As a certified arachnophobe, it pains me how many games insist on including a creature that absolutely should not have that many legs. Thankfully, a handful of games have started to implement an arachnophobia mode over the years. You’ve got Grounded’s shiny round blobs, Kill it with Fire’s cartoonish balled-up arachnids and Webbed’s decision to reduce its spider protagonist down to a purple sphere.
Perhaps my favourite attempt at an arachnophobia to date, though, is the way Lethal Company has handled censoring these terrifying critters. While most other games have steered towards nixing their legs and turning them into cute little round beings, developer Zeekerss has taken a slightly different approach. By that I mean it’s gotten rid of the spiders all together, instead replacing them with 3D text reading “spider” floating around the world like some kind of missing model glitch It came as part of the game’s Patch 45 on December 9, which also included notes like “Rail cheese has been nearly destroyed, but the forest giant is easier to avoid.”
Arachnophobia mode is the best thing #lethalcompany pic.twitter.com/ymqEFOnVwbDecember 9, 2023
The word still kind of moves like a spider, bouncing up and down as it turns corners and crawls its way over to you. They’re still deadly as all hell though, dealing whopper hits and requiring a decent amount of damage to kill.
Videos of these text tarantulas have started circulating on social media, and it really does feel a lot less threatening when it’s just a bundle of Arial letters inching towards you. The word has titchy-tiny little legs too, propping up the giant red text. It’s sort of cute in a weird, murderous way.
Considering how surprisingly terrifying the spiders are in Lethal Company, the addition of the arachnophobia mode is greatly appreciated. Plus, as a certified baby, I always enjoy ways to take horror games and give them a slightly humorous twist. It makes things a hell of a lot easier to play, after all. Considering my friends have not shut up about how fantastic Lethal Company is (especially for less than $10), this might be the nudge I need to finally give the game a try.
