S.O.N.A.R. Preview — Where Are You Going to Go From a Submarine?!

The friendslop genre keeps conquering the gaming world. Following the success of Among Us and Lethal Company, a whole wave of co-op games has risen with deliberately clumsy physics and animations, a low entry barrier and a focus on creating the most ridiculous situations possible. At first, the word "friendslop" was more of an insult, describing cheap games with primitive graphics, but it quickly turned out that climbing a mountain together, like in PEAK, solving puzzles, like in Big Walk, or fishing with a shotgun, like in How to Fish, is not silly at all — it's genuinely fun. Especially if you've got good company.

We got our hands on a demo of an upcoming friendslop title — S.O.N.A.R., a co-op submarine simulator where players have to survive together in a confined space, put out fires on board, launch torpedoes and slap each other across the face. Let's see how fun it really is.

Like other friendslop games, S.O.N.A.R. mixes the serious with the absurd. On the serious side, there's the division of duties in running the submarine, like in Barotrauma, and detailed work with the instruments, like in Iron Nest: Heavy Turret Simulator.

The developer is serious too (by friendslop standards) — Spanish studio Abylight Barcelona, which has a 20-year history and is known for the military tycoon One Military Camp and the city-building sim Citadelum. The developers revealed that S.O.N.A.R. is being made (get this!) with the official support of the Spanish Navy, which gave them access to the technical documentation of submarines and let them aboard a real submarine to record sounds and study the instruments.

But don't be scared — none of this turns the game into a serious survival sim. It's no accident that the developers spell out the title as Submarine Operators Not Actually Ready. The game takes its cue from Overcooked! and Lethal Company, focusing not on realism but on humor and creating chaos — no wonder friendslop is often called Chaos Co-op.

The core gameplay of S.O.N.A.R. is as simple as it gets: players have to keep their sub afloat while carrying out combat and reconnaissance missions — torpedoing enemy ships, searching for treasure, slipping past enemy radars and protecting merchant convoys.

To keep the vessel alive, the crew has to work the instruments — and not just press a single button, but flip toggle switches, turn valves, equalize pressure and calibrate complex sonar systems. There are nine instruments, including the navigation station, where you have to plot a course in pitch darkness, the sonar that scans the depths, the periscope for surveying the surface and the torpedo launch station.

On a real submarine, all these combat tasks are handled by a crew of dozens, each with their own area of responsibility. But in S.O.N.A.R., the crew is four people at most, and they have nine control stations to cover (in the demo, without friends, you have to do everything alone). So you'll be constantly running from station to station to patch up leaks, dodge enemy torpedoes and keep an eye on the oxygen level. Of course, over time your team will figure out who does what, but that won't make things any less chaotic or panicky.

Panic is the main source of fun in the game. Something on the sub is always breaking, and there's very little time for repairs. Under these conditions, you'll inevitably mix up buttons, accidentally flood the vessel and yell into the mic: "Mayday! Save your captain, you landlubbers!" By the way, voice chat takes distance into account (proximity chat): how well you hear each other depends on where exactly on the sub the players are. So, just like in a real navy, you'll have to get used to reporting loudly, quickly and to the point. You can express your feelings toward a crewmate not only with a strong word but also with a good slap — also just like in a real navy (I hope I'm joking!).

Much like the evening news, S.O.N.A.R. is a great simulator of stress, panic and chaos. That's the whole point of the game, as with every friendslop title. The demo is fairly short and only shows the starting content, but if the developers' promises are to be believed, the full release will feature competitive multiplayer (two teams battling it out sub vs. sub), a survival mode, a crew stress and illness system, leaderboards and plenty of character customization options. As the developers joke: "If you're going to make terrible decisions underwater, you might as well look stylish doing it."

It's already clear that S.O.N.A.R. isn't worth playing solo or with strangers. It's a game for a well-coordinated (or not) group of friends — that's the only way it'll be truly fun.

In the meantime, let's get the champagne ready to break against the hull, as tradition demands. On October 29, 2026, the S.O.N.A.R. submarine leaves dry dock and sets off on its maiden voyage.