{"id":44523,"date":"2026-02-02T09:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/?post_type=game-reviews&p=44523"},"modified":"2026-02-02T09:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:18:22","slug":"menace-early-access","status":"publish","type":"game-reviews","link":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/game-reviews\/menace-early-access\/","title":{"rendered":"MENACE (Early Access)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MENACE was provided by Hooded Horse for review. Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was a massive fan of Battle Brothers by Overhype Studios, and MENACE<\/a> is their long-awaited next game. They are published by the awesome folks at Hooded Horse, and we were lucky enough to get an early look at the game\u2019s Early Access state before its launch. I seem to be our main point of contact for Hooded Horse titles, and I was delighted to get the chance to try the game firsthand after my experience with the demo last autumn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the game\u2019s early development, it\u2019s important to stress that this is in Early Access and a lot of things need work. I play a lot of Early Access games, and my review philosophy when covering them is reviewing them based on their content and polish as it stands, rather than considering future patches. With this in mind, I\u2019ve been impressed by the depth of MENACES\u2019 gameplay and setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the rough edges, this commercial build for MENACE<\/a> is pretty comprehensive. While the demo only focused on a vertical slice of the core combat gameplay, the early access version contains plenty of content to dig into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Players take on the role of a professional military corps dealing with a variety of foes in an interplanetary scope. If you have played Battle Brothers before, it's easy to tell that Overhype Studios has learned many lessons, with much of their ethos is carried over into MENACE<\/a>. In my preview, I called it \u2018sci-fi Battle Brothers writ large\u2019, and that is certainly true! After a short tutorial to learn the basics of combat, the main game kicks off in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The best way to describe MENACE\u2019s<\/a> gameplay is to think of it like the XCOM games, balancing base management and punishing combat into a delicious package. Players must build trust with several factions, manage their budding squad of mercenaries, and carry out operations across the Wayback star system. These operations are procedurally generated and come in six types, and each of those consists of a string of missions that have branching paths. I would have preferred more curated story paths, but this is in the works for later updates, and the current mission system is pretty varied with some nice voice acting. The narrative is typical sci-fi corporate intrigue and pirates being assholes, but there\u2019s nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The visuals are pretty nice for a turn-based game like this, especially when you have the specs to jack all the graphics up to full. Combine the great unit models with the destructible terrain and great sound design, and there are great guts in the core gameplay overall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gameplay is high-risk, high-reward on both sides. While the game gives a ton of different tools and customization options for the player with high lethality, the same is true for the enemies you will face, and it brings an emphasis on careful tactics. The stakes are high, and while the challenge curve is pretty brutal, I love the attention to detail. With the amount you can tweak your squad in base management and all the different loadouts, there\u2019s a ton of replayability just off this alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is a pretty hard game even on the standard difficulty settings, and playthroughs are in for the long haul, too. It\u2019s not quite as complex and lengthy as something like Terra Invicta, but it\u2019s not for the light-hearted. Despite losing many fights, however, I\u2019ve always enjoyed myself. This is backed up by great sound design. When my troops fired upon a group of horrible pirate scum, I revelled in their sounds of pain when the guns went off. I swear I\u2019m a normal person! I was impressed by the sound in the playable demo, but it seems Overhype Studios has made improvements across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a lot to do with the management. We got a glimpse at the squad loadouts during the demo, and I love games that let me organize my armies of destruction. There are four squad leaders available to you in the beginning, with the opportunity to recruit more through the campaign, depending on which factions you ally with, and there are a bunch of vehicles, weapons, and perks to attach to your team for missions. You can also access the Black market to pick up more equipment through a barter system, as well as upgrade the battle cruiser for additional options in missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Speaking of the demo, I do wish they kept the custom battle mode from the beta to mess around with, as I thought it was a great way to introduce players to the mechanics. My main concern right now about MENACE<\/a> is performance, and you will need a pretty powerful system to play it optimally. It\u2019s important to remember this is an Early Access game, and while there are plenty of graphical options to tweak with DLSS and FSR upscaling, there\u2019s a lot of work to be done on the optimization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While MENACE<\/a> doesn\u2019t really do anything new for the genre on both sides of the gameplay loop, it does enough right that I\u2019m finding the game rather absorbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MENACE - Steam Deck Performance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

