Xenopurge is one of, if not the most, unique games I’ve played this year. A game where “immersion” is the operating word, Xenopurge immerses you in the position of an anti-alien task force’s command room, issuing orders as you attempt to save humanity from a xeno threat. Strategic and immersive, Xenopurge certainly has a lot to offer, but the game’s early access state leaves something to be desired, and not everyone will love its hands-off approach.
As you probably caught from my introduction, Xenopurge is a game all about killing aliens. More specifically, you play as a desk jockey for an organization called M.A.C.E. (Mercer’s Advanced Combat Enterprises) with the simple objective of leading strike teams through alien-infested areas to rescue VIPs and destroy hives.
What is by far the most interesting and stand-out aspect of Xenopurge is how far it goes to immerse you in this idea. From the second you start, you find yourself seated in a control room; rather than menus and cutscenes, the entire game is played through a first-person view of several monitors where you issue commands to your strike team. Even the main menu is a little tablet you pull out on your lap.
Once again, immersion is the main crux in Xenopurge; you never actually see the combat yourself, instead commanding your squad from the safety of your desk and viewing their progress on monitors. To fit the game’s CRT aesthetic, however, you are not looking at body cam footage or surveillance drones; instead, your view is through a little CRT monitor displaying your teammates as dots and their surroundings as 8-bit simple blocks and colors. The game also uses character portraits, displayed as little camera feeds, as a very immersive form of storytelling, flashing as they fire guns and feeding you audio when they encounter aliens.
The perspective in Xenopurge gives you a strange, disconnected feeling. It really makes you feel like the man in the chair, separated from the horror, and brilliantly challenges your imagination to fill in the gaps of what you aren’t seeing.
Mechanically, Xenopurge translates this visual gap into a roguelite autobattler. By navigating the computer, you interact with the branching map to send your troops into new missions and handle tasks like purchasing upgrades or hiring new mercenaries through a computer screen, making it feel like separate programs running simultaneously. The actual in-mission combat is an autobattler similar to games like Teamfight Tactics, where your soldiers act independently; you can give them commands, such as regroup or head to extraction, but they act on their own—you are very disconnected, by design.
Xenopurge is built around an interesting idea, delivering the fantasy of the “man behind the chair” managing elite, ultimately expendable groups of soldiers against an alien invasion. The roguelite route is the best choice, skewing away from traditional missions to make each run feel utterly unique, adding to the immersion.
The problem in the game’s current early access state is that everything is slow. Your troops crawl across a level as they uncover rooms, with each objective hidden on a map that non-player-controlled entities must discover, without much identifiable pathing logic that I could see. With the player already disconnected and only able to issue basic commands, they are left waiting until there is more to do. At later levels and higher difficulties, there is more management, but there is a lot of dead space where players simply stare at the screen, especially early on.
While one could simply say that there could be more to do, I think a more realistic solution would be a fast-forward option, increasing event speed 2x—something I didn’t find in-game, if implemented. Though it might break immersion a bit, maybe this could be implemented as, say, drinking your coffee? Reading a magazine? Something, I don’t know, but it would make some of these missions a little more bearable to sit through.
As far as bugs go, there are still a few present in the current early access build, which is to be expected from a pre-release game. Namely, the occasional bug I faced failed to load any text when I went to the next mission or transitioned screens, and I was unable to navigate out of these areas. This was fixed by exiting to the desktop, and thankfully, the game’s autosave feature allowed me to continue where I left off.
Ultimately, Xenopurge will be polarizing. To some, the tactical, hands-off gameplay will be fun and enhanced by the immersive display. To others, the atmospheric approach won’t be enough to sell mechanics that aren’t incredibly engaging. The right game for the right audience, it’s worth keeping an eye on as development continues.
Pros:
- Deeply immersive approach to menus / UI
- Great execution of the “man in the chair” fantasy
- Atmospheric CRT visual style
- Strong roguelite structure makes each run feel different
Cons:
- Pacing issues and frequent downtime, especially in early missions
- Very hands-off gameplay may feel dull to some
- Occasional bugs that hinder progress
- No fast-forward option to speed up slow segments
TryHardGuides was provided a Steam code for this PC Review of Xenopurge. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page!
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