Tenebris: Terra Incognita is a turn-based action game where units can choose careers and specialize in specific roles. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the demo, and more.
Everything We Know About Tenebris: Terra Incognita
Tenebris: Terra Incognita Plot
In Tenebris: Terra Incognita, you find yourself stranded on a hostile, uncharted planet after the Solaris ship crashes during an exploratory expedition. As the commander, it’s up to you to rally humanity’s best fighters and protect the remnants of your crew from the horrifying creatures lurking in this alien world. The ship's hull damage is only the beginning of your problems. Your team is immediately besieged by swarms of monstrous, highly organized bugs that threaten to wipe out the entire expedition.
Tenebris: Terra Incognita Gameplay
Tenebris: Terra Incognita is a turn-based RPG that draws inspiration from games like Darkest Dungeon and X-COM, challenging players to strategically command a squad of highly customizable fighters in a gloomy sci-fi setting. At the start, players can choose from 5 basic classes, each fulfilling a distinct role on the battlefield. As the game progresses, these classes can evolve into one of 17 advanced specializations, each with its own talent tree, enabling deep character customization and a unique playstyle for every soldier.
Tenebris: Terra Incognita Release Date
Tenebris: Terra Incognita launched in Early Access this September 30, 2024 for PC via Steam.
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| Price | $19.99 |
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Tenebris: Terra Incognita Review (Early Access)
The Grindy Goods
I’ve played a lot of gritty, turn-based games over the years, especially on those slow weekends where I can just crash in bed, swivel my monitor so it’s an arm’s length from my face, and grab a gamepad for the ultimate lazy man’s midday session. Darkest Dungeon used to be my favorite for that, but lately, I haven’t been into these games as much; I’ve gotten way too wrapped up in all the mobile games on PC.
Tenebris: Terra Incognita is one of those games that feels like you could play without thinking too hard, just like Darkest Dungeon or Chrono Ark. Yeah, that’s mostly true. But what makes Tenebris fit perfectly for a lazy afternoon isn’t how engaging it is; it’s the grind.
Let’s get into the important stuff first. Tenebris: Terra Incognita plays like your typical, run-of-the-mill turn-based game. You and your opponent take turns trying to make mincemeat of the other; nothing very groundbreaking. It’s just a polished version of what you’d expect from this type of game.
Where it does stand out is in the character design, at least in its progression system. Every character starts out as a generic unit that fills a couple of roles dependent on their class. But as they level up, they can specialize in different aspects of their kit. This is what the game calls the Career system, and it’s kind of like Ragnarok Online’s class system; only there’s less grind involved since Tenebris isn’t an MMO.
The fact that every class can specialize means you can come up with some pretty crazy team compositions. You can even load up your squad with multiple units from the same class, and it’ll probably still work. It keeps things fun and unpredictable.
The wackiness is backed up by solid visuals and sound. The character art might be average, but the spritework is top-notch, and the sound effects really hit. The background music, though, is pretty forgettable; still, the rest of the game’s aesthetic holds up well enough.
The real issue with Tenebris, though, is how much time you have to sink into it. The grind can turn what should be a cool character progression system and decent visuals into something tedious; this is especially true on the game’s hardest difficulty, appropriately called the Horror Movie mode.
Picture this: you grind for hours to promote a character, only to lose them in one unlucky turn because of the permadeath system. It’s frustrating. All those hours you spent grinding can disappear in seconds, and there’s no way to get that progress back. In that sense, it does fit the mode’s name; the experience might as well be a horror movie. I get that some people like this kind of challenge, but the game would really benefit from making it easier to get or invest in new characters, especially since the character progression system is a big selling point.
Right now, though, you’re just going to end up stuck in that bed, grinding away for hours while stressing about losing it all in a two-minute fight. That said, it’s still worth keeping an eye on over the next few months—it’s a great game if you don’t mind the grind.
Satisfactory Role Diversity
Tenebris: Terra Incognita has a pretty fun Career system, which is similar to Ragnarok Online’s class progression. That is, when your character hits level 11, they get to pick a career
from two available options. For example, the Pellentes class, which focuses on ranged attacks, can choose between the Sancto, who are all about sniping from the shadows (very edgy), or the Vidua, who ditch the subtlety and go for pure damage. You get to do this again at level 21, too. Every class branches out like this; the only downside is that grinding to the point where you can switch careers takes forever.
Except for the Miles class, which is your standard frontline damage dealer. While they do get a promotion at level 11, they only have one option: the Impetum class, and they don’t get to branch out until level 21. Got the short end of the stick, they did.
Grindy With a Capital G
If you’re the type of person to jump into every game’s highest difficulty mode without thinking, then you’re going to have a pretty bad time with this game. See, Tenebris: Terra Incognita is an incredibly grindy game. Everything costs resources you need to farm for, and they’re only provided after you clear its decently lengthy stages. These include the currency needed to hire additional characters for your team.
Now, consider going into the game on its highest difficulty setting, which is nicely dubbed as “Horror Movie” mode. Part of that difficulty setting is the very familiar permadeath mechanic. Because of that, letting one of your heroes die means having to go back to farm money to hire replacements. You can’t even just “get good” at the game because the enemies in that mode are capable of two or three-shotting your characters despite being several levels below your own, or come with a massive number of reinforces, particularly within multi-level stages where the developers might have forgotten to update the recommended levels after the first one.
And, yes, you can also just get wiped on a stage you’re grinding in.
If you think getting characters is the only thing you need to grind for, you’re sadly mistaken. Improving your ship’s functionality will also easily cost you several hours of your life, especially once you realize that they use the same currency as refreshing the list of units you can hire for your squad.
Unfortunately, getting these upgrades doesn't even give you an aesthetic enhancement. These are purely functional purchases that, while extremely helpful, don’t give a single whiff of visual gratification.
Lack of Quality of Life Features
As of the current build, Tenebris: Terra Incognita lacks a lot of features that some games tend to implement as an afterthought. These include methods to sort equipment and characters, being able to select multiple items at once, and other related conveniences.
Thankfully, though, these missing features are simply that—conveniences. Nothing in the game really hampers you from playing it all the way through. Well, aside from the grind, at least.
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Tenebris: Terra Incognita Product Information
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| Title | TENEBRIS: TERRA INCOGNITA |
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| Release Date | September 30, 2024 |
| Developer | Phantasmica Studios |
| Publisher | Phantasmica Studios |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) |
| Genre | Strategy, Turn-Based, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Tenebris: Terra Incognita Official Website |
