Content Warning is no longer free, but it's still worth getting if only to experience running terrified from the snail man

Two character standing in a house and looking at a camera — (Image credit: Landfall Publishing)

It's only been a couple of days since the co-op horror game Content Warning was released to a pretty impressive reception, but it's still managed to rack up more than 204,000 concurrents and 6.2 million players, many of whom snagged the game for free during its first 24 hours on Steam. I was one of them, and let me tell you, it's the best deal I've got in a while.

Armed with a camera, a couple of rusty flashlights, and an emote someone in your team likely spent all your collective cash on, there's not much else to do but venture into the diving bell and descend into the black-and-white world below to capture horrifying cryptids for your loyal SpookTube fans.

The lack of explanation and the vast open areas are both great qualities in a horror game. You have to piece everything together and do so pretty quickly, as failure means certain death, and someone has to get back to the ship with the camera; otherwise, you'll not have a daily upload for your fans to watch. But my favourite part of my adventures into the unknown has to be the strange and terrifying creatures that live there.

A snail man walking around a dark room — (Image credit: Landfall Publishing)

My first encounter with anything weird in Content Warning was a welcome party for one Snail Man, who was patiently waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs leading into the industrial rooms. I'm not too proud to admit that I completely forgot all of my vlogger training and ran headfirst into a closed door as soon as this creature stumbled near me.

The chase was definitely the slowest life-or-death situation I've ever been in, and it was also painfully terrifying as my character kept randomly glitching into the floor, meaning I effectively crawled away from the advancing snail man. With both of my teammates too busy laughing at my cries for help, it took me a few minutes to work out that the snail man can only move at, well, a snail's pace, so the chase was pretty much over after 30 seconds or so.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the string of attacks, which only got faster. I got jumped by a ghostly figure with a knife, a giant headless skeleton that threw bombs at me as I ran back to the ship, and a glob of goo that whisked me off my feet and carried me right into some lasers, instantly killing me. But thankfully, some of the monsters in the Old World aren't all killers. One little guy who'll follow you around just lets out a bloodcurdling scream every time he manages to sneak up behind you. Now, this won't kill you, but it will definitely make you jump out of your skin.

So far, my team and I have only dived into the unknown a couple of times, but we've already managed to find and record tons of weird and wonderful cryptids. But as we spend more time down in the darkness and capture more deadly monsters, I'm starting to miss the simplicity and slowness of the snail man. He may be a handful if you manage to trip over your own feet every few steps, but otherwise, he's pretty relaxed, waddling around at his own very slow pace.

Now, to be fair, I did get Content Warning for free, so that discount has definitely sweetened the deal, but don't let the price tag of $7.99/£6.69 scare you off. If you have the money spare and want to check out a new co-op horror game that can rival the likes of Lethal Company and Phasmophobia, then I would definitely recommend giving it a go. It's terrifying, hilarious, and has plenty of exciting cryptids that you can discover and document for your SpookTube channel. Plus, if you do manage to record any killer clips, then you can save them to your PC so you can have lasting memories of every adventure you take part in down the diving bell.

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.