Demon Spore

Developer: DinoBoss
Platforms: PC, other platforms TBD
Buy it from: Steam
Release Date: TBD 2024

What hooked me with Demon Spore is that it turns the general idea of John Carpenter’s The Thing into a co-op roguelite experience. Focusing on a group of scientists and security guards trapped in a facility slowly being overrun by a hostile organism, the survivors must scrape together supplies and chart out an escape while staying one step ahead of the growing parasite. It mixes elements of survival horror with top-down twin-stick shooters, all within the framework of a dungeon crawler that has you compete against an opponent making moves in the dungeon as well.

Demon Spore was such a blast with a crew, and seeing how quickly things escalated was a real trip. You have to pick up whatever you can find to survive, including guns and fire extinguishers to freeze enemies or computer screens to shock them. My favorite moments came when things took a turn for the worse; seeing the chaos and sense of desperation that occurred when the parasitic tendrils took over sections of the room in real time was so unnerving. It has all the makings of a fun and unsettling time with a crew.