Content Warning is an indie co-op horror game where you dive through monster-filled ruins to become internet-famous. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Content Warning Review Overview
What is Content Warning?
Content Warning is a fun and horrifying co-op multiplayer game that pits you and your buddies against the macabre and disquieting monsters in the depths of the Old World. But what noble quest could necessitate you to brave the dank abyss? Internet fame, of course!
Content Warning is a game about climbing the social ladder of SpookTube and becoming a famous SpookTuber. Most of your footage will come from your dives into the ruins of the Old World and the wacky monster hijinks that such a dive entails. Earn more views with every new monster found and turn the death and maiming of your friends into sweet ad revenue. There’s nothing clickbait about this!
Content Warning features:
⚫︎ Proximity voice chat shenanigans
⚫︎ Interesting visuals and great character design
⚫︎ Easy to play, hard to master
⚫︎ 2-4 player co-op multiplayer
⚫︎ Genuinely heart-pounding scares
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Content Warning's gameplay and story.
Steam | $7.99 |
Content Warning Pros & Cons
Pros | Cons |
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Genuinely Eerie Environments
Unique Premise Executed Perfectly
Video Playback and Download
ASCII Face Editor is Hilarious
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A Lot Harder Than it Looks
Gets Repetitive Fast
|
Content Warning Overall Score - 86/100
Content Warning: The following game contains scenes of violence, blood, and quite possibly the greatest co-op indie horror experience since Lethal Company. Some viewers may find this game disturbingly captivating for its unique visuals, fun mechanics, and the countless hours of horrific influencer nonsense it will give you. Viewer discretion is advised—you won’t be able to put this game down.
Content Warning Story - 7/10
Content Warning’s premise is rather simple, though I’d call its storytelling anything but. Not much is said about what’s going on and a lot of the storytelling is buried under not-so-tongue-in-cheek criticism on influencer culture, but a deeper dive (pun intended) reveals a plethora of environmental lore to read into.
The Old World is rife with things to discover and speculate about, and I think that makes for an interesting story, even if it is a bit vague in delivery.
Content Warning Gameplay - 8/10
Content Warning’s gameplay is surprisingly deep, crossing Lethal Company’s exploratory dives into dilapidated structures with the minutia of real-life content creation. It’s an odd and interesting list of things to worry about, but it makes for a unique experience whenever you set out for another dive.
Content Warning Visuals - 9/10
I am a fan of how Content Warning presents itself. From the high-contrast and loud colors of the overworld to the cross-hatched and dingy look of the Old World ruins, Content Warning’s stylized look pops through the darkness and makes for a memorable influencer experience. It’s clear that Lethal Company’s quantized shaders inspired this game’s visuals, yet Content Warning still manages to make itself stand out.
Content Warning Audio - 9/10
I’ve said it in a previous review but it bears repeating: good audio begets good horror. Part of what made Lethal Company so successful was its proximity voice chat gimmick and attention to environmental sound effects. Content Warning does the same with its top-notch sound effects, on-point jumpscare sounds, and actual integration of proximity voice chat in its gameplay mechanics apart from allowing players to communicate.
Content Warning Value for Money - 10/10
For all the fun this game gives, I consider it downright criminal that it’s free to play, at least for the time being. Even after its initial April Fools’ Day promo, this game only costs $8, which is an absolute steal for all the influencer hijinks and shenaniganry you and your buddies can wreak on the Old World. Get this game while it’s free!
Content Warning Review: Like, Share, and Survive
I’ll be honest, this game didn’t look very promising at first glance. Having burned myself out from playing tens of hours of Lethal Company, slogging through yet another stylized horror game with proximity voice chat wasn’t exactly at the top of my to-do list. And with news of countless clones popping out after LC’s breakout popularity, I was ready to discount Content Warning as another effortless ripoff.
I was way off with that assumption. In fact, I am forever thankful that I gave this game a chance because playing this has been the best co-op horror experience I’ve had since LC first came out. Content Warning managed to take the Lethal Company formula and flip it on its head, forcing players to seek out danger purposefully and sacrifice comrades for the sake of content creation. Not at all what I expected from a game purposefully designed to parody Lethal Company, but now I can’t get enough of it.
I’ll begin where this game shines the most: its premise. If it wasn’t clear enough from the game’s title, Content Warning is a game about content creation. To be more precise, it’s about content creation by way of delving into Old World ruins filled with monsters and filming the chaos that ensues. First off, I can appreciate the thinly veiled criticism the game has against the negative and disruptive aspects of influencer culture.
