Menace (Early Access)

It starts well, with a trailer that looks inspired by Astartes, Terminator, Aliens and Starship Troopers. It should have some common denominators, as it was created by the talented Syama Pedersen, who is behind projects such as Astartes. It is clear that Overhype Studios knows how to build an exciting universe. The intro sequence hints at a dark dystopian future. Their previous work, Battle Brothers, is one of my personal favourite games in this genre, so it was a no-brainer for me to try this title as well. It's clear that the studio has a higher budget, as everything from the graphics and music to the cutscenes is significantly better than before. However, you should go into it with the mindset that it is still more of an indie game than a high-budget production. Even though the studio has a publisher, graphically and technically it is not even close to productions like XCOM 2. Rather, it resembles titles like Xenonauts 2.

It starts off quite confusing with lots of information about why you are where you are, and Overhype Studios has chosen not to explain much. Initially, it feels like you are thrown into the game without having played a prologue or understanding the world in any way. I think that's a bit of a shame. The stars of this Early Access are the factions, the world, the universe and the story, all of which are highly interesting. My suspicion is that this will be expanded later. That said, there are nearly fifty hours of content to get out of this version of the title. You can certainly double that if you play through the content more than once. That's quite a lot of content you get in this preview version.

There is a training mode, and it prepares you for the enemies in much the same way as they do in the Starship Troopers film. You will be challenged quite immediately once the game starts in earnest.

What I like most about the title is the squad leader system. You choose a leader for each group of soldiers or a pilot/driver for your vehicles. They all have personalities, voice acting, and talk to each other during missions. It's a bit similar to Jagged Alliance in that regard. Every time your troops take out an enemy or do something, you get a dose of voice acting, which brings the missions to life in a way that many other titles in the genre fail to do. You care more about your troops, even though it's only the leaders who engage in conversation. Each leader can also have up to 8 soldiers that you can name if you want. These troops don't say anything, but they are affected by the equipment, weapons, and other items you give to the group leader between missions. Overhype Studios did a good job of giving the mercenaries in Battle Brothers personality, and that's evident here as well. Each group leader can then be upgraded on roughly the same premise. You need to do this to deal with the enemies.

When you start the game, there isn't much you can do. You have few resources, and those you do have are used to ensure that your soldiers have full strength and are equipped with the most rudimentary gear you have access to. It will also take a while before you can upgrade the spaceship you control. To obtain resources to purchase more equipment, manpower, upgrade your group leaders, and repair the damaged spaceship you are aboard, you need to complete operations. Each planet has one or more operations, which in turn contain four or more individual missions that you complete in order. It's a bit like how roguelites work when you choose a path through a number of missions. Completed missions give you advantages for the next mission, and depending on which one you choose in the order, the final missions can be radically affected. Another way to think about it is the final mission in Wings of Liberty. You may stop the insects from digging tunnels or reduce the number of enemies in later missions. It's a robust system that works well, and each mission has a description of why it's beneficial, even if you can't play them all during a single operation.

Vehicles can be powerful tools against certain enemy groups. However, all opponents have anti-vehicle weapons.

Once you have completed the operations, you will be given resources to upgrade your spaceship, which is necessary. This may mean that you have more information on the battlefields, that you can call in air strikes, or that you can constantly recruit more troops to reinforce your group leaders. Individual soldiers will die, and you'll need to replenish your ranks to survive the multitude of threats you'll encounter. Should an entire squad fall with your leader, you'll have a couple of rounds to rescue him. This means you won't have to lose your precious leaders if something goes wrong during the mission. You can take my word for it that things will go wrong, given how extensive some enemies can damage your soldiers. A well-placed grenade from the enemy can be enough to knock out your troops.

The early enemies consist of humans and insects, but you will also encounter the faction that gave the game its name. The humans consist of pirates and others, but require you to use suppressive machine gun fire and good forward movement behind cover. The insects, on the other hand, can be lured towards your troops, and with your weapons you can quickly destroy these types of troops. Even the more armoured insects can be effectively lured into traps, and with the help of grenade launchers, armour-piercing ammunition and other weapons, you can deal with them relatively easily. The final enemy, which is a mix of Alien and Terminator, is not quite as easy to defeat. They offer suicide bombers, mines, snipers, and what most closely resembles Skynet's Hunter-Killer tanks. They are also a mysterious enemy, and you don't really know why they are causing problems in this alien solar system you find yourself in.

