It's probably poor form to do another "what I said in a group chat" (this time, to culture critic Rowan Kaiser. Hermits can namedrop too, shut up) intro, but "Oh i already liked menace, that's why I hate it" feels too useful to spurn.
I don't really hate Menace. You've been there, though: a game you enjoy, perhaps even begin to love, but it keeps aggravating you, forcing you to vent before you can play it more. This one is carried through that by a core of turn-based shooting, with some interesting simulation and character levelling that often work well together. And some of its annoyances are natural update fodder during its early access period, as perhaps are some areas that currently feel lacking. But man, does it need that carrying sometimes.
The premise is more intriguing than its execution. Your imperial space marine ship is stranded in a semi-rebellious region, whose three local factions can't survive the eventual retaliation if they kill you, but could use you to take over and become strong enough to. They have resources you need, and problems you can solve, so will essentially hire you, paying directly in "OCI" (ship upgrade points), and indirectly in experience and loot. As your relationship improves, they also offer unique modules to spend those ship points on. Refreshingly, there's no money, so that loot is directly traded on a semi-randomised "black market", which also offers an emergency trickle of manpower at emergency (read: scalping) cost, and new recruitable characters for a more reasonable one (though you can't influence which one shows up).
The removal of money adds a little extra consideration to missions, and the trade-in for newer or more specific gear much more engaging, and those characters mark Menace out as more interesting than the usual theoretically infinite - but in practice, flat - random generation. Still, everything else about faction interaction is a dud in its current form. Most strikingly, which one you work for is irrelevant, as you have to do every mission offered for more to appear, and they never conflict. You only ever fight the usual insectoid hive aliens, "pirates" (ie: random omnicidal idiots), a "rogue" faction that also want to kill everyone for no apparent reason, and eventually, the titular menace itself.
I won't spoil what they are, but it's one of the two or three things you guessed it might be. Although which you guessed might as well be random, as there's no build up to their arrival at all, beyond a very obvious trap. It comes surprisingly far into a game, which I like, but only then are you suddenly expected to know and care who these unskippable and annoying NPCs are, which I obviously don't.
I'm not sure if I disliked the menace (faction) and the challenge they offer, or that they came when I already needed a break, but Menace (game) is either holding back a lot of story, atmosphere, and factional systems for later updates, or it's going to remain a boring and wasted premise that might as well be replaced with "get next random mission". Even the ship upgrades they reward are mostly either terrible, appealing but terrible compared to an alternative, or so wildly useful that they make any other choice feel like a deliberate mistake. Factions don't offer a free choice, either, but a random four from their pool, which meant that several times I was being offered 12 options, of which 11 were worthless to me. In theory, this could mean working with what you've got; an intentional constraint that can elevate a good design into a far more interesting and varied game than boring minmax efficiency. In practice, ship upgrades are so expensive and your slots for them so limited that any sub-optimal picks are worse than installing nothing. There's no reason to pay attention to the factions at all.
Fortunately, they offer those missions, and here's where Menace shines through its blemishes. Your first choice in a campaign is which characters to bring. "Squad leaders" bring infantry, and "pilots" drive ground vehicles (including mechs) solo. Each of these is designed by the developers rather than randomly generated, and instead of classes, each gets a tailored collection of perks to choose from. It's more Jagged Alliance than Battle Brothers, and more interesting for it. You have a free hand to develop them, as instead of individual experience points (though stats like accuracy slowly grow through use), levels are gained when you spend points from a shared pool on whoever you like. These "promotions" are pricier for already perked-up characters, and a multiplier makes some innately cheaper to promote. Promotion only gives a perk, so there's a natural benefit to promoting evenly rather than creating four indispensible XCOM superheroes and a b-list of useless emergency losers. But many perks make other perks more useful, whether it's the more advanced ones unlocked after a few promotions, or, excellently, dipping back to a perk in the first row that could be just as powerful.
It also means you can immediately bump a newcomer up a few times, and since you've no control over who becomes available next (the black market makes a random recruit available, not recruited. You must still pay in Authority to take them) you might do that with an eye for fitting them into the team, not for maximum individual efficiency. Although characters don't meaningfully clash or vibe (some voice lines do fire back and forth, and mercifully I've found nobody as obnoxious as some of JA3's posers), you naturally find pairings who support each other, and a team that supports the whole. There are, no doubt, already guides to the "best" way to "build" everyone, but the design encourages personalisation, and some flexibility, especially since the equipment you give them could double the length of this article.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rally-point-strong-simulation-and-team-building-cant-carry-menace-forever
