Xenopurge

I like the idea of the game. Unfortunately, the gameplay gets very repetitive very fast (in about two runs). There are only a handful of mission types and enemy types, and all of the maps are a square with a jumble of rooms and corridors. The maps don't matter at all though, all missions are completely defined by where the mission objectives and enemy spawners randomly end up. There aren't any varied character builds to speak of (just upgrading weapons and speed solves the game), and none of the unlocks seem very exciting. There's just not enough stuff here. The minimalist presentation doesn't help cover up the minimalist content, either.

This is a game that seamlessly blends a lot of sci fi concepts into a overarching theme of what it's like to be a commander/overseer of continuing operations leading soldiers into dangerous territories with even more dangerous aliens. For ALIENS geeks out there you're basically playing the part of a commander Gorman -- you call the shots, but it's the soldiers on the ground that are doing the fighting and the dying for you, and reaping the rewards of your good decisions and suffering the consequences of your failure. You don't directly control your soldiers, which at first can be somewhat disorienting, but you can give them all sorts of commands and parameters and see how they play out with them. who follows who. Who sets up what gear, who's recon and who's overwatch. Who grabs what -- in addition you have some agency in certain situations administering resources, locking doors and pushing buttons and levers from your operations room safe from the battle -- but if you can't keep your troops alive, everyone is toast. Between missions you have meaningful training and upgrading for your soldiers which I must say is full as heck -- having to make meaningful decisions like: "does everybody get a little bit of training across the board, or do I try to turn one or two soldiers into unstoppable behemoths?" "Can I work with the resources I have? Do I save them to spend more at the next opportunity?" Your soldiers can be diverse -- from conventional operators, to stoic androids, to tech heads, and even metamorphs I have yet to play with. This plus customization gives strategy for so many playstyles and there is always a choice to make, leading to outlandish success or crushing failure. Do you pair up your soldiers or even mass them as a squad, or send them in all directions to map things out before the temperature gets too hot? (just an example) Objectives are diversse like gathering intel, wiping out hives, securing logs and packages, or several or all at once. Your small squads stand or fall on your fast decisions and between mission planning.. It matters, and the excitement and dopamine comes from being right in your assessments or getting smacked for your hubris. The gameloop is fun, the pace is fast (though there are options to slow/dilate time if desired) and the theme and troop dialogue keep you immersed in the fight. The game is low on graphics which means it has nothing to stand on but it's gameplay, so when I say the game is FUN and ENGROSSING -- it's doing it without bells, whistles or sparkle. Just strategy, meaningful choices, your wits, and your options. Squad based mission games are a dime a dozen. Few distinguish themselves like this game does. Part Roguelight, part Xcommy mission based shooter/brawler (melee is as valid as range!) part it's very own thing, I give this game my strong endorsement. If you need shiny graphics go play a round of candyland. If you are ready to get stuck in the dark with countless objectives and relentless monsters, play this game. Highly recommended.

