MENACE Review – A Tactical Sci-Fi Strategy RPG for XCOM and Battle Brothers Fans

MENACE is the latest game from Overhype Studios, the team behind the popular, challenging strategy game, Battle Brothers. Given their previous success, many fans were eagerly anticipating MENACE. Does it live up to the excitement? Absolutely. MENACE is shaping up to be a top game of 2026 and one of the best turn-based strategy titles we’ll see all year.

Genre: Turn-Based Strategy | Roleplaying Game | Sci-Fi
Developer: Overhype Studios
Publisher: Hooded Horse
Price: $TBA | TBA€ | £TBA
Release Date: 5 February, 2026
Reviewer: Nuno Marques (PC)
Target Audience: Turn-Based Strategy players; RPG fans; Battle Brothers players; XCOM players
Final Score: 8.5/10

What is MENACE?

I’m really excited about MENACE! It’s a strategy RPG where you play as a commander in the Republic Marine Corps. Basically, you lead a team against all sorts of enemies – both human and alien – across this really wild and dangerous star system called the Wayback system. It’s all turn-based, so you have time to think out your moves.

Your ship is heavily damaged and you’ve lost contact with everyone, putting you in a critical situation. As commander, you need to rebuild your forces by training and equipping your crew, fixing the ship, choosing allies, and deciding where to strike next. Then, lead your team to victory through strategic, turn-based battles.

Okay, so the basic gameplay loop feels pretty familiar if you’ve played games like XCOM, Xenonauts, Battle Brothers, or even Darkest Dungeon. It’s turn-based strategy – you take your squad into fights against increasingly tough enemies. After each battle, you head back to the Impetus, which is basically your crew’s spaceship and home base. That’s where you manage your squad, get new gear, and all that stuff. Honestly, it’s a pretty traditional setup, and MENACE doesn’t really reinvent the wheel, which is exactly what I wanted. I love that the game really focuses on making the combat satisfying, with the strategy parts feeling more like setup for the next fight. If the strategy is the game’s framework, the combat is definitely the heart of it. Let’s dive into that!

Satisfying Tactical Combat

What really makes this game stand out is its turn-based combat, which is incredibly well-designed and enjoyable enough to make the game worthwhile on its own. Unlike games such as XCOM and Jagged Alliance where entire teams move at once, MENACE has a unique system. Players select a single unit, then the turn passes to the enemy, who does the same. This continues, with each side alternating unit choices, until all units have been used, ending the turn.

In the game, each unit has a limited number of action points (AP). Every action they take uses some of these points, and once they run out, the unit can’t do anything else that turn. Units are equipped with both primary and secondary weapons, each customizable for different firing modes like standard attacks or suppressing fire, and they also carry useful items. Movement and cover work similarly to games like XCOM, with terrain providing varying levels of protection – from no cover to partial and full cover. A unique feature of the game is that units can suffer statuses, including suppression, which reduces their available action points. This adds a layer of strategy, as players need to consider positioning carefully – a unit caught in the open can be quickly suppressed and defeated.

The game starts with fairly easy fights that gradually become more challenging and complex. Unlike the developers’ previous game, which immediately threw players into difficult situations, this one eases you in. I appreciate this smoother learning curve, especially since the combat system has a lot of depth and strategy to master.

MENACE creates each battle randomly, making repeat encounters unlikely. While there are tons of different locations, the missions themselves become predictable fairly quickly. You’ll start to figure out each mission type and develop strategies, but without more variety added during Early Access, the game could become repetitive. Having a huge number of battlefields doesn’t matter much if they all boil down to the same basic objective.

I’ve been really impressed with the game so far, especially the depth of its turn-based combat. There’s a huge variety of weapons and equipment to try out, all with detailed designs. Building and equipping your squad is actually a lot of fun, but I’ll get into the bigger strategic campaign aspects next.

Before we continue, I want to share my biggest issue with MENACE’s combat system: the cover doesn’t always match what you see on the battlefield. Often, you’ll think a piece of debris or an object will provide cover for your units, but it turns out to be ineffective. While some objects shouldn’t offer much protection, it would be helpful if the game clearly showed which areas offer no cover, medium cover, or full cover.

Beyond a minor problem with how things look, MENACE has really impressive combat. This is great news, and confirms our initial excitement about the game. The new armored combat system adds a lot of movement options and interesting challenges. With a huge variety of weapons – like machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars, and flamethrowers – and many different team setups, there are tons of strategic possibilities. If the developers continue to improve the game during Early Access as planned, MENACE has the potential to become one of the best turn-based strategy games, alongside titles like XCOM and Battle Brothers.

