Using physics to make money and survive: A “REPO” showcase
Colby Craig, Staff Writer
On 26 Feb. 2025, the development team Semiwork released a gem of a game called “REPO.” It became a sensation almost immediately and currently has 98% positive reviews on Steam.
REPO is a physics-based, online co-op horror game where the main objective is to collect valuable items from scary places in order to survive and get stronger.
You and up to five other players can team up to lift heavier objects, fight back against the monsters in these places and make money to make the whole process easier.
The player characters are robots made by a mysterious entity called “Taxman.” Taxman sends these trashcan-shaped robots to large winding places to collect valuable objects until they can go no further.
What makes this game unique from others that strive for the same feeling is the physics-based gameplay. The player characters have the ability to move things via a laser coming from their hands. Using motion and weight, players have to navigate the halls of a large complex by carrying things to extract points and dodging monsters along the way.
To add a level of difficulty to the game, the player must be careful with each object because dropping it causes it to lose value or break completely. Among these objects, there are even more obstacles. From a possessed doll that flails around violently while you carry it to a wizard’s staff that shoots a deadly laser when dropped on the flood, many items create a totally new experience when trying to navigate a scary place carefully.
The game was playtested by the developers themselves and revealed a game with surprisingly few bugs and showed just how hilarious a horror game could be. In the weeks before the game released into early access, the development team seemed to have a great time making videos to show it off.
When it initially launched, players were making similar videos showing their humorous struggles through the game and it gained a lot of popularity quickly. It caused enough of a stir to get the developer of “Lethal Company,” one of the sole reasons the online co-op horror genre is so popular, to play and enjoy it.
ZeekerssRBLX said, “REPO is fun. At first I thought I didn’t like it since I felt so slow (and voice chat range is too small!) But everyone in the group working together to move a grand piano through a cramped old mansion without scraping it–that is like the most funny objective for a horror game.”
One of the problems with this style of game is the limit of replayability, but the development team is trying to be involved with the community as much as possible to keep it unique. Semiwork is making moves to get community feedback so they can improve on the game in ways that players will actually care about.
With a peak player count of 266,908 after almost a month of becoming available, it is safe to say that REPO has been one of the most successful releases of 2025.
