Cooperative horror has found a comfortable niche over the past few years. Games that throw groups of friends into hostile environments with simple objectives have become some of the most memorable multiplayer experiences, largely because they create stories no scripted campaign ever could. One minute everyone is confidently following a carefully planned strategy, and the next somebody has accidentally unleashed a nightmare, the lights have gone out, and half the team is screaming over voice chat as they desperately run for the exit.
Murky Divers, developed by Embers, understands exactly why that formula works. Rather than simply copying what has come before, it introduces a brilliantly unsettling idea that changes the entire rhythm of play. Instead of exploring abandoned factories or haunted buildings, you’re descending into the pitch-black depths of the ocean to erase the evidence of your employer’s failed scientific experiments. It’s an absurd premise wrapped in genuine horror, and the combination proves remarkably effective.
Cleaning Up Someone Else’s Mess
You work for Pharma Corps, a company with enough skeletons in its closet to fill an entire ocean. Following disastrous genetic experiments, abandoned underwater laboratories have become crime scenes littered with corpses, body parts and evidence that absolutely cannot be allowed to surface. Naturally, your job is to make it all disappear.
Whether playing alone or with a crew of up to sixteen players, every expedition shares the same broad objective. Pilot your submarine towards a derelict research facility, venture inside with limited oxygen, locate every corpse you can find, haul them back aboard, and dispose of them in an industrial shredder before something lurking in the darkness disposes of you first. It is gloriously grim, yet the game presents everything with just enough dark humour to keep the gruesome task from becoming unpleasant.
The storytelling remains deliberately understated throughout. There are hints about the wider world scattered around abandoned facilities, but Murky Divers wisely avoids interrupting the action with lengthy exposition. Instead, it lets the environment tell the story. Blood-stained laboratories, abandoned equipment and half-finished experiments paint a picture that is often far more unsettling than any cutscene could achieve.
The Submarine Is The Real Star
Most extraction games treat travelling between missions as little more than downtime. Murky Divers turns the journey itself into one of the most stressful parts of the experience. Your submarine isn’t simply a vehicle. It is a fully functioning machine that demands teamwork to operate effectively. Visibility is practically non-existent, so one crew member must constantly monitor sonar while another pilots the vessel using shouted directions. Others may be managing the engines, monitoring systems, or keeping an eye out for approaching threats. Every role feels important, especially as the pressure steadily builds.
The submarine fosters wonderfully natural communication. Nobody is barking orders because the game tells them to. They are shouting because everyone genuinely depends on each other. That constant stream of information gives every voyage an atmosphere of organised chaos, particularly with larger crews, where conversations overlap into complete madness. It is one of the strongest cooperative mechanics I’ve experienced in quite some time.
Every Dive Feels Dangerous
Once the hatch opens and your team enters the water, Murky Divers changes completely. Tight submarine management gives way to eerie underwater exploration, where danger can emerge from any direction.
The abandoned laboratories are procedurally generated, ensuring each expedition feels slightly different from the last. Some wrecks are relatively straightforward, while others become twisting mazes of collapsed corridors, hidden rooms and increasingly unpleasant surprises. Searching every corner while watching oxygen levels slowly fall creates a constant tension that rarely lets up.
The creatures lurking throughout these facilities are equally effective. Rather than relying on cheap jump scares, the game builds dread through uncertainty. You rarely know exactly what is waiting around the next corner, and unrestricted underwater movement means enemies can attack from above, below or directly behind you. Few horror settings feel as vulnerable as floating helplessly in complete darkness while hearing something large moving nearby.
Recovering bodies is also more involved than simply pressing a button. Dragging awkward corpses through flooded corridors, loading them into your transport equipment and safely returning them to the submarine turns even routine objectives into memorable challenges. Every successful extraction feels genuinely earned.
Communication Creates Comedy
Although Murky Divers delivers plenty of genuine horror, it is equally capable of unforgettable comedy. The inclusion of proximity voice chat is perhaps its smartest feature. Conversations naturally fade as teammates separate, so panic spreads organically rather than through artificial mechanics. Hearing someone confidently announce they have found the final body before their voice dissolves into terrified screaming never stops being funny, even after dozens of missions.
Large crews amplify that unpredictability beautifully. With support for up to sixteen players, missions quickly descend into complete disorder as everyone attempts to coordinate different objectives while avoiding monsters, managing oxygen and navigating unfamiliar environments. Plans rarely survive first contact with reality, and those inevitable disasters often become the stories you’ll laugh about long after logging off.
Solo play certainly exists, but it never feels like the intended experience. The systems clearly thrive when multiple personalities bounce off one another, turning ordinary mistakes into unforgettable moments.
Atmosphere You Can Almost Feel
Murky Divers excels at creating atmosphere without relying on expensive visual spectacle. The underwater environments are drenched in darkness, forcing you to rely on limited lighting and sound to navigate safely. Every beam from your torch reveals just enough to keep you moving, while plenty remains hidden beyond its reach. That restraint makes the ocean feel impossibly vast and deeply hostile.
The sound design deserves enormous praise. Every metallic groan, distant screech and muffled splash contributes to an overwhelming sense of isolation. Wearing headphones transforms the experience, particularly when strange noises echo through the water with no obvious source. Combined with the proximity voice system, the audio becomes one of the game’s most powerful tools for generating fear.
The visual presentation is solid throughout. It may not push modern hardware to its limits, but it understands that horror often works best when imagination fills the gaps. The murky lighting, abandoned laboratories and unsettling creature designs combine to create a distinctive identity rather than a generic one.
The Pressure Isn’t Always Welcome
For all its strengths, Murky Divers isn’t without frustrations. Underwater movement can feel awkward, particularly in cramped laboratory corridors. Floating freely in three dimensions sounds exciting on paper, but navigating tight spaces can become more of a wrestling match with the controls than a deliberate test of skill. Camera movement can feel slightly jittery during hectic encounters, making already stressful situations unnecessarily clumsy.
Progression also feels slower than it should. New equipment, submarine upgrades and cosmetic unlocks require a considerable investment of time, and the game offers relatively little guidance on how some of its systems work. The early hours involve a fair amount of experimentation, which some players will enjoy, while others may simply feel lost.
Enemy balance occasionally leans towards frustration rather than suspense as well. Certain creatures have an unfortunate habit of lingering near the submarine entrance, creating situations where returning safely becomes almost impossible through little fault of the player. Those moments are relatively uncommon, but they stand out because the rest of the game’s challenge generally feels fair.
Final Verdict
Murky Divers succeeds because it understands that memorable cooperative horror isn’t built purely on monsters. It comes from communication, improvisation and the unpredictable chaos that unfolds when ordinary people attempt extraordinary jobs under impossible pressure. Embers has taken a familiar extraction formula and transformed it with clever submarine mechanics, an oppressive atmosphere and a wonderfully ridiculous premise that somehow makes disposing of mutant corpses feel like a perfectly reasonable day at work.
The occasional control frustrations, slow progression and balancing issues prevent it from reaching the very top tier of cooperative horror games, but they are overshadowed by the sheer number of unforgettable moments waiting beneath the waves. Whether your crew is operating like a well-drilled rescue team or descending into complete panic after one terrible mistake, Murky Divers consistently generates stories that feel uniquely your own.
If you’ve been looking for a multiplayer horror experience that values teamwork as much as terror, this is an easy recommendation. Just remember one important rule before opening the hatch. Whatever made those laboratories fail is probably still waiting down there.
