
• Role division: navigation, transport, defense, monitoring, repair, or support can be split across the team.
• Limited resources: inventory space, tools, health, ammunition, time, or carrying capacity constrain decisions.
• Replayable missions: layouts, encounters, objectives, behavior, or team mistakes produce different outcomes.
• Failure consequences: a bad decision can cost loot, progress, equipment, or the expedition.
• Emergent comedy: unscripted mistakes and communication breakdowns can be funny even when the setting is frightening.

No alternative reproduces the Company’s quota, moons, scrap economy, and ship-terminal loop exactly. The games below are ranked by their overlap with Lethal Company’s mission structure, teamwork, horror, scavenging, and unpredictable outcomes.

Games Like Lethal Company at a Glance

1. Nuclear Nightmare

Closest match for: cooperative retrieval, first-person survival horror, exploration, time pressure, infection, and online teamwork
Developer and publisher: BG Productions
Release date: October 20, 2024
Status: Early Access
Modes: Single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action, adventure, and indie

Nuclear Nightmare sends a specialized team to recover classified materials while avoiding a spreading virus and the entities it has created. A pending nuclear strike creates a hard reason to complete objectives and leave.

This is the closest direct match because retrieval, exploration, team survival, and extraction belong to the same mission loop. Information and risk change while the team is already committed to the operation.

The setting is more open and the threat is connected to infection and containment. Lethal Company places greater emphasis on scrap value, carrying objects, ship operations, and meeting a recurring quota.

How Nuclear Nightmare Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: online co-op, first-person horror, retrieval objectives, exploration, hostile creatures, survival pressure, time limits, and uncertain runs.
• Different: Nuclear Nightmare uses Arctic operations, infection mechanics, classified materials, and a nuclear-containment premise.
• Choose it if: the mission-based retrieval loop is the main Lethal Company feature you want preserved.

2. GTFO

Closest match for: four-player mission dependency, limited resources, stealth, communication, hostile facilities, and severe failure consequences
Developer and publisher: 10 Chambers
Release date: December 9, 2019
Modes: Co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action and adventure

GTFO sends teams into an underground prison complex to complete multi-stage expeditions. Survival depends on planning, stealth, tool use, resource control, and coordinated responses when an encounter becomes active.

The strongest Lethal Company relationship is team dependency inside an unreadable hostile facility. Players must communicate routes, doors, resources, enemies, and objective states because one mistake can destabilize the entire mission.

GTFO is substantially harder and more combat-focused. Ammunition, defensive tools, alarms, and synchronized attacks replace scrap collection and workplace comedy.

How GTFO Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: online co-op, first-person horror, enclosed facilities, mission objectives, limited information, scarce resources, communication, and punishing failure.
• Different: GTFO emphasizes tactical shooting, stealth execution, long expeditions, and high mechanical difficulty.
• Choose it if: you want the most demanding version of coordinated facility exploration.

3. Barotrauma

Closest match for: role-based co-op, dangerous expeditions, resource recovery, equipment management, repairs, monsters, and emergent failure
Developers: FakeFish and Undertow Games
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Release date: June 5, 2019
Modes: Single-player, PvP, co-op, multiplayer, online PvP, and online co-op
Genres: Action, strategy, simulation, and indie

Barotrauma is a cooperative submarine simulation set beneath the surface of Europa. Players steer, operate machinery, repair damage, complete missions, fight creatures, craft items, and keep the vessel functional.

Each role sees a different part of the crisis. Navigation, engineering, medicine, weapons, and repairs create information gaps that must be closed through communication.

Like Lethal Company, the most memorable outcomes often emerge from systems colliding: a breach, missing equipment, a creature, a failed repair, and incomplete communication can turn one problem into total collapse.

How Barotrauma Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: co-op horror, mission structure, role division, hostile environment, limited resources, retrieval, communication, equipment loss, and emergent comedy.
• Different: Barotrauma is a 2D submarine and crew simulation with deeper machinery, medical, crafting, and role systems.
• Choose it if: managing a fragile shared vehicle and specialized team roles appeals to you.

