Exterminauts Turns Galactic Pest Control Into a Chaotic Co-Op Shooter

Exterminauts is shaping up to be a loud, colorful and deliberately silly co-op shooter about the least glamorous job in the galaxy: exterminating dangerous alien pests. Developed by Behaviour Interactive, the upcoming PvE title casts players as employees of an interplanetary pest-control operation, dispatched to hostile worlds where swarms of monstrous creatures have made a serious mess of things.

The setup is knowingly blue-collar. Rather than being celebrated as pristine military heroes, players are workers clocking in, taking on ugly jobs, completing practical assignments at remote sites, and trying to get home in time for dinner. There is still plenty of exaggerated sci-fi bravado in its presentation, but Exterminauts appears to use that tone for comedy as much as action spectacle.

Behaviour Interactive has confirmed Exterminauts for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. A release date has not yet been announced.

A squad shooter built around infestation control

At its core, Exterminauts is a cooperative third-person shooter centered on clearing out alien threats while working through mission objectives. Teams land on strange planets, move between abandoned facilities and industrial-looking structures, follow HUD markers toward assignments, and fend off creatures that can arrive in overwhelming numbers.

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The basic rhythm should be familiar to fans of modern squad-based PvE shooters: keep the horde from overrunning the group, cover teammates, locate resources, and complete the job before the situation spirals out of control. Its tongue-in-cheek corporate-patriotic flavor and focus on enormous enemy groups invite obvious comparisons to Helldivers 2, though Exterminauts frames its combat through the lens of a space sanitation crew instead of a formal military force.

The game's early mission structure includes smaller tasks spread throughout the environment. These can involve interacting with neglected control panels, reaching elevated structures, and turning valves or activating equipment. They may not sound glamorous in isolation, but the appeal lies in trying to finish them while hostile creatures close in from every direction.

That division of labor could prove important. One player might focus on an objective while others dedicate themselves to crowd control, resource gathering, or keeping airborne enemies out of range. A co-op game can quickly become memorable when its simple chores turn hectic under pressure, and Exterminauts seems designed around exactly that escalation.

Heavy weapons, elemental attacks, and bug goo

Each playable character appears to bring a standard weapon alongside a much larger heavy option with its own elemental identity. One showcased loadout included a chargeable ice-based heavy attack. After building power for a few seconds, it unleashed a substantial frozen blast capable of catching multiple enemies in the area and locking them down.

That kind of ability gives the combat more than a straightforward point-and-shoot feel. Players will presumably need to decide when to save a powerful attack for a dense swarm and when to spend it to stop a dangerous enemy before it reaches an ally. Elemental effects may also make it easier for squads to coordinate, although Behaviour has not detailed the full range of weapons, character specialties, or possible build options.

Special power is replenished through material extracted from defeated enemies, described as bug goo. This keeps combat and progression tightly connected: fighting the infestation provides the means to keep using the tools needed to control it. Ammunition and grenades can also be replenished by finding supply stashes placed around the map.

In practice, that resource system could encourage a slightly selfish side of team play. Co-op games often create funny moments when everyone is technically allied but still races toward the same ammo box, healing pickup, or grenade cache. Exterminauts seems willing to let that workplace competition become part of the joke. Employees are working toward a common goal, but nobody wants to be the one left with an empty weapon when another swarm arrives.

Alien worlds that favor fantasy over real-world insects

Exterminauts may be about bugs, but its enemies are not presented as straightforward giant versions of familiar insects. The creatures shown are closer to grotesque sci-fi monsters, including winged threats and other unnatural beast-like forms, rather than realistic oversized ants, roaches, or spiders. That distinction matters for anyone who enjoys action games but has little enthusiasm for detailed, true-to-life creepy crawlies.

The locations also lean into a playful science-fiction aesthetic. One planet seen in the game combines broad red-dirt terrain with bright patches of unfamiliar vegetation and alien wildlife. Abandoned bases and metal installations punctuate the landscape, providing mission spaces that contrast with the more open surrounding environment.

The visual direction gives Exterminauts a more cheerful identity than its extermination premise might suggest. There is gore and chaos in the action, but the worlds are vibrant rather than oppressive. It is a setting that seems intended to be fun to traverse between firefights, not simply a series of dark corridors filled with targets.

That visual personality could help it stand out in a crowded co-op shooter field. A game built around repeated missions needs spaces players do not mind revisiting, and bright environmental design can do a great deal to make familiar activities feel less routine. The current footage and hands-on impressions point to a game interested in both spectacle and accessibility, pairing hostile alien landscapes with an intentionally unserious workplace theme.

Low-pressure fun with room for competitive score chasing

Despite its emphasis on hordes and objectives, Exterminauts appears to favor an approachable tone over a punishing one. It is built for moment-to-moment mayhem: shooting monsters out of the air, throwing grenades into crowds, using an elemental heavy weapon at the right time, and trying to keep the squad moving toward its next objective.

There is also an end-of-session performance angle. A demonstrated match awarded an "Employee of the Shift" result based on measures including kills and deaths. This is an appropriate fit for the game's corporate comedy, turning a standard scoreboard into a piece of the fiction. It may give squads an extra reason to compete with friends even after the immediate mission is complete.

That said, the available information does not yet establish how deep Exterminauts' long-term systems will be. Behaviour has not announced a release window, and details on progression, mission variety, additional worlds, player customization, difficulty settings, or post-launch plans remain unknown. Those questions will matter greatly for a game in this genre, where replayability can depend on how frequently objectives, enemies, loadouts, and environments produce fresh tactical situations.

For now, its strongest selling point is the combination of immediately understandable shooting and a distinct comedic wrapper. The fantasy is not saving the universe through solemn heroism. It is showing up for an unpleasant shift, clearing an infestation with coworkers, grabbing ammunition before someone else does, and earning recognition for surviving the mess.

Questions remain over temporary generative AI voice lines

One notable concern surrounds the game's character barks. Behaviour Interactive has said that the currently heard barks were made with generative AI and that they will be replaced with human-performed voices by launch. The stated plan is encouraging, but the use of AI-generated dialogue in the interim has still raised questions about the project's creative presentation.

Character chatter can be a surprisingly important part of a co-op shooter. Repeated lines need to support the game's tone without becoming irritating, and a workplace satire such as Exterminauts will depend heavily on timing and personality. Human performers could be especially valuable here, giving the game's employees the kind of comic character that makes repeated missions feel more animated.

Until the final voice work is heard, it remains one of the areas worth watching. The game's broader concept has the potential to be charming: a bright alien adventure where the players are not legendary warriors so much as overworked pest-control specialists equipped with absurdly powerful tools.

Exterminauts does not have a confirmed launch date yet, but its early showing suggests Behaviour Interactive is aiming for a cooperative shooter that is easy to read, energetic to play, and unafraid to turn extermination into office humor. With its alien landscapes, elemental heavy weapons, swarm combat, and objective-led missions, it could offer a fresh workplace spin on the modern PvE squad shooter when it eventually arrives on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.