| MENACE | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
MENACE is a turn-based tactical military RPG. Read on to learn everything we know, our first impressions of its early access build, and if it's worth your money.
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Everything We Know About MENACE
MENACE Story
In MENACE, a Republic Marine Corps strike force is sent in to restore order, only to discover that the situation is far more grave than expected. With no outside support and communications down, command responsibility falls entirely onto the player as distress calls pour in from across the system.
The narrative unfolds gradually through missions, faction relationships, and squad leader interactions. Each squad leader has their own history and personality, influencing morale, performance, and how they react to success or failure in combat.
As the campaign progresses, an unknown and increasingly dangerous threat begins to surface, hinting at a much larger crisis. How you manage your forces, allies, and resources shapes not only the fate of your strike force but also the future of the world’s entire system.
MENACE Gameplay
In MENACE, a Republic Marine Corps strike force is sent in to restore order, only to discover that the situation is far more grave than expected. With no outside support and communications down, command responsibility falls entirely onto the player as distress calls pour in from across the system.
The narrative unfolds gradually through missions, faction relationships, and squad leader interactions. Each squad leader has their own history and personality, influencing morale, performance, and how they react to success or failure in combat.
As the campaign progresses, an unknown and increasingly dangerous threat begins to surface, hinting at a much larger crisis. How you manage your forces, allies, and resources shapes not only the fate of your strike force but also the future of the world’s entire system.
Releases for Steam Early Access on February 5, 2026
MENACE is available for early access on February 5, 2026 and can be wishlisted ahead of its release. The game will be available on Steam, Epic Games, GOG, and the Xbox PC Game Pass.
| Digital Storefronts | ||||||||
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 Steam |
 Epic Games |
 PC Pass |
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| Wishlist Only | ||||||||
MENACE Review [Early Access]
Menacing, But Only at the Start
I’m a huge fan of the apparent dichotomy of turn-based tactical RPG difficulty. Every new title flying those colors is either laughably easy despite taking itself and its themes seriously, or it’s the most difficult tactical experience you’ve ever encountered. Rarely does a title fall between those two extremes, and I’m poised to believe that MENACE, the newest kid on the block, might fall somewhere exactly in the middle.
Don’t get me wrong, this game is plenty difficult on its lowest setting, and has more options to make you suffer even harder, but considering where it is in its development cycle, I think it might eventually fall into that sweet spot every tactical RPG strives for.
Into the fray, then, soldier.
Caught in an Intergalactic Three-way Feud
Let’s begin with MENACE’s story, because try as the game might, it isn’t significant or engaging enough to be one of the game’s focal points, and mentioning it first is the only way it won’t fall by the wayside.
MENACE puts us right in the middle of a system in conflict. Called the Wayback System, this multiplanetary pocket of space is far from the Core Worlds of humanity’s presence in space, and as such, there’s no central government keeping ambitious institutions in check.
Players pick up the story in the middle of a three-way conflict of interest between The Backbone, Dice of the Gods, and a megacorporation; three major powers in the Wayback System who each want their own slice of the proverbial pie.
As the Major in control of the TCNR Impetus flagship, you’re a free agent as far as they’re concerned, but they’re more than happy to involve you in their operations. The peace of the system depends on your cooperation with these three factions, as two unallied rogue factions—pirates and insectoid aliens—threaten everything if left as unchecked as the others.
It’s a good setup for a gritty sci-fi story, as it’s giving Battlestar Galactica and Starship Troopers vibes as it is now. Sadly, the execution could use some work. Though mechanically different in the support they provide you, should you work with them, each of the three main factions is thematically the same shade of opportunist as the other two.
They all throw tantrums when you help someone else, they all think they’re right, and they all fall by the wayside along with the rest of the story. I at least appreciate the voice acting and world-building the game attempts to do, both of which are better than expected for Early Access, but this game’s no XCOM when it comes to memorable sci-fi tactical narratives.
The Best Way to Learn is On the Field
My review of the game’s deep, yet somehow also shallow, story does not reflect how well its gameplay scratches the tactical itch, however. I was skeptical about playing further because you kinda have to deal with the narrative first, but boy, am I glad I gave this game a chance.
MENACE’s core loop revolves around your squads, their loadouts, and their field deployments. Depending on what mission you choose and at which operation you’re currently in within that mission, succeeding on your deployments can range from destroying specific targets, preventing enemies from entering particular parts of the map, invading enemy bases, or rescuing civilians.
Before you head out, you pick a faction you want to cooperate with. The game opens up to let you choose eventually, but your first mission is usually randomly locked to one of the three. Once selected, the mission will let you choose the operations you want to use to fulfill it. It’s like Slay the Spire in that there are branching paths with different outcomes in each. Each of these paths leads to an operation, which is a tactical, on-field deployment of your squads to fulfil specific conditions.
Let’s take Clear the Landing Zone as an example operation within the first mission I ever took for The Backbone. This mission was simple; just sweep the map and kill 80% of enemy forces, with secondary missions asking me to do so without losing a squad and within a certain number of rounds. It’s basically a walk in the park, at least conceptually. It’s when boots hit the ground that tactics become less of a suggestion.