Skinny Strategic Layer

I’ve already said I don’t mind that MENACE doesn’t have a very complex strategic element – I generally don’t enjoy that part of these types of games anyway, as it often feels overdone and more like work than fun. However, the current strategy aspect might feel a little too simple for some players.

When players return to their base, the Impetus, they can choose their next missions, construct upgrades for the base, trade on the black market, manage their squad, and hire new leaders. However, the squad editing features feel repetitive, as you’ll primarily adjust your team on the mission selection screen. The game could be improved by adding research options, the ability to craft weapons, and a clearer sense of progression. Features like alien artifacts and unique equipment tied to each faction would be welcome additions.

The good news is that the current features are polished and work well. Improving your Impetus base is simple – just choose where to build and what upgrade you want. You can unlock helpful passive abilities like increased intelligence for missions, faster resource gathering, and the ability to revive fallen teammates. There are also exciting active skills available, such as missile strikes, laser turrets, and air support. What’s really great is the flexibility – MENACE lets you customize your Impetus however you like, instead of being limited to a fixed progression. Plus, as you build relationships with different factions, they’ll unlock more base upgrades for you, which you can change whenever you have enough resources.

Choosing a mission is simple: you select a planet (often there’s only one option) and begin an operation made up of a few missions – I’d say around three per operation. I don’t remember ever playing one with more than that. Sometimes you can choose from several missions depending on your progress and how difficult you want the challenge to be. Completing each mission earns you loot and resources, which you can use to get what you need.

In MENACE, you won’t get resources easily. You earn them by winning battles, as there’s no way to simply wait for money to come to you. Since you’re stuck on a hostile planet with no way to contact anyone, combat is essential. Expect to complete around six missions to get good equipment, and about twelve more if you want the best gear from the Black Market.

In the game, the Black Market is where you’ll find everything your squads need. Forget constantly buying ammo, magazines, or medkits – here, you purchase weapons, armor, vehicles, and equipment that automatically restock after each mission. There’s a huge variety of gear in MENACE, which is fantastic! You also use the Black Market to post contracts and recruit new team members.

In-Depth Squad Management

As we discussed in the combat overview for MENACE, a key feature players will likely enjoy is managing their squad. While we couldn’t include visual customization options – like being able to color-code squads based on their roles – we do see that as something players might have appreciated.

Each campaign begins with selecting four squad leaders who represent your teams. These leaders each command a squad of soldiers, and larger squads (up to nine members total, including the leader) are more effective. Each squad has 17 different characteristics and improves by unlocking new abilities as you earn promotion points. These abilities depend on the squad leader you choose, allowing you to specialize your teams. For example, in my first campaign, I built a scouting team focused on long-range attacks, with bonuses to stealth and damage while hidden. Pilots function similarly to squad leaders, but control vehicles instead of infantry.

MENACE will stay fun for a long time because players who enjoy perfecting their soldiers will have lots of options to try out different equipment. You can find weapons by completing missions, but the Black Market offers even more powerful gear – everything from standard rifles to jetpacks that can upgrade your mechs.

My biggest problem with managing my squad is the lack of clear information about weapon compatibility with vehicles. The game really needs tooltips to show what weapons can be equipped on each vehicle. I wasted a lot of in-game currency trying to find a vehicle that would fit a specific laser gun, but it turned out to be incompatible. I ended up going several missions without a vehicle to earn more currency, but even then, the next weapon I tried didn’t work either! It got so frustrating that I started a new game. I’d lost too many soldiers because they were under-equipped, and I’d spent all my resources trying to fix the issue. I was stuck in a difficult situation – I didn’t have enough money to hire replacements for my dwindling squads, who were performing poorly due to being understaffed. This made winning missions incredibly difficult, or the cost of recovering from them too high.

Graphics and Sound

MENACE is a futuristic strategy game with a cool, industrial sci-fi style that I really love. I’m excited to see it take a more realistic and serious approach, unlike many strategy games that are bright and cartoonish. The game features fantastic unit designs, beautifully detailed environments with a consistent look, smooth animations, and weapons that feel powerful and dangerous. The sound design is also surprisingly good.

My only problem with the game was the user interface. It occasionally froze, preventing me from making selections, but clicking on the unit tab usually fixed it and let me control things as intended. Otherwise, the game was fantastic.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Overall, the wait for MENACE was definitely worth it, especially if you enjoy turn-based strategy games. In fact, it’s easily the best one I’ve played so far this year. While Star Wars Zero Company and Kriegsfront might be contenders, I’m not even sure Kriegsfront will be released this year. MENACE has a fantastic start in Early Access, and it’s on track to become one of the best turn-based strategy games of the decade, standing alongside the classics.

2026-02-05 04:45