After its early access release back in August, Terminal Squad: Sentinel has launched into its full release today. Developed by Droid Riot and published by Trinity Project, this is an interesting hybrid game worth noticing.
While it’s essentially a match-3 game in terms of the core gameplay, a lot of influences from other genres have been applied to it. Next to your match-3 grid you’ll see combat between your mech and a stream of enemies – and it’s your job to keep the mech safe by upgrading it, enabling the right attack patterns and defeating the game’s bosses.
A lot of this boils down to making the right matches (in the right order), bringing purpose to the match-3 action as it unfolds. Doing this gives you access to RPG-like upgrade paths, and this enables you to better take care of your mech through defensive and offensive capabilities – not unlike the mechanics of a tower defense game.
Genre crossovers are often interesting, and this is no exception. I can’t remember how many hours I poured into Super Puzzle Fighter, so let’s see how far Terminal Squad: Sentinel can carry the somewhat overused match-3 genre and breathe new life into it. It’s out now on Steam here.