No April Fools' joke: This co-op horror game where you "get famous or die trying" is like Dark and Darker but you're a YouTuber, and it's free for 24 hours

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Content Warning surprise dropped with a 100% launch discount

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Content Warning is a brand new co-op horror game where you "get famous or die trying," and it's 100% free for its first 24 hours.

Considering I typically associate April Fools' Day with silly pranks from goofy goobers - and especially since Content Warning was released "in the spirit of celebrating April Fools' Day" - I was pleasantly surprised when I went to download it and found that, indeed, it's really just free. I was half expecting my Steam client to become corrupted and crash my computer or something, but no, I just snagged myself a free game, no silly strings attached, and you can too.

Landfall Publishing describes Content Warning as a "first-person-content-creation, cooperative horror game where you and your friends will irresponsibly explore the entrance to an old forbidden world and try to film silly videos for SpookTube." It's totally free until April 2 at 9am PT and will be $7.99 USD thereafter.

"We do this as a special treat to our community so that as many people as possible will have the chance to play the game," the publisher says.

Content Warning sounds, in essence, similar to survival extraction horror games like Lethal Company in which you're sent into a dangerous environment to find loot and, ideally, return to safety in one piece. In this case, you and your buds are tasked with taking an elevator down to the Old World in search of cursed relics and artefacts, but the real money's in SpookTube ad revenue. 

See, what you're really after is that ever-elusive SpookTube fame, and "the more scary stuff you film, the more you go viral." The more viral your videos, the more money you earn to use on gear upgrades "to film better videos and survive more easily in the Old World."

The game has only been out for a few hours and has already garnered 175 Steam reviews, the vast majority of which (172 to be exact) are positive. Considering it's exactly zero dollars right now, I'd say it's worth giving a go if you're at all a fan of the genre.

Either way, here are the best horror games to scare yourself silly with tonight.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.