You and your buddies will be diving into ruins that should be left well enough alone, risking life and limb to generate content for SpookTube—the game’s in-universe analog for YouTube—and become internet famous.
The shallowness of your motivations could be intentional, as is your incidental disregard for the sanctity and peace of the ruins you’re exploring. I could also be reading into it too much, but that’s still a fun little detail I wanted to throw in. This isn’t where the premise ends, however, as you will actively be playing the part of an attention-seeking influencer as you purposefully look for scary and interesting things to interact with and subsequently film. The more things you get on camera, the better, as more and more views will flock to your channel.
This cycle of diving deeper and filming increasingly disturbing encounters is a fun one, although survival isn’t guaranteed. In fact, you’re even encouraged to die on camera for more views, with the only downside being a negligible hospital fee being docked from your next video’s ad revenue. Once you’re back from a dive, you can pass the day and try again in the next.
I thought this would be where the premise would lose its significance to the gameplay, but no. After every successful dive, you’re afforded the chance to use your sweet sweet ad revenue to buy better equipment like better lighting, clapper boards, new emotes, a taser, or even a boom mic. These aren’t just for kicks either, as every single thing you buy either helps you survive in the depths for longer or directly contributes to the entertainment value of your videos.
New flashlights mean better lighting for the video and a generally easier time down in the ruins. A new boom mic means you can capture audio from further away, potentially making it easier for more of the crew to survive. New emotes will bag you more viewers, and new background music will bag you an even larger following. It’s all so fun and cohesive, which is much more than I expected from a game made expressly for April Fools’ Day.
Visually, Content Warning is a mixed bag of high-saturation muppet sets and Junji Ito manga panels. The overworld looks like a children’s show with its vibrant colors and simple designs. The Old World ruins, however, look like an industrialist nightmare full of scrap metal and spinning gears. The monsters and traps steal the show down here with their unique designs and admittedly unique interactions. I never thought I’d have to finish a captcha to save a friend’s life, but here I am.
Audio-wise, Content Warning fosters a completely unnerving experience devoid of background music or ambiance. The only sounds you’ll ever hear are the screams of your fellow influencers, the chugging of the machines in the depths, the many monsters waiting to strike from the shadows, and the rhythm of your own footfalls. These blend to create a symphony of hilarity and tension that you, your friends, and your potential viewers would surely laugh at for days.
Overall, this game is a riot. Not only did it manage to dispel any accusations of it being a Lethal Company ripoff, but it also managed to evolve the idea and create an experience that’s separate from the IP it was trying to parody. I can even make an argument that this game does Lethal Company’s formula better, but I’ll leave it to my fellow aspiring influencers to come to that conclusion. For now, don’t forget to like, share, and survive!
Pros of Content Warning
Things Content Warning Got Right |
---|
Genuinely Eerie Environments
Unique Premise Executed Perfectly
Video Playback and Download
ASCII Face Editor is Hilarious
|
Genuinely Eerie Environments
I knew this game would be scary if it was anything like Lethal Company, but I severely underestimated just how creepy Content Warning can get. The juxtaposition between the overworld’s saturated colors and the Old World Ruins’ cross-hatched sketch look was particularly well-implemented.
But what scared me was the creature designs. Lethal Company veered closer to goofy and sci-fi with its rogue’s gallery of monsters; Content Warning chose to go full Junji Ito. With their grotesque and monochromatic bodies, these monsters—which ranged from mere hounds to bag-headed psycho killers—each had their gimmick.
Some can only be seen when shined on by flashlights, while others run up to you and explode. There’s also a particularly unique monster that captures you in an iron maiden-like gate, forcing another player to input a provided captcha prompt to free you.
These, in tandem with the unique stylization of the Old World Ruins, make every dive an unforgettable eerie experience.
Unique Premise Executed Perfectly
This game’s unique premise was among the first things I noticed about it going in. Truly, the prospect of being a vlogger did not resonate with me, but it was a unique enough prospect to pique my interest. I expected the novelty of being a vlogger influencer to drop the moment we descended into the Old World ruins, but the influencer essence permeated the entire game down to its core.
Being an influencer is played as straight and serious as being a scrap scavenger in Lethal Company. Much of the game’s mechanics are tooled to provide you an easier vlogging life more so than they are to ensure your survivability. Your main concern isn’t even to survive the dive, you just need to get the camera back to the diving bell and upload your hard-earned footage. I appreciate that this game stuck to its guns and didn’t implement its influencer mechanics halfheartedly because it is undoubtedly the beating heart of this game.