This game is surprisingly deep, much deeper than XCOM, which was my knee-jerk comparison when I first started playing. I saw the projected cover bonuses as shields and half-shields, and it was pretty easy to start comparing from there. MENACE and XCOM couldn’t be any more different, though, because while XCOM rewards innovation and tactics quite quickly, MENACE will make you work for it.
Instead of individual soldiers, you control squadrons of infantry, or entire vehicles, depending on the type of squadron leader you choose to deploy. Infantry squads tend to be more fragile, but are also the only type of squad that can fulfil certain mission objectives, such as recovering specific items from the field. Armor squads, on the other hand, usually only have one vehicle driven by the leader, but can serve as mobile cover, heavy weapons, demolitions, and transport for infantry squadrons. It’s good to have a mix of both, because the enemy also has both, and they’re more than happy to remind you.
Each squad operates on an action economy limited by AP (Action Points). Actions like moving, shooting, and activating abilities require certain amounts of AP, which is far from XCOM’s simplified action system. Should you choose to move, that requires AP, and shooting after is only allowed if you can spare the cost.
What truly gives this game its tactical layer is its focus on cover, positioning, and careful use of AP. Like XCOM, this game offers directional cover bonuses, except it has twice the number of cardinal directions and much bigger consequences for being flanked. Half-cover and full cover offer increasing chances for attacks to hit, and it’s entirely based on how well you spent your AP to move your people around.
Now, this would be simple enough as it is, but suppression mechanics also play a major role in this game’s tactical complexity. It’s not just about hitting, as even missed shots increase a targeted squad’s suppression meter. If high enough, squads can be suppressed or pinned down, which annihilates their AP for the next turn, if not outright cornering them.
There’s also the fact that each squad can have a variable number of members, each with their own unique weapons and separate health pools. This means that successful hits can kill parts of squads if they don’t wipe them all out, meaning this squad is now a man down, meaning it has fewer shots per attack, and a lower overall efficiency on the field.
This isn’t even accounting for all the bells, whistles, and pocket fillers you can send out your soldiers with, which include grenades, launchers, drones, decoys, lasers, and, if you’re good at saving your resources, even mechs.
With all these tactical layers, surely the game prepares you well enough to make use of all of them, right? Well…no. Not at all.
The Balancing Isn’t Off, The Tutorial Is
It might seem like the player has more tools than the enemy, but no, even the bugs have their own squadron types, explosives, cover, and tactics to use against you. This game is plenty difficult, but the balance isn’t off in the slightest. All good tactical decisions are rewarded with a squad that isn’t one guy lighter, and every mission brings you closer to buying your Armor Squad Leader a walking mech.
Despite this great balancing, you’re very likely to die the moment you step into the field, because this game’s tutorial is nowhere near sufficient for its tactical complexity. I mean this in the best way, but this game’s tutorial is insultingly, atrociously bad, and wouldn’t prepare you for a game of checkers, much less field deployment.
I can sum up the tutorial, which isn’t built into the main campaign, by the way, in three words: move, shoot, deploy. That’s it. I find it hilarious that they teach you how to deploy field tech like strafing runs and missiles from orbit, but won’t ever tell you how to build up a squad, how to balance loadout values, how the Black Market works, or that it even exists, how upgrades to the Impetus work, what Intelligence is and how it helps with deployment, how to train new squaddies to replace the ones you lost, how to use Special Equipment, what armor does, how promotions work, and how to hire new squadron leaders.
That’s a lot, but it’s less than half of what the game actually offers across its field operations and menu screens. There are stats that I don’t know how to leverage until I’ve finished five missions in, and even then, I’m just guessing based on observation. This game does not prepare you for anything, so if you’re not ready to learn on the job and lose your first five missions, then you'd best find something else to play.
Progression Feels Like Advancing Under Fire
Another thing that makes this game hard to play and much harder than it should be is its progression system. Each operation is but a fraction of a whole mission, but they still pay out with minor equipment like weapons, selling materials, and even armor. Completing secondary missions grants you promotion points to level up your leaders, and that’s on a per-operation basis as well.
Now, finishing a mission grants way more rewards by way of bigger, better equipment and points to upgrade the Impetus. This would be a good enough system as it is if each operation didn’t take around half an hour to complete, but they do. Each mission can have around 2-4 operations each, so you’re likely to spend 2 hours before your next major upgrade.
This sucks because the game is difficult as heck at a base level and only gets harder as you play on. Waiting that long for major upgrades is a sure-fire way to make someone ask for a refund on Steam. Combine that with the poor tutorial, and you’re stuck figuring things out…slowly.
Scratches the Tactical Itch Well, But Still Needs More Work
Overall, MENACE still needs a lot of work. The mechanics of the game work on a conceptual and tactical layer, and are easily its best foot forward at the moment. Everything else takes a hit, though, and it’s betraying the game’s EA status quite handily. The story is a background at best, the NPCs are shallow as a baseline, and the tutorial would’ve been a mess, but it lacked the substance to even be that.
It’ll take a lot of willpower and dedication to the genre to push through MENACE’s gruelling first few hours, but if you can, you’ll be rewarded with a tactical experience you won’t soon forget. Sure, it’s menacing, but only at the start.
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MENACE Product Information
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| Title | MENACE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | February 5, 2026 |
| Developer | Overhype Studios |
| Publisher | Hooded Horse |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam, GOG, Epic Games) |
| Genre | Simulation, Strategy, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | MENACE Official Website |
