R.E.P.O is a six player co-op extraction game that currently leads Steam’s best seller charts. It has attracted around 70k players in the week following its early access launch on Feb 26, and an additional 160k since then. This amounts to approximately 230 thousand players navigating through challenges like knifey chef frogs and persistent ducklings while extracting valuables to meet a cash quota. The game bears resemblance to Lethal Company but with a heavier dose of absurdity.
The game’s popularity can be attributed to two main factors. Firstly, R.E.P.O is a chaotic and unpredictable environment filled with physics mishaps that make for entertaining short video clips. Even the loot extraction points pose a danger if lingered in for too long. Secondly, the robots in the game, reminiscent of ‘Jim Henson meets Nier Automata,’ synchronize their mouth movements with players’ mic chatter, turning even the most intense moments into comedic exchanges.
Typically, I would dismiss viral trends as being too youthful for my taste, but R.E.P.O. has managed to capture my interest. However, the current requirement of having five friends to play is quite challenging. Developer Semiwork has announced plans to introduce public or private matchmaking, along with a kick button to ensure fair play. While this addition may seem straightforward, Semiwork acknowledges that server coding is new territory for them.
New content includes an ironmates mode and a museum level that showcases box parkour. Quality of life improvements such as a border around extraction points to indicate when loot is off-limits have been implemented. Additionally, players can now use a bucket to distract the duckling monster that tends to latch onto one crew member and cause disruptions.
Delving into the concept of ‘chronotope’ by Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, one can observe how time and space configurations influence behavior. This notion, highlighted by a valued RPS community member, sheds light on the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and harrowing spaces in social extraction games. It’s these insights that fuel my enthusiasm for R.E.P.O.’s solo mode.
