Who needs a radiator when you have "The headliners" Uses 40% GPU on lowest graphics with a 3080.

Also my friend tried to play this game (on a laptop) and he got 5 fps yet his laptop can handle games like lethal company and repo.
5/10

If you get a good group of people together the game is very fun!

We always see the main character of an alien invasion or a big kaiju event roaming the derelict streets after a wave of terror flushes through a big city, the debris of constant attacks strewn about the roads and sidewalks crumbling at the weight of past events. You see the floating remains of the Tuesday paper, the main story a blurred image of a titanic monster and its minions cascading through buildings wrecking havoc. You dare not be too close to it for it’s too dangerous, but you can’t help but wonder: who had the balls to even take that picture?

You, dammit! That’s your ballsy picture in The Headliners. Fly solo into the danger zone or tag along 7 other friends to get the latest and greatest shots of an alien invasion taking over parts of the Big City of New York. Deadly creatures roam the streets and reporters are the only source of information, so any and every shot is worth taking and only the best will hit the front page. So grab your favorite camera, find the wildest photo you can take, and make sure to come back alive: your camera isn’t getting to the film room by itself you know?

A good photo op requires preparation. Each stage starts at home base, where you can pick a photographer of your choosing and an assortment of items to purchase for your trip. Purchase a camera with more zoom, more storage (my personal favorite), or a higher point counter at the cost of less storage. Get some kicks to run faster or increase your stamina; grab a trap or two to help keep what you’re looking to photograph stable or to save your ass from danger. Maybe increase your inventory space with a handy backpack? Money is shared amongst the team so adjust amounts accordingly or be that guy and go out looking like you hit every street vendor in the city to assemble your (ass-kicking outfit).

Objectives are handled by hitting a point threshold within three trips to a section of the city, and points are accrued through the photos you take. If you’ve fiddled around with Dead Rising’s PP accumulation via snapshots you’re ahead of the game: photos are valued by the amount of notable objects in frame alongside multipliers for specific happenings. Catch a rather explosive shot? Points multiply. See a major kaiju destroying the block? Multiply it. Getting a little too close to death and misfortune? Hello everyone, my name is Multiplier. Points are collected once everyone gets back in the chopper to return home, but your camera must make it back for your photos to count. If you die and your camera lays with your corpse, your good photos will never be seen.

You and your crew will touch down in one of 5 areas, with a level indicator of how dangerous the territory is. Later stages will increase the danger meter which will increase the point value of your potential masterpieces. Each area will have a few rooms to enter that will randomly generate its residents, but you’ll quickly identify areas as the same rooms get reused heavily. Once you’re in, you’ll case each area to take photos of aliens terrorizing the civilians or your own teammates. You do get a bonus for seeing friends get mauled, so if you have friends who are bad at games, they are actually very specifically good here! Getting hit by creatures may cost you a limb, but seeing friends getting blasted by aliens is a hysterical setup that never got old in our playthroughs. Hearing multiple shutters from cameras as your buddy gets thrown around by a tentacle monster never gets old.

Each stage is on a ten minute time limit, so fast work on filling your camera is necessary. But the longer you stay, the spicier your surroundings become, so holding out and seeing how tremendously violent the area starts to become, it’s worth saving a few shots to see how the rather inept military packs handle the invading forces. Once you feel like you’ve done enough, or it becomes crazy enough that being around starts to not feel worth it anymore, book it back to the helicopter to collect your earnings and see if the points you grabbed is enough to beat the level. The best photo on the run that completes the level gets front page honors in your base of operations, so flaunt those pictures and save your best ones by downloading them straight to your PC.

Point values and getting hectic shots are key, but in my playthroughs I did notice some irregularities with certain situations. Being behind the helicopter negates your photos to 0 points but wasn’t made aware until we got back from our stage, which was a bummer. Sometimes the point values given feel very “Whose Line is it Anyway?” where the multipliers and what is provided on your shot feel made up, and most of the times it leaned on the side of less points, which again was a bummer.

Some of the enemies are dangerous but fair where invading their space is beneficial but will get your arm torn off, but a few of the enemies, namely the one that hurls rocks at you, felt a little too powerful to be so common. You’ll know what I mean but it’s almost impossible to avoid getting deleted by a boulder if you’re seen in open space against one of these guys, so if you’re targeted make sure to get a friend to catch your impending death because it’s not gonna be avoided. Some of the kaijus are big point givers, but the Tornado Kaiju in particular always gave out sighs of disappointment as you’re not getting good points off of it and later stages need heavy multipliers from the destruction made by them.

Lastly, while each stage has its splash of flavor, Chinatown being my personal favorite, there is a distinct lack of content currently available. Each stage remains aesthetically the same with only the amount and danger level of enemies changing with each stage. The combo of random happenings is unlimited but the areas start to get stale after seeing the same rooms over and over again. This is potentially going to be remedied with a major update happening in May, but it’s worth noting if you start your photo runs now that you’ll recognize places very quickly.

But with games like REPO, Content Warning, and Lethal Company showing the gaming world: it’s not the size of the game that makes it fun, it’s what you do with what you have with the group you’re with. While the content is thin, the core gameplay loop of The Headliners is hilariously set up and polished brightly to where the missteps don’t blemish the full picture, and getting a few tours in with your buddies is a shot worth taking.

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