Game: GRAVHOUNDS
Developer/Publisher: Octopus Panic, Inc.
Genre: Co-op Action Builder / Extraction
Players: 1–4, online co-op
Status: Playtest — Early Access “Coming Soon”
Early Access Length: ~6 months planned
Controller: Full support
Steam Deck: Unknown
🧪 These Are Playtest Impressions, Not a Final Review
GRAVHOUNDS isn’t out yet. It’s heading to Early Access with no date announced, and this piece is based on the recent open playtest build and the detailed feedback playtesters have been posting.
Everything here reflects a work in progress. The score at the bottom is provisional, and we’ll review the Early Access release properly when it arrives.
1–4Players
~6 moPlanned Early Access
6Accessibility Features
4Languages
TBARelease & Price
🐕 Know this first: the core is already fun, and the rough edges are exactly what playtests are for. Players love the premise and the co-op chaos. They’ve also filed long, specific lists of bugs and wishes — and Octopus Panic has committed to building Early Access around that feedback.
⚖️ The Pipeline Is Everything
GRAVHOUNDS drops a pack of up to four bio-engineered dogs onto a hostile planet to gather resources, build a base, defend it from a swarm and extract. That’s a familiar outline. What makes it distinctive is how one piece of infrastructure ties it all together.
You extend pipelines across hostile terrain. They power your base. They move your resources. They double as a movement system — you can boost along them, “unauthorised recreational use” notwithstanding. And they’re your escape route: at the end of a shift, the way home is up the pipeline and through the portal.
So the base-building isn’t a separate phase from the action. Every pipe you lay is logistics, defence and your way out at the same time — which is why a well-planned network feels so satisfying, and why a broken one feels so dangerous. As the swarm escalates the longer you stay, every shift becomes a bet on how much of that network your pack can hold.
Loyal. Obedient. Expendable.
Far from home. Swarm closing in. Still expected to hit quota. Get to work.
GRAVHOUNDS is a 1–4 player co-op action builder from independent studio Octopus Panic. You play one of a crew of bio-engineered canine workers sent to dangerous planets on behalf of a company that considers them, in its own words, expendable. Drop in, build and defend, grab everything you can carry, and extract before you become alien chow.
Our take: GRAVHOUNDS nails the co-op chaos formula with its physics-driven base-building and escalating tension, making every extraction feel genuinely earned. The foundation is strong. What it needs now is exactly what Early Access is for.
Fetch!
The signature toy is the Grav Beam. You can fling objects across the battlefield to your teammates — resources, supplies, whatever’s needed — and turn gravity against the swarm, sending enemies flying one by one. The store page’s disclaimer tells you everything about the tone: transporting volatile materials with the Grav Beam may result in unforeseen loss of Gravhounds.
🧲 Grav Beam
Throw objects to teammates and hurl enemies with physics-driven chaos.
🏗️ Build & Defend
Turrets, generators and fabricators, all connected by the pipeline network.
⚡ Mid-Shift Upgrades
Stack abilities and bonuses as the swarm grows deadlier by the second.
🚀 Boost Anywhere
Reposition under fire, race to a downed teammate, or make a last dash for loot.
It’s genuinely good fun with friends. Playtesters describe the moving and shooting as feeling nice, the game as looking and running well, and the atmosphere as a real highlight — and several say it clicked properly once they were in a round with teammates to learn from.
What Playtesters Want Fixed
🦴 The Big Themes
1. The tutorial. This came up most. New players felt dropped in without enough direction on basic controls, unsure how to switch weapons, and — tellingly — not sure how to get home at the end of a round without teammates showing them the pipeline-and-portal exit. One player suggested a multi-part tutorial: basics, then building your way to a point of interest under light pressure, then putting it all together against a few waves.
2. Depth and variety. One tester felt missions currently have a single layer — a moment of “is this it?” mid-shift. Missions aren’t randomised much, so you know what’s coming, and there’s no difficulty select. Requests include procedurally generated missions, more varied objectives and more enemy types.
3. Random loadouts. Starting weapons and mods are randomised each mission, and several players found that it simply feels bad when nothing you roll suits you. The ask: let players choose, or at least toggle it off.
4. Turret sense. Turrets often fire into each other or into trees, because there’s no way to preview line of sight when placing pipeline nodes. Players also want damage summaries to judge which turrets are worth building.
5. Communication. Pings alone make coordination hard, especially across languages. A quick command wheel and server region selection are both on the wishlist.
