Incline MENACE - sci-fi turn-based tactical RPG from Battle Brothers devs

[agris]

https://www.gamespress.com/en-US/MENACE-turn-based-rpg-announced

August 21, 2023 – Hooded Horse is excited to announce MENACE, the first of two new games to be announced during gamescom 2023. From Overhype Studios, the developers behind popular medieval turn-based tactical RPG Battle Brothers, MENACE is a grounded sci-fi strategy experience that tasks players to restore order in the far reaches of space.

Lead a strike force against numerous threats in this brutal tactical RPG. Players must pick their allegiances and travel from planet to planet, fielding infantry, tanks, and mechs to answer distress calls and engage in intense turn-based battles. Cut off from the core worlds, help isn’t coming but neither is oversight or repercussions.

MENACE takes everything beloved about Battle Brothers – the evolving characters, the challenge, the army management, the dynamic sandbox gameplay – and yes, even the existential horror of facing off against an unbeatable enemy – and improves it tenfold. 3D environments allow for larger skirmishes across living battlefields, and the game’s mysterious enemy builds on Battle Brother’s sandbox and offers a powerful foe that has profound consequences on the strategic layer. Together these innovations will shake up the current norms of turn-based tactics games.

Key features of MENACE include:

• Procedurally generated multi-mission operations.
• Large, dynamic battle maps with innovative new mechanics for suppression and cover.
• A wide variety of vehicles for total combined-arms warfare.
• A large (and randomized) selection of characters to talk to, train, and forge together into an elite force aboard the TCRN Impetus, the player’s mobile base of operations.
• Countless equipment options, detailed supply management, and the ability to commandeer vehicles.
• Disparate factions to negotiate and ally with, or destroy, at the player’s option.

Every run of MENACE plays differently from the last, and players will face seemingly insurmountable challenges that take multiple forms across playthroughs, testing strategic and tactical prowess in new ways each time.

The Hooded Horse team will be at our booth in Hall 10.1 / stand E-020 throughout gamescom, so please do drop by to find out more about MENACE and the other games in the portfolio. We’ll have demos, goodie bags, and more new stuff to show!

MENACE will be localized from English into German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

MENACE will be coming to early access for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store in 2024. A press kit is available.

Press inquiries: press@hoodedhorse.com

looks janky AF, nice

rapsdjff i sincerely hope you have an amputation system in place. meaning: soldiers can lose limbs in battle without being killed, and we can outfit them with advanced prosthesis. as am homage to BB, I expect a tank-treads lower body prosthesis for double leg amputees.

 

[vazha]

"Takes everything beloved about Battle Brothers and improves it tenfold"

Yeah, thats an rather tall order bros. If its 3/4 as good as Battle Bros, thats already a big win in my book. I am ashamed to say I lowkey hope this one proves to be less successful so that they do a Battle Brothers 2 sooner.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Squad leaders and their squads earn promotions and improve over time, giving you the option to customize them to your liking. Keep your squad leaders alive and choose perks from a varied promotion tree, acquiring additional abilities to use against the enemy.

I wonder how big combat engagements this will have?
Oh well, more's merrier.

 

[ArchAngel]

By this announcement we might get more info at Gamescom in few days.

 

[ArchAngel]

I guess game will have stances:

 

[Orud]

I hope it doesn't become another 'play defensive and spam over-watch to trivialize encounters' game. Could really use another good tactical combat game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Steam page makes it sound a bit Jagged Alliance like as well. You will have squad leaders that will have history and personality and you will be able to talk with them outside missions.

 

[Zombra]

Full 3d and cinematic trailer. I am not optimistic

Meh, hiring artists doesn't mean the design will be bad. Question is whether hiring artists is ALL they did - which I doubt.

 

[Berekän]

Looks like you control infantry groups instead of individual units, not a big fan of that way after the strong personal customization of BB. Still, I remain optimistic, I like the dark sci fi approach.

 

[Shaki]

I hope it doesn't become another 'play defensive and spam over-watch to trivialize encounters' game. Could really use another good tactical combat game.

Which game did that? I've played pretty much every tacticool released in the last 2 decades, and I don't remember being tempted to spam overwatch in any of them.

 

[Abu Antar]

As long as it is bettwr than Phoenix Point.

 

[Tyranicon]

Man this year is seeing a bumper crop for RPGs and tactical titles. Hopefully this is at least on par with JA3, but with more RPG bits.

 

[Shaki]

As long as it is bettwr than Phoenix Point.

That's a pretty high bar considering Phoenix Point along with Xenonauts are by far the 2 best non-fantasy tacticools of the last decade.

Man this year is seeing a bumper crop for RPGs and tactical titles. Hopefully this is at least on par with JA3, but with more RPG bits.

God, please no, JA3 trying to be more RPGish than tacticool is the biggest problem of this game. I hope they focus on the mechanical side, properly deep inventory/character management, combat, etc instead of writing 50 le quirky quests and characters.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Damn bro, I sure wonder how deep is the vehicle/walker simulation going to be. Different armor values for front/sides/rear? Damageable subsystems? Variable loadouts and upgrades? All this and more better be in.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I guess game will have stances:

Might be unit having ´prone` or ´pinned` status effect instead of something that player controls.

 

[Luka-boy]

Legs status: Confirmed
My own status: Overhyped

 

[Kruyurk]

From the trailer, it looks like it will be on a square grid.

 

[Alienman]

Wonder if the combat will be more of a representation, or if you actually have to seek cover and such.

 

[Infinitron]

Man this year is seeing a bumper crop for RPGs and tactical titles. Hopefully this is at least on par with JA3, but with more RPG bits.

This game is scheduled for release in late 2024.

 

[M. AQVILA]

The game as it is acknowledges a "you", sure, but this "you" does not actually exist in this game world, none of the rules are valid for it and it has no influence over what's happening in the core gameplay elements whatsoever.
It's no different than e.g. any RTS like AoE in that respect - sure, you play the game, but there is no "you" in the game.

It's been a very long while since I played BB, but who makes all the decisions then? From what I remember, we are the commander. We role-play as the commander of a mercenary company. It doesn't matter if the game doesn't represent you with a sprite in-game, or if you don't have stats. That's not what makes a RPG.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Hooded Horse is very fast becoming one of my favorite publishers.

 

[Harthwain]

Hooded Horse is very fast becoming one of my favorite publishers.

How so?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Hooded Horse is very fast becoming one of my favorite publishers.

How so?

They have many titles that I'm interested in.
Some examples:
-Terra Invicta
-Xenonauts 2
-Nebulous: Fleet Command
-Capital Command
-Mars Tactics
etc.

Hadn't heard about the company prior 2021.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Full 3d and cinematic trailer. I am not optimistic

Meh, hiring artists doesn't mean the design will be bad. Question is whether hiring artists is ALL they did - which I doubt.

Hand painted 2d aesthetic always trumps the emptiness of 3d

 

[Zanzoken]

Idk bros. BB is a hell of a good game, so I want to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. I just don't see a lot here to get excited over though. Everyone seems to want to make the next X-Com, but they never succeed at it.