There is something inherently amusing about the idea of humanity’s last great hope being a city that simply refuses to stop rolling. In Monsters are Coming!, developed by Ludogram and published by Raw Fury, survival means escorting a mobile settlement towards the Ark while an increasingly unpleasant assortment of monsters tries to turn your grand escape into scrap metal. The story is deliberately lightweight, giving us little more than the motivation to keep moving and the knowledge that the city matters considerably more than the individual hero. That simplicity actually works rather well for a roguelite built around repetition, although anyone hoping for a substantial narrative or memorable cast will find very little here beyond the charming premise. We are essentially disposable workers protecting a much more important pile of buildings, which is a surprisingly fitting attitude for a game that is more interested in systems than storytelling.
What makes that premise considerably more interesting is what happens once the wheels start turning. Monsters are Coming! combines Survivors-like combat with tower defence, resource gathering and roguelite progression, but rather than feeling like several unrelated ideas welded together, most of those systems feed directly into one another. We run around the moving city, automatically attacking nearby threats while manually steering our character, gathering wood, stone and gold, clearing obstructions and collecting experience. At the same time, the city needs to be repaired, expanded and defended. It creates a constant tug-of-war between staying close enough to protect our home and venturing further away to collect resources or chase better rewards. The controls on Xbox suit this particularly well: movement remains straightforward and responsive, while the automatic nature of much of the combat leaves us free to concentrate on positioning and prioritisation rather than juggling an unwieldy collection of attack buttons.
The real star, however, is the city-building. Every new defensive or production structure has to be fitted onto the travelling settlement, and that turns what could have been a fairly conventional upgrade screen into an ongoing spatial puzzle. Adding more firepower makes us stronger, but it also makes the city larger, which can create additional problems when the road becomes cluttered with environmental obstacles. Combining buildings, stacking towers and choosing structures that complement one another can produce some genuinely satisfying builds, particularly when a run starts to come together and our once-pathetic little settlement becomes a heavily armed fortress on wheels. The randomness of the upgrade selection occasionally works against that satisfaction, though, because the build we want may simply refuse to materialise. There is strategy here, but luck still has a considerable say in how far a particular run can go.
That same tension extends to resource management. Wood can improve the efficiency of the city, stone becomes vital for repairs and gold opens up further opportunities, meaning that simply mowing down monsters is never quite enough. We constantly have to decide whether the next detour is worth the risk, whether the city can survive while we gather what we need, and whether a new building is worth increasing our footprint. The result is a game that asks considerably more of us than the average Survivors-like without becoming particularly complicated to understand. Even the death of our hero feeds into the system, with another replacement stepping in while the fallen character effectively becomes another permanent piece of the city. It is a clever way of making the fortress feel like the true protagonist, although the resource juggling can become overwhelming when everything starts demanding attention simultaneously.
The action itself is consequently more functional than exceptional. There is plenty of satisfaction in watching towers tear through increasingly dense enemy groups, and jumping into the fray ourselves can save the city when things get particularly hairy, but the direct combat does not have the same depth as the construction systems surrounding it. Enemy behaviour is generally straightforward, and while different enemy types force us to think about our defences, the relatively limited variety means that the basic rhythm eventually becomes familiar. This is not necessarily a problem during shorter sessions, where the escalating pressure provides plenty of motivation to try another run, but the cracks become more apparent when we start playing for longer stretches. Monsters are Coming! has a very good central loop; it simply does not always have enough variation around that loop to prevent repetition from setting in.
Now out on Xbox, the game also benefits from the game’s clear visual design. Ludogram has opted for a colorful, comic-book-like presentation rather than chasing visual complexity, and that is a sensible decision for a game that can fill the screen with enemies, projectiles, damage effects and defensive structures. The different buildings and monster types remain reasonably distinguishable even when things become chaotic, while the darker hordes and glowing eyes provide the travelling city with an appropriately ominous backdrop. There are some moments when environmental obstacles can become surprisingly difficult to spot amid the surrounding action, particularly when you’re already busy managing resources and keeping an eye on the city’s health, but overall the visual simplicity works in the game’s favor. It gives Monsters are Coming! an appealing personality without getting in the way of its mechanics.
Audio is similarly committed to its identity, with rock and metal influences providing an energetic accompaniment to the increasingly desperate journey. The music fits the constant forward momentum and helps turn otherwise repetitive combat into something more lively, while the game’s sound effects provide enough feedback for the major actions. The soundtrack will be more divisive than the visuals, however. The heavy-rock approach is effective in short bursts but can become grating over longer sessions, and the gathering sounds in particular could have been more distinctive considering how important resource collection is. It is a fitting soundtrack, but not necessarily one we will want blaring endlessly in the background.
Where Monsters are Coming! ultimately loses some momentum is in its long-term progression. There is a satisfying amount of unlockable equipment and permanent improvements, and the knowledge that every failed attempt can contribute towards a stronger future run gives the game an appropriately addictive structure. At the same time, some of that progression can feel more like a requirement than a reward. The difficulty curve can make permanent upgrades feel necessary before certain runs become realistically achievable, while the relatively compact content pool means repetition eventually catches up with us. The game is at its best when we are experimenting with a new city layout or discovering an unexpectedly effective combination of towers; it is less compelling when we are simply repeating familiar actions to grind towards another incremental stat increase.
That leaves Monsters are Coming! in an interesting position. It is not quite the next great Survivors-like, nor is it a fully fledged tower-defence game, and trying to judge it exclusively as either would undersell what Ludogram has accomplished. Its appeal comes from the friction between those genres: we are simultaneously the lone fighter, the resource gatherer, the architect and the caretaker of a city that cannot afford to stop. That makes for an approachable game that works particularly well in shorter sessions, with enough strategic decision-making to make each run feel purposeful without burying us beneath complicated systems. The repetition and grind do eventually limit its staying power, but there is enough personality in the concept and enough satisfaction in constructing an absurdly well-armed fortress on wheels to make the journey worthwhile. Monsters are Coming! may not reach the Ark of roguelite greatness, but it certainly knows how to make the road there entertaining.
Score: 7.9/10