Playtest Bugs, Reported in Detail
🐛 What Players Ran Into
One player logged 12 hours in the playtest build and posted a thorough bug report. Among the issues players flagged:
• Joining a match in progress could block the starting-weapon reward pod, preventing progress
• Scanning a challenge schematic could lock the reward-pod progress bar
• Pipeline transport sometimes failed to lock on, and resources could clump and explode on a turret, destroying it
• Readying up could launch a mission even when you weren’t the host
• The jetpack could teleport you on top of structures; one character’s special ability sometimes skipped its animation
• Throwing a grenade or calling a reward pod could briefly disable firing and reloading
• One player’s PC crashed hard on the first snow map and needed a forced restart — it didn’t recur
Balance notes too: laser turrets felt underpowered, a large frog-like bug felt like a bullet sponge that shredded turrets, and one tester’s own nuke destroyed their reward pods. Animations were described as clunky in places.
None of this is unusual for a playtest — it’s precisely why they exist — and the level of detail says a lot about how invested players already are.
An Honest Early Access Plan
📋 What Octopus Panic Has Committed To
The studio’s Early Access notes are refreshingly specific:
• About six months in Early Access, potentially longer, to respond to feedback properly
• The EA build is already fully playable solo or with up to four players, after multiple rounds of external playtesting
• Planned additions: more Gravhounds, jobs, worlds, enemies, weapons, upgrades and progression
• The price will increase as the game approaches 1.0 — and any changes will be announced in advance
• Feedback via Discord, Steam discussions, playtests and surveys
Much of what playtesters asked for — more enemies, more missions, more progression — is already on that list. The harder questions, like loadout randomness and tutorial structure, are design decisions the community will clearly have opinions on.
And One Unanimous Request
It came up more than once, and we’d be failing in our duties not to pass it on: the dogs need tails. Players want them wagging when a reward pod lands. They also want more breeds and outfit customisation — the kind of request that only comes from people who’ve grown genuinely attached to their pack.
Things to Know
📋 Setting Expectations
• Not released yet — Early Access is “coming soon,” with no date or price announced
• Solo or up to four players online; broadband required
• Full controller support for Xbox and PlayStation pads
• Six accessibility features listed
• Four languages, with full English voice audio
• Steam Deck compatibility unknown
• Minimum spec is a GTX 1660 / RX 590 and 8 GB RAM; RTX 2060 recommended
• Includes in-game chat and online interactivity
• If you enjoy Helldivers 2 or Risk of Rain 2, this is squarely in your lane
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good |
The Bad |
The Ugly |
| The Pipeline Ties It All TogetherPower, logistics, movement and your escape route in one system. Every pipe matters, so building and fighting never feel like separate phases. |
A Tutorial That Leaves You LostNew players struggled with basic controls, weapon switching and even how to get home. The most common piece of feedback by far. |
Progress-Blocking BugsJoining mid-match could stop you calling your starting weapon, and a scanning bug could freeze progression. Exactly the kind of thing a playtest should catch. |
| Co-op Chaos That WorksThrowing supplies to teammates, flinging enemies, boosting to a downed friend. It’s loud, physical and very funny with a full pack. |
Missions Need Another LayerLittle randomisation, no difficulty select, and moments of “is this it?” mid-shift. More variety is planned — it needs to arrive. |
Randomised Loadouts Can Feel BadRolling nothing you want for a whole mission is a mood-killer. Players want the option to choose. |
| A Great Satirical HookLoyal, obedient, expendable dogs working for a company that still expects them to hit quota. The tone lands. |
Turrets Lack SmartsFriendly fire into each other and into trees, with no line-of-sight preview when placing. |
One Hard CrashA single playtester’s PC locked up entirely on the first snow map. It didn’t happen again, but it’s worth watching. |
| A Specific, Honest EA PlanSix-month target, advance notice on price changes, and a roadmap that already matches most of what players want. |
Clunky AnimationsSeveral movements need polish before launch. |
No TailsWe’re told this is unacceptable. |
The Verdict (For Now)
GRAVHOUNDS already has the hardest thing to get right in a co-op game: it’s fun to play with friends. The pipeline system gives its base-building a real purpose, the Grav Beam turns every fight into a physics toy, and the escalating swarm makes the decision to stay a little longer genuinely tense.
What it doesn’t have yet is depth, onboarding and polish. The tutorial loses new players, the missions need more variety and a second layer of pressure, random loadouts frustrate, and the playtest turned up a handful of progress-blocking bugs. None of that is surprising for a game that hasn’t launched — and Octopus Panic’s Early Access plan reads like a studio that knows it.
The honest read: wishlist it now, and keep an eye out for the next playtest. If you love Helldivers-style co-op and want a base-building twist, this is one of the most promising games in that space. Just give it the Early Access runway it’s asking for — and maybe a tail or two.
For more game reviews, check out our full reviews section.
Playtest Score Breakdown
Early Access Transparency9.0/10
Physics & Grav Beam8.5/10
Base Building & Pipelines8.0/10
Movement & Shooting8.0/10
Mission Depth & Variety6.0/10
Tutorial & Onboarding5.0/10
Provisional Playtest Score
7.5/10
GRAVHOUNDS — Octopus Panic, Inc.
A great pack with a few tricks still to learn
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