Chaotic new $9 co-op game is already a Very Positive hit on Steam

Another co-op horror game has arrived on Steam, although Grain Rot puts a rather unusual spin on the increasingly crowded genre. Released on August 7, the $9 indie game has already attracted hundreds of player reviews, with 88% of 731 Steam purchasers rating it positively at the time of writing. That is enough to earn it a Very Positive overall rating. For a name that sounds like brainrot, it is surprisingly deep.

Grain Rot describes itself as a co-op extraction builder set in a scorched wasteland. Players descend into procedurally shifting underground ruins, scavenge whatever they can find and attempt to return to the surface before the creatures inhabiting the ruins put an end to the expedition. Anything successfully hauled back can then be used to rebuild and upgrade a persistent Outpost.

Players control a "Living Spark" inhabiting fragile wooden bodies called vessels. Having one smashed to pieces doesn't necessarily end a run, as the Spark escapes and can search for another vessel to possess. Different hosts come with different abilities, while players can also encounter corruption and mutations as they venture deeper underground.

The co-op component is where Grain Rot truly shines. If you’re feeling spicy and don’t want to play nice, physics-driven interactions allow you to dropkick enemies out of position. They can also be used to launch a friend's Spark out of its body or leave someone trapped with a monster. Furniture serves a purpose beyond decorating the Outpost as well, with Grain Rot allowing players to use it to barricade areas or break it down for resources.

The game had already picked up considerable attention before launch. The developers say its demo was downloaded more than 350,000 times, becoming one of the 15 most-played demos during Steam Next Fest. It was also approaching 200,000 wishlists by mid-July.

Grain Rot is currently available with a 10% introductory discount until August 21, bringing its price down to $9. Steam lists fairly modest system requirements, with a GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390 and 8 GB of RAM required at minimum. The recommended hardware bumps the GPU requirement to an RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 5700, while the game only requires 10 GB of storage.

Steam Deck compatibility isn't official yet. Given the game's modest hardware requirements, however, raw performance is unlikely to be the biggest obstacle to getting Grain Rot running on Valve's handheld.