We Love It's Guide to…
Lead a mercenary crew through a derelict spaceship, completing contracts and identifying or fighting the creature hunting you.
Released 23 Oct 2025
Identify the Creature
Recover a Black Box
Capture Live Specimens
Species: Unknown is a 1 to 4 players co-op survival horror. Complete high-risk missions aboard an abandoned ship while being hunted by an unknown creature. Survive and upgrade your gear to face each new threat that lurks in the dark.
Developed by WanadevStudio · Published by WanadevStudio
You play as a mercenary sent alone or with up to three teammates to carry out contracts aboard abandoned spaceships. An unknown creature stalks the crew as they work to complete each mission and get back out alive.
Explore the ship, solve access puzzles, and examine clues—including the condition of bodies—to work out which threat is present. Use equipment such as a motion tracker, shield, and healing syringe, and search for weapons that may help against specific creatures.
Contracts can ask you to recover a black box, destroy a ship, kill a creature, or capture one. Completing missions earns credits for gear and character upgrades, while collecting creature data and specimens supports a growing archive and museum.
Players often praise the ship’s tense atmosphere, especially its lighting and sound, and enjoy how different creature behaviors can change the approach to a mission. Co-op teamwork and the varied contract objectives are also recurring sources of fun. Many reviews note that the available maps and content feel limited, which can make repeated runs feel familiar.
Species: Unknown is a first-person survival horror game, playable in co-op with up to 4 players (private or public servers) or solo. You play as a mercenary sent aboard an abandoned spaceship. Your job? Execute high-risk contracts, make it out alive, and claim your reward. But keep in mind that you’re not alone. Something is hunting you…
Form a squad of up to 4 players to take on different contracts with escalating difficulty. Each mission plays differently depending on your objective, your teammates, the map and which of the 5 intelligent threats is stalking you. No one survives alone, but you can try.
Proximity Chat & Radio are available: distance matters, walls matter. Proximity Chat is bringing more tension, sometimes chaos, and unforgettable moments to your co-op sessions.
Every contract drops you into a different nightmare. Whether you're tasked with extracting a black box, capturing or eliminating an unknown threat, or even destroying the ship to prevent the creature from escaping… Each mission demands a specific strategy and none of them are easy.
The specimen is chosen procedurally from a growing roster of terrifying monsters. Each one comes with distinct behaviors, hunting patterns, strengths, and weaknesses. You’ll need to investigate your surroundings to gather vital clues and identify the threat in order to proceed smoothly (or not). Do your job and get rewarded, or die without anyone knowing.
Strategize as a group, make smart use of your tools that can turn the tide, if only for a moment:
Motion Tracker : Detect nearby movement and prepare for what's coming
Shield : Block deadly attacks and buy time for your team
Health Syringe : Heal yourself or allies in the heat of battle
Mini-Map : Navigate pitch-black corridors with real-time positional data
Guns won’t always save you. Some threats are too resistant or simply untouchable. But the right weapon, found at the right time, can help you push through or even take the creature down.
The higher the risk, the higher the reward. Completing contracts earns you credits you can use to:
Upgrade your gear
Buy new tools
Customize your appearance
Gather lore and build your own creature museum
| Platforms | Windows |
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| Age ratings |
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| Players | 1–4 |
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| Other modes |
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| Multiplayer | Species: Unknown supports solo play and online co-op for up to 4 players. Public and private servers are mentioned. The provided information describes PvE co-op missions and does not describe PvP. Reviews mention play with friends, randoms, private lobbies, voice communication, friendly fire, revives, and respawn-related systems. |
| Multiplayer & mods | No multiplayer mod support is described. One review suggests possible future Steam Workshop support for custom maps or enemies, but this is not a confirmed feature. |
| Controller support | Xbox |
| Controller required | No |
| Demo | View demo on Steam |
| DLC / extras | 1 listed on Steam |
| DRM / EULA |
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| Content notices |
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| Website | Official website |
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