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SystemsCritical
A cargo freighter has gone SYSTEMS CRITICAL with something alive aboard. As its expendable emergency robots, save the ship while you can, then escape with the cargo when you can't. One friend can play the alien instead: blind, it feels your every footstep.

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Features
Online PvP
Online Co-op
Family Sharing
Profile Features Limited 
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔
Content
Includes Interactive Elements

In-game chat

Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Systems Critical is a co-op horror game built around unpredictable moments between players: who wanders off alone, who panics, who gets hunted. That kind of game is best tuned with real crews playing it. The core loop is fully playable today, and we want players' feedback to shape the balance between the robots and the alien, the pacing of each round, and which features we build next. Early Access lets us do that openly, with the community, instead of guessing behind closed doors.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We expect Systems Critical to be in Early Access for roughly 6–12 months. The final timing will depend on player feedback and how the game evolves during development.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“We plan to expand the game in several directions during Early Access, guided by player feedback:
More ship types, room types and layouts for the procedurally generated derelicts
New tools and equipment for the repair crew
New abilities, mutations and cosmetic morphs for the alien
More protocols and objectives to vary how each round plays out
Additional hazards, events and story content around the ships and their missing crews
Ongoing balance, performance, audio and visual polish
Quality-of-life improvements based on what players ask for
The exact content of the full release will depend on community feedback and development progress.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version is a complete, playable round loop. You can play with friends in online co-op, or play solo:
Wake from cryo aboard a procedurally generated ship, in several ship sizes
Follow your protocols: restore power, vent pressure, plot a course and eliminate the hostile entity, or abandon ship with the important cargo when time runs out
Explore by face lamp, scan rooms with your visor, search lockers, use tools from the armory and the ship's shop, and track your crew on a shared ship map
Play as a robot, or as the alien hunting them; when no player takes the alien, the AI controls it
Proximity voice chat and Steam lobbies
As with any Early Access game, expect bugs, balance changes and rough edges. We'll be updating the game regularly and fixing issues as players report them.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“We're not planning on changing the price when we leave Early Access.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“The community is central to how we plan to develop Systems Critical. We'll be active in the Steam Discussions, where players can report bugs, suggest features and share how their rounds went. We plan to post regular development updates and patch notes through Steam announcements, and to use player feedback, along with polls on what to prioritise, to guide balance changes and new content. Your stories of the alien hunting down the crewmate who wandered off are exactly what will shape the game.”
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About This Game

Something came aboard with the freight.

Somewhere off its route, a cargo freighter drifts in the dark. An alien specimen boarded it in transit, and the ship did what it was built to do with a hostile inside: it locked itself down. Whole sections lost power. Navigation froze. The crew are gone.

That's when the ship wakes its last line of defence. You and your crew are its emergency-response robots, activated in the cryo pods to follow protocol: save the ship while it can still be saved.

Save the ship, until you can't

Protocol starts with RESTORE: rewire the dead sections one junction box at a time, plot a new course by hand, and deal with the thing in the walls. But the ship is failing, and the alien is helping it along. Once it's too far gone, protocol flips to EVACUATE: grab the cargo worth saving, haul it back to the escape pods, and get everyone out before the freighter goes with it. Every ship is generated, from small haulers to massive bulk carriers, so you never know the layout before you wake.

It can't see you. It can feel you.

One player can choose to be the alien. It sees only vibration: every footstep ripples across the deck, and a robot standing perfectly still all but vanishes. Brush against its silk and you light up. It climbs walls and ceilings, strings webs across the halls, and will kill if you get too close.

Stay together. Talk quietly.

Proximity voice chat fades with distance and goes muffled behind doors, so the crewmate who wandered off sounds exactly as far away as they are. Splitting up gets the work done faster. That's the problem.

Features

  • Online co-op for up to 5 robots, against an alien player or the AI

  • Two-phase protocol: save the ship while you can, then escape with its cargo when you can't

  • A playable alien that hunts by vibration, spins webs and climbs walls and ceilings

  • Procedurally generated derelict freighters in four sizes

  • An armory of laser guns, flamethrowers, thermal X-ray pads and mobile chargers

  • Physical claw hands: grab, drag, carry, and fight over the freight

  • Downed is not dead: jump-start a crewmate with your own battery

  • Proximity voice chat, plus ship-wide comms for the whole crew

  • A shared ship map the whole crew can draw on, each in their own colour

Early Access

Systems Critical is in Early Access. The core hunt is fully playable; more ships, objectives, tools and alien abilities are coming, shaped by what crews tell us on the Steam forums.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Some 3D models were created with AI tools and then edited by the developer.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Violence is sometimes reequired when saving your ship.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060 6 GB / AMD RX 580 8 GB
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 4 GB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectX-compatible
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-10400 / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    • Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 3060 / AMD RX 6600 XT
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 4 GB available space
    • Sound Card: DirectX-compatible
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