Here Comes The Swarm

About Here Comes The Swarm

Here Comes The Swarm is a single player survival city builder game with fantasy, economy, medieval and historical themes. It was developed by CableHook Games and was released on March 5, 2026. It received positive reviews from players.

The hive is angry. They have claimed this planet. Today, today, today, they whisper to their brothers, to their sisters. The swarm shivers in anticipation. They click, they chitter, they burst. Today, today, today. They move as a river, a steady stream, towards the camp of the walking machines. In unison they chant: we kill, we kill, we kill. Will you stop them? Managing your settlement is…

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Reviews

89%Audience ScoreBased on 148 reviews

gameplay18 positive mentions

stability6 negative mentions

Strong and satisfying gameplay loop with multiple modes including skirmish, expedition (roguelike), and endless, providing good replayability.
Fluid and rewarding unit control and micro, comparable to top RTS games, with a meaningful meta-progression system that allows for customization and strategy variety.
Active and responsive development with frequent updates, good polish for an early access title, and a supportive community.

Limited unit and building variety in current early access state, leading to some repetitive gameplay and lack of late-game challenge.
Some balancing and pacing issues, especially in economy and difficulty curve, making certain difficulty levels frustrating or unbalanced.
Technical issues including pathfinding bugs, occasional crashes, sound glitches, and some gameplay annoyances such as forced road building and unit chatter.

