But in reality, it’s a game that barely shows you anything.
Games are constantly telling you exactly what you’re meant to see. Big cutscenes, flashy animations, and perfectly rendered… well everything. But have you heard the phrase “show, don’t tell”?. It’s something most often used on horror games to keep you on your toes and get your imagination running.
And Xenopurge made me realize something similar.
When games are walls of text, or a few pixels… you have to imagine the rest. Your brain fills in the gaps, and somehow, that makes everything more tense and immersive.
You are part gamer and part storyteller… and this game does exactly that.
Xenopurge is a sci-fi tactical auto-battler roguelike where you don’t fight aliens directly.
Instead, you sit behind a terminal while your squad gets torn apart in real-time… and you try to guide them to survival with remote commands. You don’t control anyone directly. Each marine runs on simple logic: Stand n Fight to hold position and shoot, or charge to rush into melee. You can upgrade their logic mid-run, assign behaviors between missions, and swap out gear, but once they’re deployed, they follow their logic and your orders on instinct.
And trust me… this isn’t some chill management game. Marines scream for help over the radio. Aliens swarm from the fog. Every decision feels like you’re live-directing a sci-fi horror movie… and everything’s going wrong.
The campaign plays out in a Slay the Spire-style mission map. Some nodes are combat missions where you have to extract a VIP, destroy alien hives and survive swarms, while others nodes let you equip, upgrade, or recruit new soldiers. Each map is randomized, and with different squad types, difficulty sectors, and meta challenges to unlock, there’s a ton of replay value.
But what really makes this game shine is the atmosphere.
It’s tense. It’s raw. The sounds of your squad breaking down over radio, the flicker of the UI, the way the aliens feel like they’re swarming you, it’s all designed to stress you out in the best way possible. And the game nails it. Through smart design, tight visuals, and audio that belongs in a sci-fi horror film, Xenopurge creates a feeling most modern games can’t touch.
If I had one wish, it’s that the game leaned even deeper into horror.
Imagine having doors that stay locked unless you hack a terminal. Power failures that cut your entire screen, forcing you to issue blind commands. Lighting systems breaking down mid-mission where marines can’t see a thing and stay put, and you have to either figure out how to fix the lights with a minigame while you’re typing in blind commands like “go left maybe?” and the marines are just screaming.
Also, I want more aliens. Not just more of them! I want weird ones. Like, the screen shows a little blip and you’re like “oh cool it’s a bug,” and then boom, it’s a space-worm-predator-bee that explodes and kills everybody.
Okay that one might too much…
The game already feels tense and immersive, but it’s clear there’s untapped potential here to make each mission feel even more unpredictable and terrifying.
Still, even though Xenopurge looks simple, it really plays like a panic attack wrapped in a strategy sim. It’s intense, and it sticks in your head hours after you quit. If you’ve only seen the trailer, trust me… try the demo. This one’s a hidden gem.
And if you’re into games like Space Hulk, Nemesis: Lockdown, or just love that feeling of barely holding it together, this game is for you.
Positives
💚 Incredible tension through sound design, radio chatter, and lo-fi visuals.
💚 Controlling units through logic and remote orders feels fresh.
💚 Great use of imagination relying on the player to fill in the blanks, enhancing immersion.
💚 Tactile, keyboard-only command interface makes you feel like a real commander.
💚 Strong replay value with randomized maps, unique squads, challenges and upgrade paths.
💚 Feels like a mix of Space Hulk, Nemesis, and FTL but with its own identity.
Negatives
❌ Atmosphere could go even deeper with more horror elements: power outages, map events, locked doors would enhance tension.
❌ Maps feel a bit static… more interaction variety and environmental storytelling would improve immersion.
❌ Alien types are limited.
❌ Untapped potential in making each mission feel unpredictable with unique events beyond objectives.
Written by
Kevin Fernandes
