Overhype Studios earned a cult following with Battle Brothers, a brutal medieval tactics game that treated every mercenary like fragile meat wrapped around expensive armor. With MENACE, the studio trades chainmail for exo-suits and claymores for railguns, yet the philosophy remains intact: war is messy, resources are precious, and even victory usually limps.
Set aboard the TCRN Impetus, MENACE casts you as commander of a ragtag military outfit stranded in the lawless Wayback system. Local warlords, predatory corporations, and desperate colonies all want a piece of you, and none intend to pay fairly. It’s classic space-western territory filtered through Overhype’s trademark cynicism.
Tactical DNA, Sci-Fi Skin
On the battlefield MENACE feels like a confident evolution rather than a reskin of its predecessor. Squads of infantry, towering mechs, and armored vehicles clash across hex-based maps littered with cover, destructible terrain, and nasty sightlines. Positioning matters more than raw numbers; a poorly placed squad evaporates under suppressive fire just as brutally as any peasant spearman once did.
The game offers an impressive 50+ mission types even in its early state. Escort runs, base assaults, scavenging operations, and multi-stage campaigns keep objectives varied. Each planet introduces new biomes and hazards—acid storms corrode armor, dense jungles choke vision, and derelict megacities become lethal mazes.
Combat is deliberate and punishing. Suppression, morale, and injury systems ensure that battles rarely end cleanly. A single lucky shot can cripple a mech you’ve spent hours upgrading, forcing difficult decisions about retreat or sacrifice. It’s tense, tactical storytelling at its best.
Build Your Warband 2.0
Between deployments you manage a growing roster of soldiers and machines. Equipment is bought, looted, or salvaged from smoking wrecks. The customization depth is staggering: rifles with modular attachments, experimental xeno tech, vehicle loadouts that would make an arms dealer blush.
True to Overhype form, characters are not faceless grunts. The ensemble cast aboard the Impetus bickers, boasts, and occasionally betrays expectations. Perks and backgrounds shape how each unit performs, and losing a veteran hurts both mechanically and emotionally.
Planning multi-stage operations adds a strategic layer reminiscent of tabletop campaigns. You must allocate limited manpower across simultaneous objectives, hoping your second team can survive without the star sniper you sent elsewhere. Poor logistics can doom an entire expedition before the first shot is fired.
The Menace Itself
Hovering over everything are the enigmatic constructs known as the Menace—unknowable entities that twist missions from routine to nightmare. Encounters with them feel genuinely alien, introducing mechanics that disrupt established tactics. The first time a squad’s sensors fill with impossible geometry is a delicious jolt of cosmic horror.
The narrative, still unfolding through early access, hints at larger conspiracies tying the factions together. Writing leans grim but not joyless; gallows humor punctures the despair, and side stories give flavor to otherwise bleak contracts.
Rough Orbits
Early access realities show through the hull plating. Performance can stutter on busy maps, and pathfinding occasionally sends units on scenic tours of active kill zones. The UI, while information-rich, overwhelms newcomers with nested menus and tiny icons.
Balance is another moving target. Some weapons feel anemic compared to obvious meta picks, and certain mission types spike sharply in difficulty. Overhype has a strong patching track record, but for now expect turbulence.
Visually, MENACE is functional rather than flashy. Mechs and vehicles have pleasing industrial heft, yet environments lack the painterly identity of genre peers. Audio design compensates somewhat; the crack of autocannons and ominous synth score sell the atmosphere.
Accessibility in the Stars
Localization into more than a dozen languages at launch is commendable, and controller support works surprisingly well for a tactics title. Being a day-one PC Game Pass release lowers the barrier for curious commanders, a smart move for a complex new IP.
Who Should Enlist
Fans of Battle Brothers, XCOM, or Warhammer 40K tactics will feel immediately at home. MENACE rewards patience, planning, and a tolerance for loss. It is not a power fantasy; it’s a survival ledger written in shell casings.
Casual strategy players may find the learning curve steep, but those who climb it discover one of the most promising tactical sandboxes in years.
Pros
- Deep, punishing tactical combat
- Extensive unit and equipment customization
- Varied mission types and planetary biomes
- Strong atmosphere and emergent storytelling
- Meaningful strategic layer between battles
Cons
- Early access bugs and performance dips
- Overly dense UI
- Balance swings in weapons and missions
- Visuals lack distinctive flair
Final Verdict
MENACE is Overhype Studios doing what it does best—making war feel expensive, personal, and gloriously unfair. Beneath early-access scratches lies a tactics engine with serious gravity, capable of generating stories as memorable as any scripted campaign. The mix of infantry, mechs, and cosmic horror gives the formula fresh teeth, even if the UI sometimes bites back. With continued polish and narrative expansion, this could stand shoulder to shoulder with the genre’s greats. Right now it’s already a star worth navigating toward—just expect to lose a few ships on the way.
