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MENACE

MENACE Game Cover
91%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
grinding, monetization
91% User Score Based on 5,405 reviews

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MENACE Game Cover

About

MENACE is a single player survival role playing game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Overhype Studios and was released on February 5, 2026. It received very positive reviews from players.

Lead a strike force against an alien threat in this turn-based tactical RPG from the developers of Battle Brothers. Answer distress calls across different worlds, train and equip infantry, deploy tanks and mechs, and plan and execute missions in detailed turn-based battles.

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MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
MENACE screenshot
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91%
Audience ScoreBased on 5,405 reviews
story281 positive mentions
grinding47 negative mentions
  • Deep and engaging turn-based tactical combat with combined arms including infantry, vehicles, and mechs.
  • Great squad customization with unique squad leaders, perks, and equipment offering many viable playstyles.
  • Immersive sci-fi setting with strong sound design, voice acting, and evocative atmosphere that recalls classic military sci-fi like Aliens and Starship Troopers.
  • Intense and rewarding gameplay loop emphasizing positioning, suppression, morale, and resource management.
  • Frequent developer updates and active community support making the early access experience solid and promising.
  • The supply point system adds meaningful tactical tradeoffs, forcing thoughtful squad equipment decisions and loadout management.
  • Enemy AI has issues such as unfair map knowledge, avoidance behavior causing frustrating chases, and inconsistent aggression.
  • Limited mission variety and map diversity lead to repetitiveness during extended play sessions.
  • Gameplay systems and UI can be opaque with insufficient in-game explanations, making learning steep for newcomers.
  • The game feels content-light and story-light in early access with abrupt campaign ending and lacking narrative depth.
  • Some balance concerns with overpowered or underpowered equipment, high promotion/supply costs restricting squad development, and certain faction/enemy difficulty spikes.
  • Lack of mid-mission saving and inability to save after every turn can waste player time and increase frustration after setbacks.
  • story
    2,953 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story in "Menace" is currently barebones and incomplete, serving more as a background framework than a fully developed narrative, with only a few key story missions and limited character development. While the gameplay and tactical depth receive praise, many players find the strategic layer and story progression lacking, resulting in the campaign feeling repetitive and lacking immersion or compelling stakes. However, the foundation is promising, and ongoing updates are expected to add more narrative content, mission variety, and richer worldbuilding to deepen the player’s engagement.

    • “Being in early access, story content is currently limited, but what is there does a great job establishing the setting and stakes.”
    • “The story so far is a bit of a backseat with cool faction lore but am excited to see how it turns out.”
    • “The story is compelling, the characters are fun and well written and the gameplay even at this early stage has great strategic and variable depth.”
    • “The story is extremely bare-bones — just a few cutscenes introducing new armies and a single handcrafted mission.”
    • “The story feels disjointed and hardly built upon. There are no special story missions that pop up on a semi regular basis, and no lore building or special faction missions. The main story stops somewhat abruptly.”
    • “There is essentially no story, and what little exists isn’t engaging. The story/narrative/campaign components are also not fully incorporated into the game.”
  • gameplay
    1,615 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Menace offers a solid, challenging, and highly addictive squad-based turn-based tactical gameplay experience with deep mechanics such as suppression, morale, and equipment customization that reward strategic planning and adaptation. While the gameplay loop is engaging and mixes vehicle and infantry tactics effectively, it currently suffers from some repetitiveness, a steep learning curve, and underdeveloped strategic layers typical of early access, with room for improvements in tutorialization, diversity of missions, and UI clarity. Fans of thoughtful, gritty military sci-fi tactics games will find much to enjoy, though newcomers may face a tough initial adjustment period.

