Hooded Horse's new strategy game Menace isn't XCOM, and that's okay

I assumed, from its pretty hardcore cinematic - as well as everything else I'd read - that Menace was like XCOM for people who didn't like themselves. I was well up for that, filling each requirement perfectly. I love XCOM, with its super granular tactical turn-based goodness, and let's be honest, I'm only so-so.

What I found, though, was that Menace isn't XCOM. It isn't even Phoenix Point. It's Company of Heroes that has watched Starship Troopers way too many times, and that's pretty cool. Menace is a turn-based strategy game that is both tough and, somehow, a sci-fi power fantasy rolled into one. It rewards with one hand and gives you a firm poke in the side with the other.

The comparisons to XCOM are a compliment, but are perhaps doing Menace a little bit of a disservice. XCOM has you and a small squad duke it out in cramped spaces - finding the right angle of attack, keeping yourself in some form of cover lest you be flanked. Menace takes a similar approach to cover but approaches these battles on a much grander scale.

My missions take place over a lot of open ground, and my tasks all have an air of bombast about them. Holding an area against waves of enemies, tracking and eliminating particularly dangerous individuals. It's all very big. This is a war, and we are the sharp end of the stick. It does lose something in that, though.

Your personnel, for instance. Each member of your 'squad' is actually its own unit, and with each named character able to have eight soldiers with them, the numbers at your disposal become that of a small army, rather than a strike team. Fights in Menace are often efforts in focus fire - taking down enemies with raw power rather than surgical strikes or lone-wolf antics.

While a lot of effort has gone into giving the troops of Menace a personality - they are fully voiced, distinct entities - I struggled a little to get attached to them in the way the game seemingly wants me to. Adding numbers to a squad dilutes my bond somewhat, and I had no real issue sending whoever into a dangerous situation, even if it would most likely end in their demise. I lost a few squads, but it was more of an annoyance than anything else.

I had to adjust my expectations of Menace before it truly clicked. Going in expecting one thing, I could only notice how it wasn't that. I recommend that anyone interested in the strategy game's early access do the same. While I found the edges of this early build after a few hours, it was still worth my time, and I'm looking forward to how it looks on full release.