Attack Of The Earthlings Review: Take Me To Your Leader

Mitchell Gassner February 8, 2018 News, Quick Hit Reviews

At first glance, Attack Of The Earthlings, the new turn-based strategy game being released today by developer Team Junkfish, would appear to be your run of the mill turn-based strategy title. Gamers always say they want genre changing games, scoffing when developers reuse existing mechanics in a new title. Then when something truly unique comes out everyone huddles around the virtual watercooler complaining how the new gameplay is gimmicky, that game XYZ which they’ve been playing for years is better, and generally rain down hate on the developer. In reality, most gamers want the comfort of the tried and true with just enough change to make the game feel new and exciting. Team Junkfish has walked this tightrope with Attack Of The Earthlings, tweaking the familiar elements of the genre just enough to create a fresh take on strategic combat. This is our Attack Of The Earthlings review.

The storyline in Attack Of The Earthlings takes the typical aliens attacking planet Earth cliché and flips it on its end. The human run corporation, Galactoil, has landed their giant space drill on Planet X13, intent on stripping the planet of its natural resources. You play as the Swarmers, the indigenous population of not so friendly insectoids who must go on the offensive to stop the human assault on their planet.

This simple change of perspective is complemented by a departure from the usual doom and gloom scenario of saving planet Earth, replacing it with the comedic antics of the Galactoil hierarchy. Directing the human defenses is Mr. Pecker, the slightly sadistic member of Galactoil middle management. It is through the inept oversight of Mr. Pecker by upper management, specifically Mr. Dickinham (might as well be named Trump), that the plot progresses. These interactions, laced with wonderfully dry British humor, provide comic relief while delivering your mission objectives.

As you advance through the levels of the human ship, from the drill up to the boardroom, you begin each floor with a single unit, your Matriarch. Unlike many strategy games where you must construct a base and amass an army between combat sorties, the Matriarch serves as your base. She is a powerful soldier, resource gatherer, and unit producer, all combined into one ugly shell. You will use her in combat, but protect her at all costs; if she dies, you fail the scenario and have to restart from your last save point.

Building your army is simple – kill the humans and devour their bodies to produce your sole resource, Biomass. After collecting enough Biomass your Matriarch can produce your basic foot soldier, the Grunt. Grunts have little health, no armor, and weak attacks, but can be mutated into a variety of more powerful units at the cost of additional Biomass. With only a single resource being used for all troop types you must constantly decide whether to spend your Biomass to increase your army size or mutate your Grunts into more specialized units. Fortunately, there are both “innocent” civilians and military targets to kill and consume, and you can even “recycle” your fallen troops back into Biomass.

Your Grunts are able to mutate into three specialized units: Stalker (assassin with armor penetration and backstabs), Disrupter (ranged attacks and decoys), and Goliath (hard hitter with heavy armor). Your Matriarch is also able to assimilate a human civilian to act as a scout, capable of moving about freely without alerting the enemy to your presence. Upon completion of each level, you will be awarded Mutagen to spend on skill upgrades for your future troops. Completing secondary objectives, kill bonuses, and fast completion adds to your Mutagen, while unit deaths apply a penalty. The upgrade path for each unit only has a few nodes, but each upgrade has a distinct effect on combat. Resetting your upgrades comes free of charge, so it is simple to try new tactics if you are struggling with a particular level.

The lack of base management and single resource pool, paired with only a handful of soldier types and upgrades may feel limited when compared to games like the X-COM series, but restricted doesn’t mean easy. Taking all the different elements found in the genre and combining them all into one phase allows the player to focus on one thing – combat. And Team Junkfish has ensured each game mechanic added to or deleted from the typical strategy game creates a new dynamic to challenge the player.

Take replacing your base with the Matriarch. Usually, combat takes place on a separate map from your base, segmenting the different phases and causing base management to be a mundane task to complete before you can get back into the action. As one of your more powerful soldiers, your Matriarch is always near the action and under threat of destruction. You will need to utilize your other unit’s abilities to maneuver enemy troops to use your queen effectively, and I even found myself sacrificing a Grunt to redirect enemies into a weaker position, similar to losing a pawn in chess.

As you get to the later levels, all of your units start to take on this same dynamic of risk vs reward. You are often outnumbered (in a balanced sort of way) or have objectives requiring you to split your forces up. You will have to manage your Biomass usage while at the same time determining the correct team makeup. Rushing a unit into a weak position in the hunt for more Biomass might work or it could get it killed. It may be smarter and cheaper in the long run to make a coordinated assault utilizing each unit’s special abilities to your advantage.

These choices are further enhanced by the environment itself. There are often multiple paths to take, some with hiding places to be used to avoid or ambush patrols. There are vents accessible by your smaller units (aka Grunts and Stalkers) allowing them to quickly flank the enemy. All of these mechanics add to the immersion of combat, and even the weakest Grunt becomes an important piece of your group.

Each change implemented by Team Junkfish may seem minor, but together all the tweaks work to great effect. You spend almost all of your time on the level map, condensing all the base building tasks down to something that can be managed during combat. The stealth aspects create a puzzle to be solved on each mission, allowing you to advance slowly while rewarding you for a quicker completion of objectives. There is good synergy between the different troop types, allowing weaker units to maintain their effectiveness throughout the entire level, even as the enemy forces grow more powerful. The comedy of Pecker and Dickinham creates a good contrast to the bloody combat and is a welcomed departure from the typical deep voiced commander barking orders at you.

All of these positives don’t come without a couple of detractors. First and foremost, there isn’t a difficulty setting. While I found the game to be more challenging as I advanced through the missions, some hardcore players may find the game too easy. A simple difficulty slider would go a long way in resolving this issue. The difficulty slider would also help with another issue – replayability. With static maps and enemy placement, once a floor is complete there is little reason to go back and play it again. There are Mutagen bonuses for higher kill counts and completing a mission in fewer turns, but the incentive isn’t enough to go back and run the level again to get a higher score. Neither of these issues should stop a fan of the genre from checking the game out. The solid gameplay is well worth the time and money, even if the game is a one and done proposition.

Note: Our copy was reviewed on PC with a code provided by PR.