Your leaders have a lot to say.

Even though the AI isn't always the smartest in its decision-making, the variety and strategies you need to apply are diverse. Battle Brothers was unique in that you had to think carefully before encountering the enemy. You can't really fight the people in Menace the same way you fight the insects. With a bit of luck, this will be utilised and expanded further, just like in their previous title. The progression as it appears in this Early Access is based on you completing operations, purchasing new equipment, and upgrading both your troops and your spaceship. After one or a couple of operations, you get new dialogue and the story moves forward. Without giving too much away, I'm curious to see what's to come. Unfortunately, for some reason, I couldn't access the encyclopaedia in the game. This meant that I couldn't read more about the universe and its components.

Aside from the storytelling, the battles are the main attraction of the game, and I think they maintain a level of difficulty without being as difficult as Battle Brothers. You move your troops through squares, and they have a certain amount of points to move, rotate, sit down, or attack. Some weapons require your troops to sit down, which requires points. This requires you to balance your points, what you encounter, distance and proximity to other troop types. Initially, the game is relatively simple; you move your troops and defeat enemies of equal strength. When the heavier artillery rolls onto the battlefield and you struggle with the economy, it throws the balance off a bit. Some battles are difficult in a good way, but you find yourself fighting more and more against the odds. My thought is that this may require a slight balancing change, as I felt that the player's economy did not scale perfectly with the difficulty level. It is manageable, but it does not feel quite right yet. Especially considering that this does not attempt to emulate the difficulty level of their previous creations.

After an operation, you can choose a reward. I failed to complete certain missions in a certain number of rounds, which resulted in four stars instead of five. Completing the side missions can ensure that the rewards are greater.

If you like the idea of leading an elite force, building relationships with different factions, battling movie-inspired enemies, and challenging yourself in a demanding tactical turn-based strategy game, this is great. Although the game performs smoothly and well, sounds good, and didn't have many bugs, it is Early Access. The skeleton of a good product is in place, it's really entertaining, and I'm fascinated by the universe they've built. It's not quite the same clear-cut hit that Battle Brothers is today, but all the potential is there. It's also much easier to jump into, even though it's challenging in places. However, I found the resource system a little easier to manage than in their previous work. It's exciting, addictive, and the battles have just the right amount of intensity in terms of sound, voice acting, and variety to keep you wanting more. I also had no technical issues.

If you're like me and like the studio behind this project, you should check it out. However, if you're new to the genre and the studio's previous work, you should be aware that the game demands more from you than many of its competitors. There is a learning curve here, and you will lose from time to time. In this game, it's not really possible to recover if you lose too much early on. It's possible to handle the loss of a single team leader, as you can hire more via the black market. However, at present, it doesn't have the same feeling of coming back after a loss as in their previous title or in XCOM. However, you can cancel an operation even if you have completed a couple of missions, at the cost of a relationship loss. This means you are never stuck in a loop of failure but can cancel and try another operation. This means you don't have to worry too much about reloading a save file. On the other hand, I think it's a bit of a shame that losses aren't better baked into the product.

There are choices to be made between missions, and these can lead to new missions or rewards.

In summary, it's a successful game. The skeleton of a truly great experience is here. The battles, enemies and other elements of the game are varied and interesting. Their phenomenal intro sequence clashes a little with the rest of the title's production values, but I'm satisfied. It's still a small indie studio that's going from strength to strength. It is an exciting game with an interesting universe, and the Early Access version can give you up to fifty hours of content as it stands at the time of this review. You can probably get through it faster if you rush, and the replay value is high. The amount of vehicles, weapons, and equipment, combined with the upgrade system, allows for many ways to play. Each enemy faction also requires its own strategies, equipment, and approach to win. For these reasons, I can highly recommend Menace. It stands out in a good way in the genre and is challenging in a good way.

The character upgrade system is good. You have a shared resource for promoting soldiers, which forces you to choose who gets an upgrade. You can also lower someone's level to get some points back if necessary. I think it's a good system that forces you to make choices.