MENACE Review Summary

Addictive and engaging gameplay: The gameplay is described as addictive and enjoyable, with a solid gameplay loop that keeps players engaged. Many players find the gameplay challenging, rewarding, and highly replayable.

Unique squad mechanics: The game features unique squad mechanics, including squad interactions, squad-based mechanics, and unique squad leaders with special skillsets. These mechanics add depth and variety to the gameplay.

Strategic and tactical depth: The game offers a high level of strategic and tactical depth, with a deep tactical layer and strategic depth in AI behavior and team building. Players appreciate the complexity and depth of the gameplay.

Great visuals and sound design: The game's visuals and sound design are highly praised, with players noting the great visuals, pleasant graphics, and excellent sound effects. The detailed visuals and high-quality sound design contribute to the overall enjoyment of the game.

Similar to XCOM: The game is often compared to XCOM, with players noting similarities and seeing it as an excellent spiritual successor to the XCOM series. This comparison is seen as a positive aspect of the game.

AI needs significant improvement: The AI in the game is criticized for being ineffective, silly, and in need of reworking. Players find the AI behavior unrealistic and exploitable.

Repetitive mission structure: Missions are often described as repetitive and following the same template. This repetitiveness can lead to a sense of monotony and lack of engagement.

Story content lacking depth: The game's story is frequently described as weak, light, and lacking in depth. Players express a desire for more cohesive and engaging narrative elements.

Game lacks polish: The game is noted to have rough edges and lacks polish. Players mention that it feels unfinished and needs additional work.

Limited content: The game is criticized for having limited content, which affects replayability. Players express a need for more content and additions.

Turn-based strategy and tactical gameplay: The game features a strong emphasis on turn-based strategy and tactical combat, often compared to XCOM. It includes elements of turn-based missions and incorporates RPG elements alongside RTS mechanics.

Squad-based mechanics and interactions: The game features squad-based mechanics, including squad leaders with unique abilities and traits. Squad interactions and specialization are important aspects of gameplay.

Diverse enemy factions and strategies: Different enemy factions require unique strategies and approaches. The game includes a variety of enemy types and behaviors, adding depth to the tactical gameplay.

High and varied difficulty levels: Players note the game's challenging difficulty, with various settings and a steep difficulty curve. The game is hard to master and offers different difficulty levels to cater to various player skills.

Planets and factions gameplay: The game includes a strategic layer with factions competing over planets. Players engage in planet exploration and faction interactions.

Good optimization and performance: The game is generally well-optimized and runs smoothly across various hardware configurations, including mid-range and high-end PCs, as well as on the Steam Deck despite not being officially optimized for it.

Few technical issues: Many players report experiencing zero or minimal technical issues, with no crashes or bugs affecting their gameplay.

Stable performance: The game demonstrates stable performance, particularly on high-end hardware, ensuring a consistent gaming experience.

Quick loading times: Players have noted that the game has quick loading times, contributing to a smoother gaming experience.

Recommended for tactical strategy fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of tactical strategy games, especially those who enjoy titles like XCOM, Xenonauts, and Battle Brothers. It is praised for its intense tactical battles and brutal sci-fi action.

Additional features and options: Requests for additional features include the option to choose different majors, the type of ship, weapon proficiency, more realistic portraits, more campaign options, and a New Game Plus mechanic.

Try the demo first: New players to the genre are advised to try the demo before purchasing the full game. This helps ensure the game meets their expectations.

Quality of life improvements: Suggestions for quality of life improvements include adding weapon stats to accessory item descriptions, adding a simulation for trying out different loadouts, and implementing cinematic cameras.

More content and variety needed: Players are requesting more content, including gameplay options, unique characters, abilities, gear, weapons, commanders, vehicles, enemies, mission types, and skills.

Community fair range: $25.00 - $40.00.

Game completion: 30.0h.

The game starts fun and engaging but becomes repetitive and less enjoyable over time, particularly after the initial challenging and captivating early hours.

Reported time to anchor: 1h.

Friction: Lack of clear tutorial; Repetitive missions; Tedious gameplay loop.

Unlock drivers: Satisfying mission completion; Engaging early challenges.

Hardcore Tactician: Careful planning, calculation, and long-term strategy. Motivation: Strategic depth and challenge. Stance: buy.

Accessibility Enthusiast: Balanced approach, enjoys learning and mastering mechanics. Motivation: Accessible yet deep gameplay. Stance: buy.

Customization Experimenter: Experimental, enjoys trying out different setups and strategies. Motivation: Customization and replayability. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback reveals several key issues impacting the Steam Deck experience. The most significant problems include the lack of UI scaling and small text size, which makes the game difficult to read and navigate. Additionally, there is a strong demand for better controller support, which is essential for a seamless gaming experience on the Steam Deck. Stability issues, such as crashes and freezes, have also been reported, further detracting from the user experience. While some users have successfully run the game on Linux using Proton, this requires additional configuration. Despite these issues, some users have reported positive performance on the Steam Deck with certain adjustments.

Monetization: The game exhibits several predatory monetization practices, including the use of paid Gacha mechanics, overpriced items, and potential pay-to-win DLCs. These practices can significantly impact the user experience and are seen as aggressive monetization strategies.

External guides: The analysis of user feedback reveals significant issues related to the game's reliance on external data management tools, lack of in-game instructional data, complex mechanics without adequate guidance, and insufficient tutorials. These issues are causing frustration and detracting from the overall user experience.

Request for Workshop support: Players are expressing a desire for Workshop support, which would allow for user-generated content and mods to enhance the game.

Drag-and-drop squad leader portraits: Players have expressed a wish for the ability to drag-and-drop squad leader portraits, which would enhance customization and user interface flexibility.

Early Access status: The game is currently in Early Access, which means it is still under development and may have incomplete features or bugs.

Photo mode suggestion: There is a suggestion from players for the addition of a photo mode, which would allow them to take in-game screenshots.

Feedback link available: The developers have provided a link for players to submit feedback, showing their commitment to improving the game based on player input.