Psychogenics Research: Xenoshyft Onslaught

In the shadow of Helldiver 2’s increasing popularity (PS account controversy not withstanding), the resurgence of Space-Marine-Bug-Killers prompted the call of Coolminiornot’s no-minis-but-still-cool-nonetheless 2015 card game: Xenoshyft Onslaught.

So, in Helldivers 2 it’s all about teamwork and democracy and all that jazz, whereas Xenoshyft is hell and only hell; that and two popular Simpsons memes: “Ha! I’m in Danger!” and “Stop! Sta-hap! He’s already Dead.”

Want to stick around for some bug killing horror with the tension of Pandemic? In other words…are you a masochist? If so, pull up a chair, then feel said chair fall into the maw of a bus-sized monster.

Welcome to Xenoshyft Onslaught.

What is it in a nutshell?

· Xenoshyft Onslaught is a 1-4 player fully co-operative card game that uniquely fuses tower-defence and deck building.

· You’re all commanders for a unique military division of the megacorp NorTec. NorTec like to strip-mine other planets for precious energy-minerals known as Xenosathem, NorTec also employ you to stop things that don’t like what NorTec do, and in this case its monstrous creatures mutated by the excavated Xenosathem.

· These monstrous creatures have gone berserk and the NorTec base of operations is their prime target for aggression. For 9 whole rounds, enemy waves will try and destroy the base, and you must stop that from happening. If you didn’t catch that, you’re “operation human shield”…go team!

· You’ll be buying soldiers, mechs, armour and weapons to equip them with, and arranging them onto your lane in preparation for the enemy waves. Every 3 rounds the wave of enemies get tougher, but you get access to more advanced kit to compensate.

· Each player has a lane with 4 slots to recruit soldiers into, and 4 slots to hold enemies. There is also a common ‘shop’ board that will have random items in it each gameplay.

· As enemies are revealed they simultaneously duel with the soldier closest to it until one or both dies, then the next-in-line soldiers / enemies slide up until one or both sides are dead. If the enemies die then that’s a positive, but if your soldiers die with enemies remaining then they’ll deal their damage to the base, if the base is destroyed then everyone loses.

How does it play?

I’ll have to assume you’re familiar with deckbuilding mechanics like Dominion, otherwise this review would outstay its welcome; well, stick that in a blender with some tower defence. Draw your hand of cards, buy and place soldiers / equipment into your lane, wait for enemies to arrive, then watch the havoc unfold.

The two beautiful aspects of the gameplay are the necessity to communicate and allocate your resources for the benefit of everyone, and that no single player is ever eliminated, it’s a win together or lose together game, great for those who love Pandemic’s encouragement to strategize while supporting others with your own resources.

About that, resources will always feel thin; the cry of “Guys I only drew two soldiers, I need help!” will be as inevitable as the sun. Also, as your enemies are unknown to you during the planning phase, your squishy medic that you strategically placed safely at the back of the lane will die in the first fight because, of course, the first enemy I revealed had the ability to target the back-row soldiers first and “I’M SORRY SUSAN I FORGOT OKAY I SIMPLY FORGOT! I KNOW WE’RE SCREWED I GET IT!”

It’s brutal…it’s as challenging as my ability to repair friendships with my fellow players, but the gameplay creates some intense storytelling and ‘gotcha’ moments from both sides of the battlefield. The game brings out some satisfying paranoic decision making, mixed in with some cold determination wrapped in an engaging theme. It’s a contradiction of “I love this game, it makes me too mad!”

Xenosathem acts as currency for purchasing all the tech you need to stay alive, soldiers that die in battle go into the discard pile and are shuffled back into a new deck when your current deck is out of cards; classic deck builder, but even though you might be a fan of Pandemic I strongly urge you to understand deck building as a concept because, well, to simplify things for the uninitiated: As you buy cards, your deck gets bigger, and then your really big and powerful cards have less of a chance of being drawn because of your deck size. Utilising the key abilities in Xenoshyft to thin some of your deck and make optimal purchases to keep your deck consistent is a core necessity to play this game well, because it won’t be shy in punishing you heavily for poor choices made on your part.