gameplay
38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
47% positive mentions, 45% neutral mentions, 8% negative mentions
The gameplay offers a smooth, engaging blend of tactical RTS and horde defense with roguelite elements, featuring well-designed mechanics, deep synergies, and solid progression that keeps players invested without feeling like a grind. While some note balance and pacing issues, bugs, and RNG impact, the overall replayability is bolstered by multiple modes, difficulty settings, and varied strategies, making it a compelling and strategic experience reminiscent yet distinct from titles like "They Are Billions."
- “Very fluid gameplay that reminded me of the smoothness of Starcraft 2.”
- “Gameplay is horde defense with tactical pause RTS with a topping of meta progression which puts this one a cut above the rest.”
- “The gameplay is the real highlight: challenging, strategic, and highly engaging, constantly pushing you to improve your tactics.”
- “It's not worth 20 bucks and is currently a slow, boring mess of gameplay.”
- “I cleared the entire map before the third to last wave on my third game, and then I just sort of sat there. Fully upgraded stone walls, some archers, and some pyromancers meant there was no chance of the swarm actually breaking through. While I could build city skylines to my heart's content, the game lacks the kind of building mechanics of, say, Glory to Goo's robots and heat mechanics, which would trigger my interest in doing so.”
- “Closest thing to it is called expeditions, which is several missions with buffs and negatives you can choose to impact rest of the missions, but I think they are terribly balanced and the RNG (random number generator) plays a big factor on gameplay due to map's shape.”
story
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19% positive mentions, 62% neutral mentions, 19% negative mentions
The game currently lacks a traditional campaign, story, or characters, which many users find disappointing, as it limits narrative depth and engagement. Its mission structure, particularly the randomized expeditions with time-limited scenarios, leads to repetitive gameplay and weak progression impact. While missions are manageable in length and packed with mechanics, the absence of a cohesive story and balanced mission/map design detracts from the overall experience.
- “Currently in early access (launched just recently on March 5, 2026), this game already packs a massive amount of mechanics, deep synergies, and highly entertaining missions.”
- “3 main modes: skirmish, survival, and mission-based, plus a tutorial level and seeded gameplay.”
- “One of the great parts is the mission length; 45-60 minutes is very manageable.”
- “It's an opportunity to redo the campaign of tab, without some of the huge mistakes that game made, like the incredibly slow, boring, and frustrating hero missions.”
- “Very similar to "there are billions", except teching up is more troublesome, there's no campaign, storyline or characters of any sort, upgrades are also more troublesome, every mission has a time limit (auto win if you survive that long) which generally means there's no time to tech up or explore more than just a portion of each map.”
- “Lack of campaign, storyline, and characters hurt.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 20% neutral mentions, 30% negative mentions
The graphics receive mixed reviews, with some praising the bright, clean aesthetic and overall quality, while others find them somewhat dated, rough, or in need of polish. Though not the most visually advanced, the graphics effectively support the gameplay and ambiance. Enhanced detail and updated visuals could further improve the experience.
- “Tab is much more complete in all aspects and more effort has been put in the graphics and ambiance/music, has more complexity and replayability but it is also much harder.”
- “Bright, clean, fantastic aesthetic.”
- “Graphics: 10/10, just need more updated looks as you level stuff up.”
- “The graphics look like something from 2006 with blurry textures, washed out colors, and very generic buildings.”
- “Reskin of 'They Are Billions,' graphic design seems a bit rough.”
- “Very similar, only 'Here Comes the Swarm' is better detailed in graphics.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The game offers strong replayability through its multiple difficulty settings, procedurally generated maps, and diverse game modes, including skirmish and roguelike options. While currently solid, some users note room for improvement, likely tied to its early access status, with expectations for increased replay value in future updates. Overall, the complexity and variety support a compelling and enduring gameplay loop.
- “Lots of difficulty settings, procedurally generated maps, and game modes give this game healthy replayability, supporting a strong gameplay loop.”
- “The game has a strong and satisfying gameplay loop, with both a solid skirmish mode and a roguelike mode that add extra replayability.”
- “It has a solid basis for replayability and the ability to increase content easily.”
- “Does that increase replayability?”
- “Most of these cons can be attributed to the game's early access condition, so hopefully future updates will add more replayability to the game.”
- “It has a solid basis for replayability and increasing the content easily.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game suffers from numerous stability issues, including persistent bugs with wave timers, building placement, unit pathing, and AI behavior. Save files are prone to corruption, and certain map objects cause severe pathfinding problems, leading to frustrating gameplay. Overall, the game feels poorly developed and heavily buggy, detracting from the experience.
- “Wave timer bugs and glitches frequently disrupt gameplay.”
- “Save file bugs likely will never be fixed; unit pathing and AI are terrible and buggy. Objects like treasure chests on the map have collision issues that cause entire armies to bug out and get destroyed if fighting near them.”
- “Building placement bugs occur, such as the butcher overlay remaining on screen erroneously.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75% positive mentions, 25% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game demonstrates solid optimization, running smoothly without performance issues and ensuring units respond reliably to commands. Overall, it delivers a well-performing and visually appealing experience.
- “No performance issues thus far.”
- “Game runs smoothly, units interact as desired.”
- “Solid game, good performance and looks great, would recommend!”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The music is praised for enhancing the game's atmosphere, contributing to a pleasant and immersive experience. It complements the detailed graphics and ambiance, adding depth and complexity. However, the enjoyable music contrasts with the game's challenging difficulty.
- “Tab is much more complete in all aspects and more effort has been put into the graphics and ambiance/music, offering more complexity and replayability.”
- “Don't let the pleasant atmosphere and great music fool you.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The atmosphere is enhanced by pleasant music and a generally nice ambiance, but it falls short due to a lack of strong visual impact, which hinders full player immersion.
- “Because of that the game currently lacks the visual impact and atmosphere needed to really draw players in.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Grinding in the game involves repetitive tasks like repeating early missions and construction sequences to unlock upgrades, which can feel time-consuming. However, the arcanum/talents system adds depth and customization, allowing players to make meaningful choices each game rather than mindlessly grinding for experience.
- “Ultimately this means repeating tech 1 skirmishes, the same construction sequences over and over again, grinding toward unlocking upgrades that you don't have the time to deploy in each mission.”
- “I really like the arcanum/talents system, (they have added a lot more since the demo) its a fun system, that allows you to truly customise and craft a unique build, instead of just grinding away at meta xp and that being it, you actually have a per game choice to be able to decide what you are going to slot where.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Users appreciate the potential for humor in the game's campaign, expressing a desire for funny and engaging content featuring entertaining videos and diverse factions to enhance the experience.

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Play Times

906h Median play time

612h Average play time

23-1200h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs

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