Video Playback and Download
Ah, content, the be-all and end-all of your life as an influencer. It’s fun enough gathering it but watching your edited footage at the end of every dive is the most satisfying thing ever. I appreciate that we, as players, are allowed to reap the rewards of our efforts in a more tangible way than numbers rising to meet quota. Do you want to know the best part? You can save these videos to your device and share them with your other friends.
ASCII Face Editor is Hilarious
It’s a small thing, to be honest, but what is a good game but a conglomeration of small, good mechanics working in unison? Content Warning is far less goofy than Lethal Company, especially once you get into the Old World ruins, but the ASCII faces serve as a way to distinguish each character and provide a small injection of creative liberty into the game.
You have three characters to create the most memorable face you can. This can serve as a way to keep group roles distinct, or simply a way to have fun with friends. Either way, I’m a fan of small, silly things in games like these.
Cons of Content Warning
Things That Content Warning Can Improve |
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A Lot Harder Than It Looks
Gets Repetitive Fast
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A Lot Harder Than It Looks
Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t reach soulslike levels in difficulty, I simply mean to say that the game doesn’t offer a lot in the way of tutorials or detailed explanations. Much like in Lethal Company, you’re going to have to learn what each area and monster does on your own. Death is a guarantee because it’s pretty much the only way you’ll learn.
This might arise as a point of frustration for a few people, but I can argue that that’s authentic to the influencer experience. Regardless, considering how long a dive usually takes, missing your target views by a few hundred or so because you died too much might deter the casual player.
Gets Repetitive Fast
A simple premise, even when executed well, will eventually turn stale. That’s the case with Content Warning, especially since the game only has a few maps at the moment. This can be remedied with content updates in the future, though, as it stands now, you’ll quickly tire from the tedium of finding interesting things to film.
I guarantee you’ll get a fun first couple of hours from it, however. And from a game that’s free on the first day and only $8 after the fact, it’s not that bad of a deal.
Is Content Warning Worth It?
Of Course, Why Aren’t You Playing This Game Yet ?!
I’m clicking the thumbs-up for this one. Apart from the fact that it’s free to play for the first 24 hours of its release, it’s only asking for $8 after the fact. That’s way cheaper than being a novice influencer in real life and, quite frankly, twice as fun. The fact that this is a fun and cheap multiplayer game also means that its value skyrockets, since you’re not only playing by yourself but with your closest friends and family as well.
You should get this game while it’s free, but don’t let the limited-time offer deter you from buying it after. It’ll be well worth it.
Platform | Price |
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Steam | $7.99 |
Content Warning FAQ
How Do You Save Your Videos from Content Warning?
To save your videos in Content Warning, you must drop the camera in the video synthesizer and play your video on the TV. After the video plays, an option to save the video to your device will pop up. The video is usually saved to your Desktop.
How Do I Get More Views in Content Warning?
Views are directly correlated to the footage you gather from your dives. As a rule of thumb, you’re going to want to keep the following tips in mind when gathering footage for your videos:
Monsters Make For Good Entertainment
As much as possible, you’re going to want to get videos of monsters, traps, and encounters in the Old World ruins. These will get you the most views and should be what you’re looking for primarily.
Death and Injury are Encouraged
Apart from having footage of monsters just mucking about, you’re going to want to interact with them. Tazing and hugging them using items is a good way to go about it, but getting injured and killed on camera is sure to get you some reactions on your video. Just make sure to retrieve your fallen comrades’ gear unless you’re okay with wasting ad revenue.
Do It for The Views
You can also increase your views by emoting, dancing, and speaking during monster encounters in the Old World ruins. You can buy emotes from the store, but posing and speaking can be done from the get-go. If you want an easier time gathering audio, you can purchase a Boom Mic from the shop.
Just Record Whatever
If you leave the dive early or can spare some of your camera’s battery life, you can capture footage of pretty much anything, even in safe areas. It won’t bag you the most views, but it could nab you a few extra, especially if your dive wasn’t lucrative to begin with.
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Content Warning Product Information
Title | CONTENT WARNING |
---|---|
Release Date | April 1, 2024 |
Developer | Skog, Zorro, Wilnyl, Phillip, thePetHen |
Publisher | Landfall Publishing |
Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
Genre | Multiplayer, Horror, Sci-fi |
Number of Players | Online Co-Op (2-4) |
Rating | Not Yet Rated |
Official Website | Landfall Official Website |
Blademaster207, the review has like two buttons to the steam store, just click on those
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