Nemesis: Distress is a survival horror game developed by Awaken Realm Digital behind the Tainted Grail video game series, and is a first person re-imagination of the famous board game “Nemesis”. The game’s early access launch is coming up in less than a week.

In Nemesis: Distress you (solo) or with up to five of your friends have to survive and sneak around a spaceship filled with hostile aliens. At the start of each match, you get two missions. The main mission can be tasks like collecting a specific amount of alien eggs and a secret mission like destroying the aliens’ cocoons. The secret mission will be different from your fellow players.

The aliens on the ship are blind. However, they have great hearing, so beware of any sound you make or they will come running. This means in turn that you will be able to distract the aliens by throwing items across the room and sneaking by undetected. Or use a flamethrower to scare them off.

There are multiple different types of aliens that you will encounter during the game, from small ones to what are known as “Adults”, These will instantly kill the player when they get you so watch out for them in particular.

You want to destroy the eggs as well, even if this is not part of your mission, since over time these can hatch into larva and later evolve into spider like creatures which can give you a bleeding effect.

Aliens, however, are not your only threat on this ship. Sometimes other players could be hostile as well if they get a secret mission that tells them to be, So be wary, and do not blindly put your trust in anyone, not even your friends.

Nemesis: Distress is mainly a survival horror focused game. Even though there are some weapons in the game, you will mainly want to stay to the silent melee combat type of weapons. They are quiet and do not use up the limited amount of ammo you have, but do not overuse them since they will break after some use.

There is a cast of varied characters that all have their own professions and starting weapons and items.

Each mission will be on the same ship but will have random missions, item locations, and enemy spawn locations. You have around 40 minutes to clear the main mission or it is game over. This time can be extended by completing the random malfunctions the ship can have. These can range from repairing the heating system to avoiding asteroids (malfunctions have their own time limit in which you need to complete them).

When sneaking around the ship you will find locked doors which you can unlock by finding the computer console and unlocking them. The computer console will have a few more functions such as temporarily locking a door so aliens can not come in. It also tracks targets or accesses cameras around the ship.

Inventory management is as important as in most other survival horror games. You have a limited amount of space, so only take what you need at that moment.

You never feel safe in Nemesis: Distress, not even near your friends, and that small change from other co-op centered survival games is what sets this game apart and makes it really interesting and worth playing over others of its kind. If you are interested in playing it for yourself, and feeling the horror, join Nemesis: Distress Steam Early Access next week. Good luck on your mission!