And that’s something that can be quite painful in gameplay, you’re in round 4 and because of bad luck your base could end up suffering substantial damage that you just feel you cannot recover from, like me playing against the Crucible Knight in Elden Ring and HOW IS HE STILL ON THAT MUCH HEALTH I’M NEARLY DEAD?! Whereas I can just ‘get good’ in Elden Ring, Xenoshyft offers little reprieve there, with no means to patch up the damage to your base; oh, and did I mention there’s a random chance of getting a really tough boss in your lane? Yeah…that’s also a thing…”

Treat Xenoshyft as an opportunity?) to plan for the worst, hope for the best, then realise the worst was way…way worse. It’s fun, really fun, but I can see it being infuriating for some, whereas I can see a dedicated team of players feeling empowered to drive the horde back into the dust with each attempt.

Thematically, Xenoshyft hits the nail square and true, and I can’t help but love how unique the blended gameplay mechanic is; it’s just…so nicely put together.

How does it look?

The design aesthetics are one of my favourite things about Xenoshyft. Look at the cards! Like, seriously, look at them! The artwork has this washed-out, dull coloured design that evokes a sense of bleakness, and the creative design work matches with perfect symmetry: Clunky Mechs with rough edges sporting a battery of cannons on their backs, monsters devouring soldiers alive, parasitic creatures infecting soldiers to make them turn on their fellow comrades. It seeps with a style of horror I just love and conveys the true danger these soldiers are in.

Cards are clean in their design, working with player feedback during their Kickstarter phase to use appropriate iconography where possible and clear texts as to the effects of each card. Hats off to Coolminiornot, they listened to feedback and ensured that the design was conveyed correctly with clear text and clean iconography.

Speaking of Kickstarter, and contradicting my previous statement a little, if you hunt down the unique foil card soldiers in the stretch-goals version you will have a series of ‘upgraded’ versions of all in-game soldiers with unique names and artwork, but the foil makes it difficult to read in certain light, which is a real shame.

What’s awesome about the game?

Theme, design, and execution of the game’s mechanics; fusing deck building with lane-based tower defence mechanics is something I’ve only even seen with the Xenoshyft series and it’s very clever!

The unlocks available to you as the rounds get progressively difficult is such a nice touch, a vindication for what you’ve been through as you start purchasing advanced tech and more robust soldiers to help turn the tide.

The game always feels like an exciting experience to play, even if it often ends badly. Being fun should always be a game’s prerequisite, but Xenoshyft Onslaught tries something new and nails that engaging gameplay with good player interaction and sometimes win-or-lose decision making with each turn of the cards.

What’s not so great about the game?

Unfortunately, I am not a fan of the base game’s components. Their cards are beautiful, but their shop mat and lane mat are thin sheets of card; sturdy they may be, it’s just, why couldn’t it be the thicker, foldable card I see included in many other games?

The lane boards you see in the photos are the ones from the Kickstarter, they’re perfect, but the ones in the base retail game are thinner, with the enemy and player lanes being separate entities. If you love the game, hunt down the foldable lane boards, end of.

Sticking to components, the tokens are bland and a little obtuse in design. “Health Symbol” tokens denote damage on cards, while “Shield” tokens denote a special ability being used that round for that card, it just doesn’t make a great deal of sense. If they had used transparent red and blue cubes it would have provided a more elegant solution.

In the end, the gameplay is solid, so if these aren’t dealbreakers for you then I don’t think you’ve much to lose.

What’s the verdict?

I love to hate it.

Without a doubt it’s a very well-crafted game, and my emotional responses to it hinges on the outcome of a game more than its gameplay. All jokes aside, I return to this game whenever I can. I love the theme, love the gameplay, and that dopamine rush from winning is so strong.

You can play this solo, but I think it’s best with 3 or 4 players to bounce off and plan with. It’s a social game, but that’s not to say you won’t get something out of playing 4 divisions on your own.

I’d argue that the gameplay isn’t complex; while deckbuilding functions as a mechanic you’ll need to get better at, it’s mostly about trial-and-error purchases to see the results. You can plan an incredible strategy, but when those enemy cards reveal themselves…let’s just say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

If you love a good deck builder, and you have a group that wants a challenge centred around dealing with the bad situation happening in the moment, go pick yourself up a copy of Xenoshyft Onslaught.

In my own words to my gaming group: “Yep…I think we’re probably screwed, but that’s okay, let’s just see how far we

can push.” “Troy…we haven’t even started the game…”