I really want to like this game but it falls short. Time is the enemy, aliens spawn increases with each wave. It pushes you to be as efficient as possible, to give commands quickly and correctly. It is suck when your soldiers die, but it pushes you to go for another run. Graphics are meh, but that's OK. Run times are short, about 10 mins or so. The game is repetitive but it tries to mix it up with different squads, random maps, weapons, armor, missions and commands. This is a rogue like so anything you buy gets wiped after every run. You can have a maximum of 4 soldiers. Your initial squad is always a mix of types. There are 3 types, but the only one that is useful is the "Stand and Fight" soldier. The other 2 will make you quit the game. "Stand" soldier will stop and then shoot when you see an alien. "Charge" will charge at an alien, no matter how far, will NOT shoot. "Fallback" soldier will run away from an alien and will ONLY shoot when it hits a wall. Later on in a mission, as aliens increase in numbers, it extremely hard to keep your people together. And you need to keep them together as waves go by. A soldier on their own later on a mission is a dead soldier. The trick is to know when to group up. You lose time as your soldiers have to waste it by grouping up after every battle. Later on a map you can upgrade the 2 crappy soldiers so they finally shoot while moving. It makes the 2 crappy soldiers slightly viable but they will still get your squad killed. You can also pick an initial squad with "upgraded logic" but again, it only makes the 2 crappy types slightly viable. I wish there was a way to change the initial soldiers types. I would pick only "Stand" soldiers. The path finding is mediocre. Sometimes they will slow down for no reason. This is especially so if you have 4 of them. Sometimes a soldier will decide to not recon a room it was designated (it is already at the door) simply because the recon assignments get switched after another finishes what they were doing. The mission types are good except for one. VIP missions. The VIP is slow. The VIP has no gun. Most importantly, the VIP will take up one of your 4 slots. Escort missions are the worst part in 99% of games. Xenopurge is part of the majority. It will make you check the randomly created maps and reroll if you can not find a way to avoid it. That's how horrible it is. Oh, minor gripe, but you can only "reroll" a map from the "Main Menu" screen. It is quick to do with mouse and keyboard. Just <ESC>, click, click. But with a gamepad, you have to press "Settings" button then scroll all the way down to select "Main menu", then "Start new run". It get's old when you want to reroll maps lots of times to avoid VIP missions. The weapons and armors/equipment are good, no complaints. Some have interesting advantages and disadvantages but they make sense. Like a heavy armor that will slow you down and lose accuracy. Or a shotgun with +dmg if an enemy is 1 tile away. There's these things in game called "Commands". You can buy them to expand what your soldiers can do in a run. I've only bought "Turret" and "Overwatch" commands. The other's seemed superfluous to me but I suspect it depends on your individual play style. Note that different squad types have different default commands and they will greatly influence how you play. After trying them out I find the most stable squad is the starting squad as they start with the limited use "Heal" and "Haste". Yes I know it is not called Haste. To summarize, the gameplay is great but it is greatly marred by being forced to use 2 crappy soldier types for "variety". What is frustrating is that if they only used "Stand and fight" soldier, it would make the game more fun. The pathing adds even more frustration when it causes undeserved loss. The frustration adds up to a point where it is no longer fun but torture. Oh, yes VIP missions. Even more torture. I'm going to uninstall the game. I have no idea if i will ever play it again. The good new is that I got it on sale so it does not hurt as much.

Autobattler isn't quite right, more like an indirect commands tactical game (and roguelike). Very satisfying.

The constant flickering between mouse/keyboard buttons and controller buttons on the screen is horrible. Well since I waited to give this a try I guess I am stuck with this junk purchase that will never get played. A PC game should 100% be Mouse and Keyboard compatible with the ability to turn off all references to controllers. If you can't play it mouse and keyboard then take it to the consoles.

I've wanted auto-battler that are like these. I like being the man in the chair. It can get repetitive at the start, but it really helps to acclimate me to the system and hotkeys. Pretty nice, will play to at least unlock all of the upgrades and learn the story.

I really wanted to like this game, but there's just not enough here to keep my interest. there's not enough content for it to be a strategic or tactical battler, and the gameplay gets repetitive really quickly. If this was labelled early access, I'd encourage people to support development, but as a full release, I can't recommend it. It's great to see the developers are releasing updates, and someday this might be compelling, but not right now

Who knew that just by looking at blue and red dots walking around the square maps can be this engaging and stressful, it may look simple but can be quite complex depending on your strategy by either going slow but will be at risk of more enemies as the time passes or rushing and spreading out everywhere to complete the objectives as fast as you can but can be at high risk if one of your soldiers went too deep. It comes with 4 types of playstyle and each with multiple loadout variants, it's ranging from just general of brute forces, playing strategically or hunting xenoes to farm their biomass to upgrade yourself. You must adapt and improve your gameplay as you customize your difficulty to become harder to unlock more contents. It's purely adjustable, so you can play at your own pace. As you're in the command of clone soldiers, they are expendables, but will come at the cost of paying for their re-clone after mission which they will retain their stats and gears. It will hurt your run as you need to keep upgrading your soldiers with new weapons, gears and command in order to win the run. Still, I wish that developer will add more types of enemies and objectives into the game as you will see almost everything within a few hours of playing, and adding more campaign length of the player characters.

short and sweet. has a lot of potential, wish for some qol improvements and some meta progression thats actually meaningful.

Pretty unique atmospheric command game. Says it's an autobattler but its got more in common with an RTS.