Horde shooters are really the perfect games to double as a hang with your friends, as the objectives are typically pretty simple and clear, letting you chat hot goss over comms while you’re ripping hot lead in game. Because of this (and the key successes of a handful of them) these games are kind of everywhere in 2026, and after some hands on time with Exterminauts, a third-person co-op shooter that puts mad science tools in your hands in order to defend and upkeep the assets of your capitalist overlords, I think that fact is going to be their biggest issue. It's got a good look and rounds can produce some fun chaos, but I had a hard time not comparing this to all the games it’s clearly taking notes from and I was left questioning if it had the juice to get me to clock in for a long shift.

The gimmick and tone that ties it all together is fun at first, as you and your party work for the MegaCorp that needs its assets maintained and protected from the (implied) native bug threat that continues to rip and tear its infrastructure to pieces. This sort of “evil corporate master vs. exploited labor dynamic” is a fun starting point for a satirical world that never really gets bolted down. The banter between your dispatcher and the Planetary Director from the corporation is certainly quippy, but I didn’t find it very funny. There is a slapstick aura around everything you do, but many of the little barks and hollers characters do in the field sound like poor Deadpool impressions.

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