Exterminauts Puts Co-op Pest Control in Your Hands, but Its Standard Guns Struggle to Stand Out

The first thing Exterminauts asks of you is to fix a pump. A crack runs down its side, and you trace it with a flaming torch while alien bugs close in. The pattern is not complicated, just askew enough to need small corrections, and it is the kind of task that sets this third-person co-op shooter apart from the games it resembles. IGN Southeast Asia's preview comes from about five hours of play.

The setup is corporate. You and up to two friends, a party of up to three, work for a MegaCorp that needs its assets maintained and defended from native bugs tearing up its infrastructure. The reviewer calls the exploited-labor-versus-evil-boss premise a fun starting point for satire that never really gets bolted down. The banter between your dispatcher and the corporation's Planetary Director is quippy but didn't land as funny, and many of the field barks sound like poor Deadpool impressions. The reviewer's larger worry is that horde shooters are everywhere in 2026, and Exterminauts invites constant comparison with the games it takes notes from.

The objectives are where it tries to be different. Helldivers II leaned on d-pad inputs to repair computers or call in support. Exterminauts offers more hands-on chores, like the welding. Another needed two players working in tandem to ratchet a mechanical device from bottom to top, with one side able to go only so far before the other had to put weight on it. Solo players can technically manage it, but the design nudges teams to cooperate rather than just press buttons correctly. The demo's maps were limited, so the reviewer saw few such examples and hopes for more.

Side jobs pop up on the map when you're nearby. They are meant as minor errands with small rewards, such as releasing an elite monster to kill for a reward that lasts only that run. The reviewer kept finding an abandoned mech instead, which was anything but small. It hits hard and is worth hunting down, though only one player can pilot it at a time and its ammo does not refill. The reviewer was unmoved by the elite-monster jobs and found the mech great every time.

The bugs are the highlight. Some are about 80 percent mouth and leap long distances to put you in it. Others have long necks that fan out like the spitting dinosaur in Jurassic Park, but fire lasers from a single big eye. Balloon-like floaters release flying pests that shock you bioelectrically. Waves can pile into a mass of teeth and legs, though the reviewer's squads handled them without much trouble at difficulty levels 2 to 4 of 8. Solo play was far deadlier. Higher difficulty brings more and tougher pests, more repair jobs, and hazards like extreme weather. Each extraction means holding off a final series of waves until your ride arrives, usually the most dangerous stretch, and the best moment for rarer support items like sentry turrets and a tube that grants brief infinite ammo.

The standard guns are the weak spot. Assault rifles and SMGs work and meet expectations, but they are not impressive versions of weapons you've used a hundred times. The reviewer wants better sounds and haptics. The secondary weapons are livelier. The default plasma sludge launcher sticks caustic goo to enemies, stacking a corrosive debuff and damage over time, and it is especially good against groups. The CrossCut launches comically large circular saw blades that lodge in enemies and spin, and charging them extends the damage. A jumper-cable device can boost any special weapon's next shot at the cost of battery power, a mechanic the reviewer suspects holds more value than a couple of hours revealed. The secondaries are good enough that the reviewer wonders why the basic guns exist.

Weapons unlock through Sponsorships, which work like classes with a unique passive. Bullet Crown raises critical-hit damage and offers a rapid-fire SMG. Vardhan focuses on support, sharing some of your healing with squadmates. The reviewer didn't play long enough to see squads change how they play, but the benefits are plain. Beyond that sit the usual meta layers: gear upgrades paid in coins and field materials, trinkets for extra passives, and a season pass that can be earned through play or bought outright. Resources came at a breezy pace, but the reviewer says it's hard to judge without more time, and asks how much time they'd really spend.

The verdict is that it has grown on them. The launchers and strange bugs keep fights interesting, and new jobs and biomes still feel like discovery. But Exterminauts hasn't made an airtight case against rivals: it lacks the open-endedness of Deep Rock Galactic, the tone of Darktide, or the satire of Helldivers II. It is early in development, and the reviewer says its dirty work is cut out for it.