Let Them Come: Onslaught Review

From the word go, Let Them Come: Onslaught delivers on what it promises in the title, an onslaught, by letting “them” come to you; “them” being alien sprites cleverly juxtaposed to 3D assets. Developed by Tuatara Games and published by Digital Bandidos, this sci-fi survival roguelite title is a sequel (of sorts) with a new playstyle for the series: open-world bullet heaven.

You play as the survivor of a ship crash after being knocked out of the sky by a dinosaur with mantis arms onto an alien-infested world. Armed with self-firing guns, you have to dodge and outrun waves of progressively larger and faster enemies with different attacks and designs as the clock clicks down to an explosive conclusion. You earn experience points and credits, used to upgrade abilities and weapons, by killing enemies to receive EXP cubes, finding breakable supply crates, and doing various mini-missions around the map.

Running around the open-ended map, you can use the environment, like the lightning strikes of the first stage and the frenzy towers, used to overcharge the cooldown and damage of your weapons, to aid you in getting to your final destination and unlocking the next stage. Preventing you from winning, besides the aforementioned foes, is the stage’s boss, which will enter the realm near the end of the timer.

When you die and the run is over, your kills, the credits, and blueprints you collected, as well as how long you lasted, are tallied into an overall progression, which also buffs up your skills and unlocks new starting weapons via the armoury page. The page also lists the upgrades you’ve unlocked and outlines what you need to do to obtain them.

The fun of Let Them Come: Onslaught comes from the gradual progression of the beginning character you control, hanging on a bit longer to see what else the game has to offer in the way of new objectives and enemy types. The thumping techno tracks and gamey sound effects add to the excitement, whereas you feel like you’re playing the remake of an arcade game from the ‘90s, since aliens blow up in a confetti of blood and gore.

Some of the monsters, and their designs return with a fresher look, as well as some new aliens with distinct sprites and animations different from just running. Between the swarming and horde enemies, there are stationary floating clusters of foes, tunnelling terrors, and so much more.

What isn’t as fun is the lack of interest to play any further than a few runs, as the gameplay is way too repetitive, and the first two stages are practically the same, besides the addition of orange signifying magma. Even the introduction of newer enemies in the magma stage couldn’t heat up the challenge. The ability to keep the player from leaving the game after a few goes really is detrimental to any casual gamer who happens to buy this game.

It’s quite evident from playing Let Them Come: Onslaught that the game has been made by a team who are capable of creating engaging works and an enjoyable experience. As mentioned, the soundtrack, composed by Cartridge1987, amps up the action, so the importance of strong music in the game was executed very well. Also, the game doesn’t use a lot of controls to play it, so there’s a future for the game to follow Let Them Come and get a port on mobile to reach a wider audience. 

Either way, Let Them Come: Onslaught is an action-packed rush of run-and-gun activity, which unfortunately can only be appreciated in short bursts.