4. Deep Rock Galactic

Closest match for: four-player expeditions, resource collection, procedural environments, extraction, class roles, alien creatures, and teamwork
Developer: Ghost Ship Games
Publisher: Coffee Stain Publishing
Release date: May 13, 2020
Modes: Single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action and indie

Deep Rock Galactic sends a team of miners into procedurally generated caves to collect resources, complete objectives, fight creatures, and escape.

The mission loop has a clear Lethal Company relationship: travel into an uncertain environment, search for valuable materials, manage team positioning, call for extraction, and survive the return route.

Classes create stable roles through traversal and combat tools. The game offers more reliable weapon power and a lighter tone, so fear comes mainly from separation, darkness, and overwhelming enemy waves.

How Deep Rock Galactic Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: online co-op, first-person exploration, resource gathering, procedural spaces, extraction, hostile creatures, team roles, communication, and replayability.
• Different: Deep Rock Galactic is a class-based shooter with stronger combat, permanent progression, and less survival-horror vulnerability.
• Choose it if: you want scavenging expeditions and extraction with clearer roles and more action.

5. The Outlast Trials

Closest match for: first-person cooperative horror, objective-based trials, evasion, stealth, psychological pressure, and progression
Developer and publisher: Red Barrels
Release date: May 18, 2023
Modes: Single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action, adventure, and indie

The Outlast Trials places individuals or teams inside hostile trials where survival depends on completing objectives while avoiding or outmaneuvering dangerous pursuers.

The closest Lethal Company relationship is cooperation under vulnerability. Players monitor threats, help one another, manage tools, and decide whether to stay together or divide tasks.

The trials are more authored and psychologically intense. There is no equivalent scrap economy, ship terminal, or quota, while stealth and escape receive more attention than carrying valuables.

How The Outlast Trials Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: online co-op, first-person horror, PvE threats, objective missions, limited tools, stealth, communication, progression, and unpredictable team failure.
• Different: The Outlast Trials centers on structured experiments, evasion, psychological horror, and character upgrades rather than scavenging for profit.
• Choose it if: hiding from enemies with a coordinated group matters more than loot extraction.

6. PAYDAY 2

Closest match for: cooperative objective runs, valuable loot, extraction, role specialization, planning, stealth, and escalating danger
Developers: OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio. and Sidetrack Games
Publisher: Starbreeze Entertainment
Release date: August 13, 2013
Modes: Single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action and shooter

PAYDAY 2 sends a four-player crew into heists where the team completes objectives, secures valuables, and escapes. Builds, equipment, roles, and route decisions influence whether the operation remains quiet or becomes a firefight.

Its strongest Lethal Company relationship is the value of staying longer. Additional loot can improve the result, but every extra bag and delayed escape increases exposure to failure.

The game is a crime shooter rather than horror. Powerful weapons reduce helplessness, although alarms and broken plans still create emergent chaos.

How PAYDAY 2 Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: cooperative missions, loot retrieval, extraction, role builds, communication, risk versus reward, replayable maps, and escalating threats.
• Different: PAYDAY 2 uses heists, firearms, law enforcement, skill trees, and stealth-versus-assault planning instead of monsters and abandoned moons.
• Choose it if: carrying valuable loot to an exit is more important than the horror setting.

7. The Forest

Closest match for: first-person co-op survival, scavenging, caves, hostile creatures, crafting, environmental storytelling, and exploration
Developer and publisher: Endnight Games Ltd
Release date: April 30, 2018
Modes: Single-player, LAN co-op, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action, adventure, and indie

The Forest places survivors on an island where resources, shelter, tools, caves, and hostile inhabitants determine survival.

Cave expeditions provide the strongest Lethal Company overlap. A team enters dark spaces with limited supplies, searches for useful objects and story evidence, encounters unpredictable threats, and must still navigate back out.

