The survival horror multiplayer has mastered publicity stunts, but it doesn’t make a lasting impression.
There are several things that nearly everyone agrees are annoying. Processing fees, for example. Drain flies that flit around your face before dive-bombing your beer can. Likewise, “influencers” – TikTok creators, YouTubers, and other hair-gelled 22-year-olds – tend to inspire bone-deep resentment, which could be why Content Warning doesn’t mind tossing them into a horror game.
Content Warning reviewDeveloper: Skog, Zorro, Wilnyl, Philip, thePetHenPublisher: Landfall PublishingPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam)
But, unlike your displeasure with dumb flies, influencer fatigue also tends to ripple with jealousy: “Why don’t I have one bajillion followers?” you might find yourself wondering at weak moments, when work feels particularly crushing. “MrBeast doesn’t even cure blindness.” So, in being a multiplayer game, Content Warning feels like an effective satire of our widespread obsession with attention. Most of the time, though, it’s just as forgettable as the impulse to be seen and loved by everyone forever.
It’s a losing game. Literally and figuratively. In theory, Content Warning functions similarly to Steam-favourite survival horror multiplayer, Lethal Company. In three-day cycles, you and up to three other aspiring SpöökTubers must descend into a charcoal pit. Your goal is to film something disturbing, go viral, and make money. You’re Logan Paul, and your brain functions at quarter speed. So you go into the pit with a depleting oxygen tank, and you will yourself to live long enough to ride a stifling diving bell back to the surface, upload your footage to a computer, and watch the ad revenue come rushing in.
That’s how it’s supposed to work, but, barely a week after its popular, free April Fool’s Day launch, I notice that online randoms are already prematurely ending games. As of writing, Content Warning may have fallen far from its initial 204,000 player peak, but it’s still attracting an impressive 55,000 concurrent players. Fellow 2024 indie breakout Palworld can relate to that; it’s sitting in a similar spot after dominating video games’ otherwise dead winter. But all of the games I played in preparation for this review wrapped up after only one day of awesome, viral, white guy notoriety because my teammates disconnected.