    • “Fantastic and innovative gameplay mechanics with a strong start on world building and story.”
    • “If you're on the fence, take a chance on this game; it will kick your arse initially whilst you learn its intricacies and systems, but if you have the patience to learn, you're going to start absolutely dominating this game with fun loadouts unique to your preferred gameplay; I can personally recommend taking Jane Darby and picking up Chameleon asap, and stacking her up with as much additional stealth and a silenced gun; she will carry your early campaign alone with this setup, once you learn how to properly range your enemies.”
    • “The gameplay is compelling with the tactics varying on enemy type and mission quite a bit, RNG is mostly limited due to most weapons being automatics and usually having several to a squad thus rolling many many times per attack, the characters are incredibly fleshed out both for this kind of game and for this early on in development.”
    • “The entire gameplay loop feels hollow and lifeless; a lot of equipment feels more like clutter and barter items rather than anything remotely useful, most of the operational bonuses aren't useful, missions feel tedious and result in you having to flush out enemies hiding in the map corners. Playing the game in general just feels like a chore.”
    • “The supply mechanic seems rather arbitrary, and your armory is determined almost entirely by RNG mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay practically boils down to 'at edge of AI line of sight' gameplay that is boring as heck, causing endless amounts of grief and numerous new game starts.”
  • graphics
    336 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game are generally praised for their high quality, detailed animations, and immersive, gritty sci-fi aesthetic heavily inspired by "Aliens" and modern military sci-fi, enhancing tactical readability and atmosphere. Visuals and sound design are noted as standout features, with satisfying effects and strong presentation that complement the gameplay well. Some minor issues include occasional graphical bugs, missing or placeholder assets due to early access status, and critiques of certain art style inconsistencies and UI elements, but overall the visuals are solid, polished, and perform well even on modest hardware.

    • “The gritty, full 3D industrial sci-fi aesthetic is pure perfection, featuring detailed mechs and powered armor that look functional and brutal, atmospheric biomes like snowy outposts, jungle-choked planets, and derelict colonies, plus destructible environments that feel raw, lived-in, and oppressively dangerous.”
    • “Graphically, the game punches above its weight, rendering chaotic 3D battlefields with sharp detail and atmospheric grit that immerses you in the mayhem.”
    • “The graphics are sharp, atmospheric, and enhance tactical readability without sacrificing immersion.”
    • “There are some weird graphical bugs where lighting brightens suddenly or shadows darken for no reason.”
    • “The weather effects are poorly done; everything has a massive white-screen haze that washes out colors, looks horrible, and reduces overall contrast.”
    • “Visuals: despite being nearly a decade older, XCOM 2 (2017) still holds a higher graphical standard and more polished art style than what is currently offered here.”
  • music
    132 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's music is widely praised for its thematic fit, high quality, and atmospheric contribution, particularly with unique tracks for factions and satisfying weapon sounds. However, multiple reviewers note a lack of variety and track quantity causes repetition over extended play, making some players turn off the soundtrack or desire more diverse and ambient compositions. Overall, while the soundtrack enhances the game's mood effectively, it would benefit from additional tracks and greater musical diversity to maintain long-term engagement.

    • “The soundtrack itself is phenomenal.”
    • “Great game, the music is super good, also the gun sounds are really, really good; I don't see many turn-based games that have such powerful weapon sounds like this.”
    • “The music and sound effects in the game are very good, with a solid soundtrack that fits the atmosphere perfectly and adds to the overall immersion.”
    • “After about 3 or 4 hours of it I just turned it off and started playing XCOM soundtracks in the background for a little more variety.”
    • “Music diversity is sub-par – the operation menu music and in-mission music gets extremely repetitive after like 3-4 hours.”
    • “The soundtrack is incredibly basic with what I think is only a handful of tracks in the game.”
  • replayability
    117 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability in the game is generally viewed as strong, driven by diverse squad leaders, procedural mission generation, and extensive customization options that encourage experimentation and multiple playthroughs. While some express concerns about limited variety or a defined meta reducing longevity, most agree that ongoing content updates, randomized elements, and tactical depth provide significant replay value, with potential to rival or surpass similar titles as development continues. Early access status means replayability is poised to improve further with added factions, gear, and scenarios enhancing the experience over time.

    • “The squad customization system and equipment variety allow for lots of experimentation, the procedural generation adds potentially hundreds of hours of replay value, and the variety between factions and their constant escalation in capabilities means the player can never get too comfortable with one set of tactics or equipment.”
    • “Sound design is great, missions are diverse enough to offer good replayability, and after nearly 60 hours (as of this writing), I am still encountering new content due to how randomized everything is.”
    • “Multiple factions to play against, procedurally generated maps, endless replayability.”
    • “In contrast, I beat Menace in 22 hours and it has almost zero replayability.”
    • “Lack of replayability comes from a clearly defined meta of a heavy vehicle needed during heavy combats, some squad items being downright necessary, and general lack of variety.”
    • “As a result, replayability is basically nil but the game that is there is really enjoyable particularly if you like XCOM-likes.”
  • optimization
    89 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game generally runs smoothly with solid performance across a range of hardware, including lower-end PCs, and features effective graphics customization options. Some users report occasional optimization issues such as slow AI during certain events, loading stutters, and lower frame rates on highly detailed maps, but these appear to be improving with ongoing updates. Overall, the game’s performance is commendable for an early access title, with only occasional glitches or bugs impacting stability.