The wider loop is more persistent. Players build bases, craft equipment, manage food, and alter the island over a long campaign instead of completing short work shifts.

How The Forest Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: first-person co-op, horror, exploration, scavenging, caves, limited supplies, hostile creatures, communication, and environmental storytelling.
• Different: The Forest is an open-world survival-crafting game with base building, persistent resources, and a longer campaign.
• Choose it if: you want Lethal Company-style cave tension inside a complete survival sandbox.

8. Sons Of The Forest

Closest match for: first-person co-op exploration, resource gathering, caves, hostile creatures, building, survival, and unpredictable encounters
Developer: Endnight Games Ltd
Publisher: Newnight
Release date: February 23, 2023
Modes: Single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Action, adventure, simulation, and indie

Sons Of The Forest sends players to a remote island to find a missing person, gather resources, explore cave networks, construct shelter, and survive hostile inhabitants.

The relationship with Lethal Company comes from leaving relative safety to search unknown spaces. Every expedition requires judging equipment, carrying capacity, route knowledge, and the chance of encountering something dangerous.

Sons Of The Forest provides a larger persistent world and more detailed construction. Its danger is less compressed into short quota-driven missions.

How Sons Of The Forest Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: online co-op, first-person horror, scavenging, exploration, caves, survival, inventory pressure, hostile creatures, and emergent incidents.
• Different: Sons Of The Forest centers on open-world crafting, base building, long-term supplies, and story exploration.
• Choose it if: you want a modern long-form survival world with frightening group expeditions.

9. Grounded

Closest match for: cooperative exploration, resource collection, giant creatures, limited carrying capacity, crafting, base building, and team preparation
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Release date: July 28, 2020
Modes: Single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and online co-op
Genres: Adventure and indie

Grounded shrinks players to the size of insects inside a backyard filled with resources, hazards, laboratories, and enormous creatures.

The scale transforms ordinary spaces into uncertain expeditions. Players gather materials, plan equipment, divide responsibilities, explore dangerous areas, and return to developed bases.

Its colorful presentation makes it less oppressive than Lethal Company, although darkness, insects, separation, and lost resources can still create tension.

How Grounded Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: online co-op, exploration, resource gathering, PvE threats, communication, inventory decisions, team roles, frightening encounters, and replayable group stories.
• Different: Grounded is a persistent open-world crafting adventure with construction, research, and more visible long-term progression.
• Choose it if: you want approachable co-op survival with resource expeditions and unusual creatures.

10. Left 4 Dead 2

Closest match for: four-player horror, first-person cooperation, dynamic enemy pressure, communication, replayable campaigns, and team rescues
Developer and publisher: Valve
Release date: November 17, 2009
Modes: Single-player, PvP, co-op, multiplayer, online PvP, and online co-op
Genres: Action and shooter

Left 4 Dead 2 takes four survivors through campaigns shaped by infected hordes, special enemies, supplies, rescue events, and a system that adjusts pressure during play.

Its Lethal Company relationship is emergent co-op crisis. Separation, poor communication, one unexpected enemy, or a failed rescue can turn a stable run into a memorable group collapse.

The game is much faster and more linear. Scavenging supports immediate survival rather than a sellable-loot economy, and powerful firearms replace general vulnerability.

How Left 4 Dead 2 Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: four-player online co-op, first-person horror, PvE, communication, limited supplies, dynamic encounters, replayable missions, and emergent team stories.
• Different: Left 4 Dead 2 is a linear zombie shooter focused on reaching safe rooms and surviving hordes.
• Choose it if: unpredictable team crises and fast action matter more than extraction and scrap.

11. Project Zomboid

Closest match for: high-consequence scavenging, co-op survival, limited inventory, resource loss, exploration, and emergent stories
Developer and publisher: The Indie Stone
Release date: November 8, 2013
Status: Early Access
Modes: Single-player, PvP, co-op, multiplayer, online PvP, online co-op, and split-screen co-op
Genres: RPG and indie

Project Zomboid turns post-collapse survival into a detailed sandbox of looting, crafting, building, farming, injuries, skills, and persistent risk.