MENACE<\/a> has been given a \u2018Playable\u2019 rating by Valve for compatibility on the Steam Deck, while ProtonDB has a Gold rating for the game right now. While the game can certainly be played with the upscaling additions and the Steam Deck\u2019s trackpad controls, it\u2019s important to note that this isn\u2019t the optimal way to play the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back when I played MENACE in beta, I found the game nearly unplayable on the Steam Deck. Overhype Studios has brought a large array of options to tweak since, and clearly, they have done some work under the hood these past few months. To my pleasant surprise, the game is more playable now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve this, I did a medium graphics preset with FSR3 on Performance, with a native resolution, 50hz refresh rate, and an uncapped TDP. With these settings, the game had a fairly stable 50 FPS in most cases, although I still saw frequent frame drops during moments like terrain being destroyed or during gunfire. A default Keyboard and Mouse (WASD) setup allowed me to access all the standard controls as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The graphics don't look great like this on the Deck\u2019s 800p screen, but this was the best option I had to make things somewhat playable. Lower settings make the shadows and textures look like someone plunged the console into an uncleaned toilet bowl, and higher settings tanked the framerate. The power draw is fairly high as I expected, though the 50 Hz refresh rate on my Steam Deck OLED brought the average down to 12 watts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main problem I found is still the lack of interface scaling, which makes reading text difficult. Until some font scaling is implemented, those who have trouble reading on a small screen will struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Accessibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

MENACE is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, and Japanese, although only English has voiceovers right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Overhype Studios has included a decent toolset of accessibility options for launch. Plenty of options can be freely adjusted, including text speed, tooltip delay, unit movement speed, and several ways to pause gameplay during enemy action. There are also the usual things like VSync, DLSS, and FSR3 support, framerate capping, and some nice keyboard and mouse tweaks for how you want to control the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There isn\u2019t any colorblind support in the game right now, and there is no controller support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is early days yet for MENACE<\/a>, but I\u2019m already impressed by what's on offer. I\u2019ve probably played better turn-based tactics games in my time, such as Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, and I\u2019ve also played games with better management systems. However, it\u2019s the combination of the two that blends into something truly captivating. The game still needs work, and I would prefer to wait for some interface optimization before I\u2019m comfortable playing it on the Steam Deck long term, but fans of Battle Brothers can expect Overhype Studios to be in this for the long haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our review is based on the PC version of this game.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ<\/a>! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news<\/a>, tips and tutorials<\/a>, game settings and reviews<\/a>, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MENACE is what I expected coming from Battle Brothers. This Early Access version has plenty of content and depth, though performance still needs work. However, it is playable on the Steam Deck with some compromises!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":44573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"genre":[44],"class_list":["post-44523","game-reviews","type-game-reviews","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","genre-strategy"],"acf":{"best_on_deck":false,"is_first_look":false,"last_revised_date":null,"optimized_and_recommended_settings":{"steamos_settings":{"fps_cap":"50","fps_refresh_rate":50,"half_rate_shading":false,"tdp_limit":"No","scaling_filter":"","gpu_clock_frequency":"Disabled"},"proton_version":"No Forced Compatibility","game_settings":"Medium Preset\r\nFSR3 Upscaling\r\nPerformance Mode","projected_battery_usage_and_temperature":{"wattage":"12-15W","temperatures":"55-59c","gameplay_time":"Around 4 Hours"}},"sdhq_rating":1,"sdhq_rating_tags":null,"sdhq_rating_categories":{"performance":3,"visuals":3,"stability":3,"controls":3,"battery":3,"score_breakdown":"MENACE is what I expected coming from Battle Brothers. This Early Access version has plenty of content and depth, though performance still needs work. However, it is playable on the Steam Deck with some compromises!"},"ratings":{"deck_verified_rating":"Playable","proton_db_rating":"Gold"},"deck_builds":null,"links":{"steam_store_url":"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/2432860\/MENACE\/?curator_clanid=42495043","protondb_url":"https:\/\/www.protondb.com\/app\/2432860"},"artwork":{"game_logo":44571,"cover_art":44572,"square_art":44573,"box_art":44573},"":{"game_logo":44571,"cover_art":44572,"square_art":44573,"box_art":44573},"gallery":"","steam_app_id":"2432860","other_settings":null},"featured_img":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/MENACE.jpg","coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/author\/thethousandscar\/","display_name":"Michael Baker"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 weeks ago","modified":"Updated 3 weeks ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 2, 2026","modified":"Updated on February 2, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 2, 2026 9:18 am","modified":"Updated on February 2, 2026 9:18 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","tax_additional":{"category":{"linked":[],"unlinked":[],"slug":"category","name":"Categories"},"genre":{"linked":["Strategy<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Strategy<\/span>"],"slug":"genre","name":"Genres"}},"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/game-reviews\/44523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/game-reviews"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/game-reviews"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44523"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/game-reviews\/44523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44758,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/game-reviews\/44523\/revisions\/44758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44523"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steamdeckhq.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=44523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}