The multiplayer survival horror genre is upon us. As Phasmophobia is doing record numbers, and has a huge update coming soon, there's a couple of other games hitting the Steam libraries. One of them, still in early access, is a game called The Headliners.
The Headliners has your typical multiplayer horror rules. Go out, do things, get back alive, get points, and go back out to do more things. As other games have you check off a list of things, The Headliners only requires one: Take good pictures. An alien invasion has hit New York City, and your job is to get the story. The only way to get the story out there, is your given camera. You also get a flashlight, but that is extra. If you've played Dead Rising, you're halfway there.
You can take pictures of various aliens, survivors, or even alien artifacts. You can take pictures of your teammates interacting with things, or getting mopped up by certain aliens. The more action that's going on, the more points you get per picture. Your co-horts can pose and dance to get an even better score. As the time ticks down, more phenomena start to occur, up to and including, a Kaiju monster. Snapping pictures of that in action will net you some good points, but now, you have to get back to the helicopter. You have 10 minutes to complete your mission, and a point threshold to meet. You have three chances to meet that threshold, or you're fired, and you have to start all the way over.
The difficulty ramps up as you're getting more points, and making more money. The money helps you buy better items, like more powerful cameras, with multipliers, and even traps that apparently hold monsters for a few seconds. I say apparently, because we die before ever getting the chance to use them. We're also not sure the monsters can hear you, but we couldn't stop screaming. The game does have proximity chat, and between this, Lethal Company, and Phasmaphobia, this might be my favorite.
Check out the streams below. Right now it's only on Steam. The game doesn't cost much, as it's in early access, and they are constantly updating it. I think they just added fall damage. But don't quote me on that. We were scared, and we didn't get far. Those are just the facts, ma'am. Check it out, and tell those aliens that even though they've come from among them, you're going to make them stars!
