Expendabots Open Beta Now Available

Fans of co-op horror and extraction gameplay have a new title to keep an eye on: Expendabots has launched an open beta, giving players the chance to try the game out ahead of its full release. As the name suggests, you play as robots built to be thrown into danger — and probably not come back.

What the Game Is About

Expendabots is a cooperative horror extraction game that supports one to four players. The premise is simple but effective: instead of sending humans into hostile territory, corporations dispatch cheap, replaceable robots. That framing does a lot of work tonally. Your character is, by design, expendable, which pairs nicely with the tension of extraction gameplay — every run is a gamble, and losing a bot stings less than losing a survivor might in a more traditional horror game.

The setting revolves around procedurally changing islands and dungeons. Each expedition drops your squad into locations that shift and rearrange between runs, so the terror of not knowing what's around the next corner stays fresh. Exploring those dark, unpredictable spaces with friends — or solo, if you're brave enough — is the core loop.

Playing Solo or With a Squad

One of the more accessible design choices is the flexible player count. You can tackle Expendabots entirely on your own, or team up with up to three friends for a full squad experience. Co-op horror tends to thrive on group dynamics — the panicked whispers, the split-second decisions about whether to push deeper for better loot or head for the extraction point — and supporting both solo and group play widens the game's appeal considerably.

The extraction genre has grown quickly in recent years, but relatively few entries lean into horror, and even fewer wrap it in a sci-fi robot skin. Expendabots' blend of disposable mechanical protagonists, dread-soaked dungeon crawling, and risk-versus-reward looting gives it a distinct identity in a crowded field.

How to Try It

The open beta means there's no gate to jump through: interested players can jump in and see whether the game's mix of horror atmosphere and extraction tension lands for them. Betas at this stage are also a valuable signal of a developer's intent — a fully open test suggests the team wants broad feedback on balance, performance, and the moment-to-moment loop before launch.

What Happens Next

No firm release date has been attached to Expendabots yet, so players curious about the full version should keep an eye on official channels for updates following the beta. In the meantime, the open test is live now, and it's the best way to judge whether these expendable machines are worth sacrificing — run after run after run.

If co-op horror with a procedural twist sounds like your kind of session, this beta is worth a look before the robots are retired and the game ships.

Source: Alpha Beta Gamer