    • “Haven't ran into any technical bugs, everything runs smoothly.”
    • “None of it's too machine-intensive either in my experience (my GPU is an old 1070) and there's a lovely variety of tweaks you can make to the graphics to improve performance that are quite effective.”
    • “Stability, performance, and graphical fidelity are all excellent for an early access game initially released a couple weeks ago, too, and I only experienced one actual bug, no crashes, and smooth framerates throughout.”
    • “Currently bad optimization; once menace happens, AI is moving too slow.”
    • “This game is very poorly optimized.”
    • “At the moment, performance is pretty lacking with some hefty loading stutters when swapping menus and particle effects dragging it down a bit fluidity-wise.”
  • humor
    76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's humor is generally praised for its funny and relatable dialogue, distinct and entertaining squad leader personalities, and humorous voice lines that add levity to tactical combat. While some find the humor campy or cringeworthy at times, many appreciate its campy, raw, and personable style that balances the serious and gritty tone. Repetitive lines can become stale, but overall, the humor contributes positively to the game's engaging and enjoyable atmosphere.

    • “Dialogue is also really funny, feels real and raw at times.”
    • “The humor the team has is also great, this game is packed with hilarious punch lines.”
    • “Having two squad leaders just laughing maniacally with each other after one of them kills an enemy in one shot is just hilarious.”
    • “But not funny.”
    • “In terms of setting, I was very much taken aback when you get this phenomenal cinematic that feels very gritty and dark, preparing you for a serious tone, only to fight pirates who speak the least serious and completely unfunny dialogue I've heard in a while. Honestly, the right course of action would be to replace every single pirate dialogue line and make them talk like they're actually in a gunfight and dying.”
  • atmosphere
    74 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere is widely praised for its gritty, dark, and immersive sci-fi aesthetic, enhanced by detailed visuals, evocative sound design, and fitting music that effectively pulls players into a brutal and tense tactical warfare setting. While some note inconsistency or minor issues such as squad leader banter, overall the atmosphere is considered a standout element that significantly enriches the gameplay experience and complements the mechanics and narrative tone.

    • “The gritty, full 3D industrial sci-fi aesthetic is pure perfection, featuring detailed mechs and powered armor that look functional and brutal, atmospheric biomes like snowy outposts, jungle-choked planets, and derelict colonies, plus destructible environments that feel raw, lived-in, and oppressively dangerous.”
    • “On a serious note, this game is impressively immersive due to the atmospheric attention to detail put into the world, including sounds and all effects such as splatter effects, ricochets, blasts, and weapon firing; the audio design is exceptional and complements the visuals perfectly.”
    • “The atmosphere is incredibly immersive, with dark, desperate, and heroic tones, and the gameplay is satisfying; combined with deep tactical mechanics and atmospheric audio, this creates a compelling sci-fi experience.”
    • “Menace ostensibly seeks to build a gritty, brutal and dark atmosphere, which is completely and utterly ruined by the childish drivel that your squad leaders keep volleying back and forth between them.”
    • “Menace is great with deep and well thought out mechanics and very few bugs but is a little light on content due to its current early access state and has a tone and atmosphere that can be a bit inconsistent.”
    • “Could definitely use a rework of the squad leader portraits to match the overall ambience of the atmosphere.”
  • grinding
    50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is widely described as tedious and repetitive, with slow early progression, limited meaningful rewards, and frustrating AI behavior that promotes drawn-out, methodical combat. While some appreciate aspects like squad leader progression and tactical depth, many find the economy poor and mission design encourages monotonous "grind-down" strategies, leading to a feeling of chore-like gameplay rather than engaging progression. The grind is often compared unfavorably to similar titles, with calls for more varied difficulty and less reliance on tedious farming for gear and resources.

