Menace is a brutal game. It doesn’t mess around. It will punish every mistake and put you in overwhelming situations very often. But it’s also kind enough to generously reward success, which is why Battle Brothers developer Overhype Studios has another winner in its hands.
I was positive on the game in its late-ish 2025 form following a hands-on preview, but I had my doubts about how the regular crowd would react to such a demanding turn-based RPG and strategy experience. From the grim governing aesthetic to the no-room-for-errors approach to otherwise simple commands and squad progression, Menace isn’t the kind of game I’d run to recommend to a newcomer. Now, I realise they never were a target. Git gud or get out.
Its early access build already feels more polished than many 1.0 releases, and that includes a number of QoL changes and smart adjustments that make most of the experience more readable and inviting. Even in defeat, restarting and “rolling” another run (procedural generation fuels the entirety of a Menace) is very quick and painless. Well, you’re likely to miss your upgraded ship and experienced marines, but Overhype Studios’ new game ultimately feels more like a turn-based survival experience, as the focused narrative beats of big influences like XCOM aren’t present, at least for now.
Even the tutorial is (strangely) kept to a bare minimum. Menace wants to hit the ground running, throwing eager players, experienced or otherwise, to the wolves before going “I told you so” explicitly and implicitly. After an accident during travel to the lawless Wayback system, the ship that serves as the marines’ base of operations (which will remind you of the USS Sulaco from Aliens) is barely functional, and most of the crew has been lost to deep space. Bouncing back from that situation while trying to make friends in the most unfriendly system in the universe won’t be easy. After all, you’re trying to bring order to a place that doesn’t want any of it.
At first, Menace doesn’t seem overly harsh. You start out with four randomized squad leads and plenty of squaddies to burn through (extra members that serve as the HP bar for squads). You can even get a free vehicle from the get-go which greatly helps with troop transport and enemy suppression. Take on a few one/two-star missions to warm up and you’ll be making a bit of cash (through trade of found items) and gaining rep in no time.
Unfortunately, biting the dust and losing almost your entire marine detachment is equally easy. Spend too many action points (AP) in a single movement and you might walk into an ambush, as the maps are only revealed depending on your lines of view. Your marines will be suppressed in no time and losing squaddies fast before the leaders are also downed and waiting for a revive.
This causes a domino effect, as lower HP bars equals less squad members shooting at the enemies and thus a smaller damage output per turn. Going from “this is easy-peasy” to “it’s so over” is only a couple of turns away. The alien “bug” faction that makes the big Aliens and Starship Troopers influences even more obvious might be the easiest of the bunch to deal with, as they, at least, generally have to get close to units to deal some serious damage.
When you face Space Pirates and other factions who have access to the technology and ranged weaponry (though the bugs have acid spits as well), things typically get tougher way quicker. They can take cover, make grenades land at your feet, and hit you from afar with hard-hitting guns in every way you can. Even otherwise weak squads of pirates can quickly mow down a full group of well-equipped marines. They may be goofy, but they’re not harmless.
Needless to say, smart placement and patience remain the key to success in this game, but specializing with the right perks and diversity before entering a mission can substantially change the outcome of most firefights. Similarly, choosing the right items/loot to sell in exchange for much better weaponry as well as stronger armour can make difference. Again, bad moves will ruin your day more than once, but you can never be too well-prepared.
The odds will be stacked against you in almost every mission, but with no meta progression to fall back to, the path forward is always in front of you provided you make the right choices. Make the most of what you have and maybe you’ll live long enough to save enough money for a mechanized terror. The thick, grim atmosphere supports the ruthless vibes of its game design, and only well-placed cheesy one-liners and barks that make the marines feel alive and true to the game’s cinematic influences add levity and triumph to the gory warfare which characterizes the Wayback and its corpo-dominated future.
Menace is almost a dark sci-fi, turn-based version of the Mount & Blade games. There’s a huge setting thrown into constant chaos and you can forge your own legend in it or die trying. Every run is a new opportunity to forge vastly different alliances, make a handful of doubtful decisions, and roll the dice until you run out of luck. There are no wrong choices when everything is wrong. Just do your best and learn for future runs.
None of this would work if the moment-to-moment gameplay didn’t have a solid hook, but it does, and I personally believe it all comes down to its simplicity and tight design. Beyond APs, using the right skills at the right moment, and movement in enemy-infested battlefields, there isn’t much to Menace on a surface level. It’s easy to jump into, but hard to master.
Of course, underneath its approachable but gritty surface, there’s a sea of stats, perks, different weapons, equipment, and percentages that can work for or against you. This also applies to the enemies, and while I’ve yet to encounter foes that match XCOM’s worst, the grounded nature of the game and all your units means they’re as easily expendable as every bug, pirate, or cyborg you destroy. Don’t get too attached to anyone, but treat them well.
A deeper analysis of Menace’s mechanics and systems isn’t a good use of my time at this point, in any case, as early access means things are likely to be altered and fine-tuned until the game nears its 1.0 launch. What I can say for sure is that it already looks, sounds, and feels like something worth putting down money for. Again, publisher Hooded Horse remains truly undefeated when it comes to curation and making sure every game that goes out is ready for “public consumption.”
As bullets continue to fly into my poor squaddies’ skulls before each mission is over, my tanks run over the pirates stupid enough to stand in front of them, and I dream of the day I can survive long enough to afford a killer mech, Menace is off to a strong launch on Steam and other platforms even without a multiplayer component. This mission is a success.
Menace (early access) is now available on PC (Steam, GOG, and Epic Games). No console versions are planned at the time of writing.
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