MENACE Early Access Review: Overhype Studios Proves Battle Brothers Was No Fluke

Battle Brothers Goes Sci-Fi — and It Works

Overhype Studios made their name with Battle Brothers, one of the defining tactical RPGs of the last decade. That same studio — still under Hooded Horse’s banner — now brings us MENACE, a sci-fi translation of their well-honed formula. Five months into Early Access (launched February 5, 2026), the numbers speak clearly: 91% Very Positive with nearly 7,500 Steam reviews. That’s not a fluke — that’s a studio that knows what it’s doing.

What Is MENACE?

MENACE puts you in charge of a mercenary outfit navigating a fractured future where human factions — and alien wildlife — contest control of colonized planets. The gameplay loop will feel immediately familiar to Battle Brothers veterans: squad management, turn-based tactical combat, soldier progression, and resource management across procedurally generated missions.

The XCOM comparison is inevitable, but MENACE targets a harder-edged audience — one less interested in Hollywood spectacle and more invested in systemic depth and the cold calculus of squad survival. There’s no flashy base with cinematic sequences here; there are contracts, careful engagements, and the permanent threat of losing your best soldiers.

Enemy factions offer genuine variety:

Construct — cyborg forces, substantially reworked in SL Update 1
The Unbent — disciplined royalists with structured defensive tactics
Outlanders — highly mobile aggressors that demand flexible counter-tactics
Pirates, Rogue Army, and Zayn-Beecher Corporation — opportunistic and corporate military threats
Alien Wildlife — unpredictable environmental hazards that complicate every operation

SL Update 1: A Meaningful First Major Patch

Released on April 22, 2026, the Squad Leaders Update 1 demonstrated Overhype’s willingness to listen and act on community feedback. The headline changes:

Three new Squad Leaders were added (two infantry, one pilot), recruited by building trust with specific factions. It’s a reputation-based system that rewards consistency over opportunism — very Overhype.

The Construct faction overhaul was arguably the most substantial change. The developers had openly called Construct “the least interesting faction” — and they followed through. Drones now arrive in larger numbers but are individually more fragile. Construct Soldiers lost their rocket capability, making them manageable for heavy vehicles. Guncrawlers gain those rockets and become the faction’s primary anti-vehicle threat. A new high-tier support unit rounds out the redesigned roster.

Most celebrated: the promotion tax system is gone. This mechanic penalized squad upgrades with escalating costs, creating the perverse feeling that advancing your troops was a punishment rather than a reward. The developer’s statement was characteristically blunt: “We have done away with it.” Supply costs were rebalanced throughout to compensate.

Tips for Getting Started

A few practical notes for new players:

Protect your veterans: like Battle Brothers, losing an experienced soldier creates a progression setback that’s genuinely painful to recover from
Learn each faction’s behavioral patterns: Outlanders rush, Unbent hold lines, Construct now uses layered formations — exploit the differences
Use the new Squad Leaders: the faction-reputation recruiting system unlocks units with unique synergies that generic mercenaries can’t match
Resource management matters as much as tactics: planning what to carry and when to retreat is half the battle

Verdict

MENACE is already a meaningful tactical RPG with a clear identity. The 91% Very Positive rating after five months of Early Access reflects a studio that shipped a strong foundation and kept improving it. SL Update 1 shows Overhype Studios is a responsive developer — the kind that ships patches addressing specific player frustrations.

Not a complete game yet — that’s Early Access done honestly — but a compelling one for anyone who misses the focused intensity of Battle Brothers and wants it in a different setting.

For more on Hooded Horse’s tactical lineup, read our review of Wartales: Fires in the Capital DLC. If XCOM remains your tactical benchmark, our complete XCOM 2 guide covers the essentials.