FixForce Goes Right into the Friendslop Game Rotation
The evolution of the term “Friendslop” has been interesting to see. Slop, a common half of modern portmanteaus, was first associated with low-quality, absurd, and/or fake digital content, typically made by generative AI, and it typically still is. Even “friendslop” was used as a derisive term at first. However, it’s such a fun word that its origin and most common definition might as well have a giant chasm between them now. More commonly, Friendslop describes a subgenre of co-op games (typically on Steam) that have a low barrier to entry and put a premium on social interaction.
Among Us is often said to be the first friendslop game, even if the game existed long before the term was coined, and Peak has been considered the ideal friendslop game since launch. As the genre has grown, so too have the games, with there being a strong list ranging from R.E.P.O and RV There Yet? to YAPYAP and upcoming titles like We Are So Cooked. More than the “Friendslop game of the week” is a title called FixForce, and anyone who has enjoyed the genre or any of the previously mentioned games ought to check it out. What’s perhaps most surprising about this new Friendslop game is that it is developed by Surgent Studios.
Executive Producer Alix Wilton Regan Discusses Tales of Kenzera: Zau’s BAFTA Award
Actor Alix Wilton Regan, who also served as executive producer on Tales of Kenzera: Zau, discusses its BAFTA ‘Game Beyond Entertainment’ award.
Surgent Studios was founded in 2020 by Abubakar Salim (Bayek’s actor in Assassin’s Creed Origins) and has previously released two video games—Tales of Kenzera: Zau and Dead Take. The former won the “Game Beyond Entertainment” category at the BAFTA Game Awards 2025 and is a Metroidvania game inspired by Salim’s grief over the loss of his father. The latter is a horror game featuring the talents of Neil Newbon (BG3‘s Astarion) and Ben Starr (FF16‘s Clive) in roles that explore the many dark sides of the entertainment industry. With such premises, perhaps no one could have guessed that Surgent Studios’ third title would be a silly Friendslop game. As with its predecessors, though, it continues to put the sheer talent of the studio on display.
I recently played a game of FixForce with Salim, design director Joe Kinglake, and game director Zoe Brown, and my immediate response was to send FixForce‘s Steam page to my friends. Here’s the deal: I’m socially awkward and rather soft-spoken, and I will never play a multiplayer game with randoms (not that Salim and Surgent Studios’ devs are random, of course). I’m the quietest introvert to ever introvert. But within minutes, FixForce had me belly laughing, betraying the devs for fun, and—of course—being betrayed in return, all in a game where we’re supposed to fix things, even if breaking them is just as fun. If a co-op game can make me open up this quickly, then it’s just a damn good game, plain and simple.
Drag weapons to fill the grid
Drag weapons to fill the grid
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So, What is FixForce?
Find. Operate. Retrieve. Complete. Exit.
FixForce is a co-op game where players and up to 5 friends deploy to a job as robots, attempt to repair key machines (and other odds and ends), and satisfy the monetary quota of the company. To do so, players use a handy dandy Drill Wrench that’s similar to the Gravity Gun from Garry’s Mod to create paths out of scrap parts, retrieve necessary repair items like a toaster, and steal bodies from friends. Once objectives are complete (or failed), players must make it to an extraction van to complete the level…at the risk of being left behind, of course.
The Drill Wrench pretty much works on every item in the game world aside from the core structures. Even the merchant, a big computer screen with a face—not officially named Larry but otherwise named Larry—can be manipulated with the Drill Wrench.
FixForce players have a limited pool of lives, but going through those lives is technically optional. After enough damage is sustained, players explode and control only their head. Friends can set your body upright so you can get back to work, or they can steal it to finish their completely necessary bridge. As a head, you can hop around and push lily pads across water to get your friends to safety, or you can steal someone else’s body like an RKO out of nowhere. Or you can reconstruct yourself at the cost of a life—and an explosion to get back at those thieves friends.
In addition to the all-important head and body, players also have a battery that powers them. Players can function without one, but everything is easier with it. Some special batteries can also grant benefits, like reduced fall damage. Aside from the player, though, these batteries can be used to power elements across the game map. There are three base maps in FixForce, but beyond a central skeleton, the exact layout is randomized in every game, adding more variety to the experience.
FixForce features proximity chat, which is always great for a Friendslop game.
In short, FixForce is a chaotic co-op game similar to Peak, sans cannibalism (no robocannibalism for now), where the core gameplay relies on creative physics. The mechanics are simple, creative, and perfect for a friendslop game, almost feeling like a more streamlined version of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand abilities. It’s available now in Early Access on Steam and will come to other platforms in the future.
A game about grief, a game about abuse, and a game about silly, stupid fun almost feels like a life story in itself—one that understands how often that “friendslop,” that precious time spent laughing with friends, that silly, stupid fun, is really a refuge from the heavier things we carry.
Some of the Funniest Moments I’ve Had in FixForce (So Far)
- Salim and I were struggling to make a jump when heading to the extraction van and died multiple times. Brown also got caught up in this as the timer clicked closer to zero. Then, Joe “No Fixers Left Behind” Kinglake left us behind.
- After spending a fair amount of time constructing a bridge to the extraction van in another match, it exploded. We were just four heads, lost in the waters of FixForce, when we made it to the extraction van.
- I once watched Salim, as a head, hilariously push Kinglake on a lily pad to our target. They were both wearing cowboy attire, so there was a certain “into the sunset” vibe to it, although we were mid-game.
- More than once, I snuck up on someone and stole their bodies. Sorry about that, y’all. It’s just so satisfying.
- We had to climb a taller tower at one point, going in and out of it, to reach our goal. Unfortunately (but fortunately for the laughs), mistakes were made several times, and more than once, we were all just circling through in increments.
- Brown, in some irreverent belief that we’d need them, brought a bunch of disco balls into a game. They lasted less than a minute before “mistakes” were made, and they were cast to the void.
- At one point, I realized Larry was missing and that someone (if not all of them, I don’t even know who) had constructed a massive Larry robot, which was equal parts bewildering and impressive.
- Revenge explosions are always a good time.
FixForce Perfectly Encapsulates the Friendslop Genre
The premise of the best Friendslop games is often simple (climb this, drive that) because it’s less about how much mechanical depth you can offer and more about what kind of sandbox you can give players. The creativity in FixForce‘s sandbox rivals some of the best in the genre, and it has a lot to add before its eventual 1.0 release. Indeed, the simple premise here is “fix this,” but the way the sandbox facilitates social interaction by breaking something, exploding for whatever reason, or pulling any sort of shenanigan is still conducive to the fun environment.
As mentioned before, FixForce is something unlike Surgent Studios’ past two games. Salim drew attention to this himself when FixForce was revealed:
“Yes, FixForce is completely unlike anything we’ve ever done before, but look: we made one game about grief and another about abuse and thought, ‘Can we have a little bit of silly, stupid fun for a second?’ I promise we’ll go back to dark and depressing after this.”
But I think that’s what makes FixForce such a strong addition to Surgent Studios’ growing gameography, beyond the strong understanding of the genre itself. Maybe I’m just waxing poetic here, but a game about grief, a game about abuse, and a game about silly, stupid fun almost feels like a life story in itself—one that understands how often that “friendslop,” that precious time spent laughing with friends, that silly, stupid fun, is really a refuge from the heavier things we carry.
FixForce is available now via Early Access on Steam. GameRant was provided a FixForce Steam code.