Scavenging expeditions create the strongest Lethal Company relationship. Players choose where to search, what to carry, when to leave, and how much danger is acceptable for one more useful item.

The consequence of failure is much larger and longer-term. The isometric perspective and simulation systems also replace first-person facility horror.

How Project Zomboid Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: co-op, scavenging, risk versus reward, inventory limits, hostile exploration, resource loss, communication, unpredictable failure, and emergent stories.
• Different: Project Zomboid is an isometric persistent survival simulation with skills, bases, vehicles, and long-form character loss.
• Choose it if: losing valuable progress makes scavenging more meaningful for your group.

12. Alien: Isolation

Closest match for: first-person science-fiction horror, hostile industrial spaces, scavenging, sound awareness, stealth, and vulnerability
Developers: Creative Assembly and Feral Interactive
Publishers: SEGA and Feral Interactive
Release date: October 7, 2014
Mode: Single-player
Genres: Action and adventure

Alien: Isolation places the player inside Sevastopol station, where survival depends on stealth, sound, limited resources, environmental awareness, and understanding a persistent hostile creature.

Its strongest Lethal Company relationship is pure atmosphere. Industrial corridors, equipment, doors, vents, darkness, and audio cues turn navigation into a continuous calculation about safety.

Alien: Isolation lacks co-op, scrap collection, quotas, and group comedy. It is included for players who want the lonely sci-fi horror underlying Lethal Company’s multiplayer chaos.

How Alien: Isolation Compares with Lethal Company

• Shared: first-person sci-fi horror, exploration, scavenging, hostile facilities, limited resources, sound-driven danger, stealth, and survival pressure.
• Different: Alien: Isolation is a story-rich single-player stealth game centered on one persistent creature.
• Choose it if: the frightening facility atmosphere matters more than cooperation.

Which Lethal Company Alternative Should You Play First?

Choose according to the Lethal Company attribute you most want to preserve:

• Closest retrieval-based co-op horror: Nuclear Nightmare
• Hardcore communication and facility missions: GTFO
• Role-based systems and emergent failure: Barotrauma
• Procedural resource expeditions with stronger combat: Deep Rock Galactic
• Objective horror built around evasion: The Outlast Trials
• Loot extraction and risky overextension: PAYDAY 2
• Persistent island survival and caves: The Forest
• Modern open-world survival horror: Sons Of The Forest
• Approachable resource gathering and base building: Grounded
• Fast dynamic four-player horror: Left 4 Dead 2
• High-consequence long-form scavenging: Project Zomboid
• Single-player sci-fi facility terror: Alien: Isolation

Other Relevant Lethal Company Alternatives

Several other games match narrower search intents:

• Back 4 Blood offers four-player campaign shooting, team builds, changing modifiers, hordes, revives, and replayable objectives.
• Killing Floor 2 focuses on class-based cooperative survival against escalating waves of creatures.
• Dead by Daylight provides team-based asymmetrical horror in which survivors cooperate while one opposing player hunts them.
• Don’t Starve Together combines co-op gathering, crafting, exploration, sanity, seasons, bosses, and persistent survival.
• 7 Days to Die connects scavenging, crafting, building, skills, open-world exploration, and recurring zombie attacks.
• SCUM offers detailed open-world survival, looting, crafting, character systems, PvE, and player conflict.
• Warhammer: Vermintide 2 delivers first-person team roles, PvE missions, loot progression, exploration, and overwhelming enemy hordes.
• SOMA shares first-person science-fiction horror, exploration, psychological pressure, hostile facilities, and environmental storytelling without co-op.

How we chose these games

We started from the PC games we price that cover this topic, then added games that share at least four of Lethal Company’s most characteristic Steam user tags, as read on 7 October 2026. Each one also had to show a concrete overlap in how it plays, not just a similar theme, to earn a place above.