Excubitor

As a tower defence shooter hybrid, Excubitor has the potential to be an adrenaline-charged, strategic masterpiece. However, a number of aspects have let the game down and this left me feeling disappointed. Some of the levels felt repetitive and unnecessarily drawn out. Boss fights were often frustrating; not in a way that spurred me on, but rather a way that made me want to turn off the game and play something else. The story didn’t really seem important and was very easy to forget. Even so, Excubitor partially redeems itself with its assortment of turrets, weapons and upgrades. As you progress through the game, more mechanics are introduced and some of these add an interesting spin to some of the levels. With a number of difficulty modes to choose from, Tesseract have also really tried to cater to everyone’s needs. I feel as though my experience of Excubitor was tainted by one of the main bugs that I mentioned earlier. I spent hours trying to fight a broken boss that could not be beaten and this drained a lot of positive feeling from my experience. Unfortunately, the rest of the game did not make up for this and I found myself feeling a mixture of boredom and frustration for the duration of the play-through.

45%Game Brain Score

graphics, replayability

story, gameplay

56% User Score Based on 18 reviews

Critic Score 60%Based on 3 reviews

Platforms

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About

Excubitor is a single player casual action adventure game. It was developed by Tesseract Interactive and was released on May 26, 2016. It received neutral reviews from both critics and players.

In this classic inspired Tower Defense Bullet Hell Shooter, security bots have revolted and you, the sole surviving pilot, are all that stands between the colonies and defeat. Upgrade your ship, weapons and turrets whilst facing a plethora of enemies and colossal bosses. Why did the drones turn?

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

56%

Audience ScoreBased on 18 reviews

graphics4 positive mentions

Excubitor successfully combines tower defense and bullet hell mechanics, creating a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
The game features excellent boss battles that are challenging and require strategic thinking, adding to the overall excitement.
There is a good variety of weapons and upgrades available, allowing players to experiment with different strategies and playstyles.

The game suffers from clunky controls and a lack of polish, which can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.
Many players find the tower defense mechanics shallow, with turrets often feeling ineffective and poorly placed.
The onboarding experience is lacking, with a slow start that fails to engage players and a steep difficulty spike during boss fights.

story
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The story is largely considered unengaging and forgettable, with early missions lacking challenge and meaningful choices. Players primarily focus on upgrading their ship and managing tower defenses, which become less effective as the game progresses, detracting from any narrative depth. Overall, the plot fails to capture players' interest, overshadowed by repetitive gameplay mechanics.
- “As previously mentioned, the towers in Excubitor aren't very strong, but they are still extremely necessary to successfully complete a mission - you can't guard the multitude of enemy paths all on your own.”
- “During missions, you'll also need to protect a ship called Antares.”
- “You fly a small ship that you can upgrade after each mission and you have to defend a bigger ship.”
- “It's really boring in the beginning; you have neither choice nor challenge for the first few missions.”
- “The story didn’t really seem important and was very easy to forget.”
- “While during early missions they can kill and heavily damage weaker enemies on their own, with later missions and higher difficulties, with more and stronger enemies, they become more and more useless.”
gameplay
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The gameplay of the game is a mixed experience, featuring visually appealing graphics and a well-organized menu, but it suffers from a lack of depth and diversity in mechanics typical of the tower defense genre. While the action is fast-paced, the controls can be cumbersome, particularly when switching between building towers and managing upgrades, leading to a repetitive experience that may not satisfy genre purists. Overall, the game introduces some interesting mechanics as players progress, but it struggles to deliver a standout gameplay experience.
- “Fantastic optics, decent gameplay, and very well arranged menus which let you find everything you need quickly.”
- “Tight gameplay: the action is fast and furious.”
- “As you progress through the game, more mechanics are introduced and some of these add an interesting spin to some of the levels.”
- “Another negative is the controls - the frantic shoot-em-up gameplay calls for a controller, but said controller makes building towers and selecting menu items like upgrades needlessly complicated.”
- “Lacks the diversity of mechanics that is essential to the tower defense genre.”
- “But it's also weighed down by some repetition, and a lack of oomph in terms of gameplay: nothing really strongly stands out in the genres in terms of mechanics in the end.”
graphics
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The graphics of the game receive mixed feedback; while some players praise the visuals for their detail and quality, others find them underwhelming and performance-heavy. Additionally, issues like occasional crashes and motion sickness due to the 360 movement have been noted. Overall, the graphics are generally considered good, with some players rating them highly.
- “The graphics and sound effects are excellent.”
- “The graphics are pretty good; it gets a 9.5.”
- “There's some nice details in the visuals.”
- “The graphics are underwhelming but still hog my PC.”
- “While playing, the 360 movement combined with the visuals made me feel a little bit motion sick.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
50%
The game's replayability is mixed; while some players appreciate the variety and strategic options that enhance replay value, others feel it falls short compared to other titles in the genre, suggesting it may not justify its price. Overall, the potential for replayability exists but is not universally recognized.
- “There is a ton of variety in the game which allows you to try different strategies, increasing the amount of replayability.”
- “Given the vast replayability on top of a good amount of content, the value-content proposition gets a solid tick.”
- “Variety leading to increased replayability: if you thought that the only strategy occurred during the actual battles, think again.”
- “Still, the game is not worth €14.99 - you can get better tower defense games or top-down shooters for that price or cheaper, and compared to them, this game doesn't really have replayability.”
- “There is a ton of variety in the game which allows you to try different strategies, increasing the amount of replayability of the game.”