    • “Fighting large battles is fun and not tedious to manage.”
    • “Ten might be better, it doesn't take away from the tactical need and management of the squad's action points, but isn't as tedious.”
    • “The entire gameplay loop feels hollow and lifeless. Most equipment feels like clutter or barter items rather than useful gear, with operational bonuses being mostly ineffective. Missions turn tedious, requiring you to flush out enemies hiding in map corners, making overall gameplay feel like a chore.”
    • “The AI has map hacks and always knows the exact location and range of player units. It never directly engages, instead staying just out of sight or shooting range, forcing players to chase it around the map. This makes combat extremely tedious and frustrating.”
    • “The economy is terrible unless you enjoy grinding in video games. Early gameplay is slow and tedious, requiring farming and repetitive missions just to get decent gear or progress, making the experience frustrating for many players.”
  • stability
    42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is notably stable and runs well, showing few crashes or severe bugs despite being in early access. While minor glitches, pathing issues, and occasional UI or content limitations are reported, most players find it polished and smooth across platforms, including Steam Deck. Overall, the stability is impressive for an early access title, with bugs being infrequent and rarely impacting gameplay.

    • “The early access version is very stable and relatively bug free.”
    • “Menace is already a deeply polished, engaging, bug free, slightly unoptimized, almost complete game, with minor issues that barely warrant a mention.”
    • “Yes, it's hard, yes, there's still kinks to work out, but for an early access, it's really well polished, bug free (other than the ones you are meant to shoot in-game) and looks and sounds amazing.”
    • “Still a little buggy but still in early access.”
    • “There are obvious signs it's in early access like placeholder weapons, not a lot of variety in enemies or buggy movement interfaces, but it has very good bones and I wanted to support the developers.”
    • “And there were just so many bugs and glitches.”
  • emotional
    18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game elicits genuine emotional engagement through its detailed squad leaders, impactful voice lines, and immersive audio-visual experience, fostering a heartfelt connection reminiscent of classic sci-fi tactical games. However, the emotional weight of squad losses is diminished by expendable troops and opaque RPG mechanics, which some players feel reduces the impact of their decisions. Overall, it offers moments of warmth and attachment but could benefit from deeper emotional investment and clarity to enhance player connection.

    • “I can't remember the last time a game made me feel legitimately giddy.”
    • “The whole thing feels like a heartfelt love letter to classic sci-fi action and horror.”
    • “Hearing your stealth guys barely speaking from exhaustion while your rambo-like is celebrating his 9th squad wipe and sort of scaring the more timid marine specialist he's with is so dang heartwarming.”
  • character development
    15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development in the game is highly praised for its diverse and well-crafted squad leaders, each with unique personalities, backgrounds, and specialized roles supported by strong voice acting and detailed design. The interactions and dialogue between characters enrich the experience, offering both depth and freshness even after extensive playtime. Additionally, the flexibility in customization and distinct tech trees provide a satisfying balance for players who enjoy both strategic variety and immersive character-driven storytelling.

    • “Each squad leader feels unique but remains modular and flexible, supported by incredible character design and voice acting; appealing both to min-maxers and more casual players who prioritize aesthetics, there's a flavor for everyone.”
    • “A final shout-out to the excellent character design of the squad leaders; they all feel very different thanks to the effort gone into their bios, appearance, and voice acting, and no two tech trees look exactly the same, lending each character towards specific roles in the late game.”
    • “Once again the attention to detail in the character design is just amazing, and the interactions between characters and stellar dialogue keep the game feeling fresh even after 100+ hours.”
  • monetization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users feel that while the game is not a cash grab and shows serious effort, the monetization tied to authority dynamics feels misleading and underwhelming, failing to deliver the promised dramatic personality clashes. Overall, the ads create expectations that the gameplay monetization does not meet.

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28h Median play time
95h Average play time
12-74h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 72 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

MENACE is a survival role playing game with science fiction theme.

MENACE is available on PC, Windows, Xbox Game Pass and Xbox.

On average players spend around 95 hours playing MENACE.

MENACE was released on February 5, 2026.

MENACE was developed by Overhype Studios.

MENACE has received very positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

MENACE is a single player game.

Similar games include Phantom Brigade, Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, Phoenix Point, Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus and others.