Archrebel Tactics is a galactic love letter to '80s strategy game essentials

After 15 years in development and three redesigns, space strategy game Archrebel Tactics has come full circle by securing a publishing deal with Microprose. Most heavily inspired by Rebelstar, the 1986 classic from original XCOM creator Julian Gollop, Archrebel Tactics puts you in charge of a small squadron of units completing missions on a hostile alien planet. Calling to mind beloved PC names such as Laser Squad and UFO: Enemy Unknown, it's now got the financial support needed to reach completion, and you can try a demo today.

While it began life in 2010, developer Ularis Badler says progress on Archrebel Tactics "has been steady since 2021, when I left my job to fully dedicate myself to game development." Unfortunately, three years later, they found themselves running low on funds, "and a few ill-timed real-life events forced me to scale back to part-time development." The old-school strategy game has just been given a fresh injection of support, however, courtesy of publisher Microprose.

Badler says the deal gives them "the option to return to full-time development should I feel my current pace isn't meeting expectations," and adds, "the project has never been more alive than it is now." A demo for the game has been available via Itchio since 2024, and is regularly updated with new features and tools. There's everything from cloak fields and decoy projectors to EMP grenades and a 'neuro gun' that lets you briefly take control over wildlife and enemy soldiers.

Plenty more is on the cards for the future, too. Badler's current list, which they stress doesn't make any guarantees for the final product, includes a leveling system, weather, more biomes and wildlife, a more structured campaign mode, campaign co-op and PvP multiplayer, a mission editor, and additional demo stages.

I'm particularly taken by its visual direction, which very much captures the spirit of the era it's inspired by but delivers it in a much more impressive, modern way. Its pixel-art design has the detail and beauty of contemporaries such as Factorio and Intravenous, but with enough resemblance to invoke what you remember games from the '80s looking like (even if your mind is being overly generous).

The new publishing deal is a somewhat fitting twist of fate for the Rebelstar-inspired indie game. Gollop's UFO: Enemy Unknown, the game that would eventually give us the XCOM series, was also published under the Microprose name. The studio of today is rather different from that one, however, as the original was closed by Atari in 2003, and later resurrected in a new form. Nevertheless, seeing its name on the Archrebel Tactics Steam page feels right.

There's currently no release date for Archrebel Tactics, but you can download the latest demo via Itchio. Head here to try it out, or wishlist it on Steam.

We've rounded up more of the best space games for plenty of alien adventures, along with the best classic PC games you can still play today.

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