It’s been a hot minute since the last XCOM game, so it’s great news that a brand new humanity vs aliens turn-based tactics game is launching into Early Access within an hour, at least at the time of writing.
Every Day We Fight follows some paths familiar to fans of XCOM, but it has quite a few things going for it that ensure it’s not just XCOM by another name and make it worth paying attention to.
First of all, its executive producer is ChristopherOdd, a name most likely quite familiar to fans of turn-based tactics. He’s a Youtuber specialized in the genre, who’s covered, quite extensively, Firaxis’ own TBT titles, including, of course, the XCOMs. With such a genre veteran guiding the development, it’s quite intriguing to see what the Signal Space Lab studio cooked up.
It’s also relevant, because he’s the narrator for a substantial gameplay overview trailer released ahead of the Early Access, as seen below.
Let’s go over briefly over everything shown off, shall we?
What is it about?
The basic premise of the game is that aliens dubbed Rifters arrive to the city to extract a unique resource hidden in the city unbeknownst to its people.
They threw an energy shield over the whole place, and now previously warring factions of humans band together, as three regular people need to rise to the occasion and fight against this invasion, even as other humans are stuck in a mysterious stasis.
What does it play like?
While you’re free to explore the city during a run to discover resources and get around some enemies, when the combat starts the game switches into a typical turn-based combat system. You know, top-down perspective, spending action points, and moving the characters around tactically, all that jazz.
The trick is that when it’s time to start shooting, you’re going to be the one to aim. This way the game avoids the memetic “99% chance to hit” misses familiar to everybody who’s ever played any RNG-fueled turn-based game. It’s a little bit similar to the aimed shots in recent Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a convergent evolution of sorts.
On occasion, something will happen to trigger a character’s reflex action, adding some extra oomph to what’s going on.
From citizen to hero
The Thorns are going to be upgradeable, each with three skill trees for their reflex action options, their special abilities, and various utility upgrades. It also ties into the time loop element, as your skills are persistent through loops. There’s also going to be gear crafting, to add extra variety to your builds.
If it sounds interesting, Every Day We Fight is probably already out in Early Access while you’re reading this, so give it a shot. There’s even a demo!