Insectum: Epic Battle of Bugs [Review]

I’m a bit of a strange girl. I love bugs, and jump at the chance to play any insect themed games. When I saw Insectum: Epic Battle of Bugs as an upcoming release, I jumped at the chance to review it. After all, there were some of my favorite things…bugs and deckbuilders! That sounded excellent. Unfortunately, the final product fell a little short of my expectation. It’s not bad, and I had a lot of fun. The thing is, I have played a LOT of deckbuilders recently, and all of them have been excellent. The competition is fierce out there, so the fact that Insectum ranks as pretty good rather than amazing makes it really hard for me to recommend. That said, there is something very charming at the core. If your heart is set on playing an insect themed tower defense deckbuilder, I think this will suffice.

Genres: Action game, Strategy video game, Strategy

Developer: DevilishGames

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC [Reviewed]

Publisher: DevilishGames

Engine: Unity

Insectum: Epic Battle of Bugs is a no frills tower defense deckbuilder featuring the magical world of bugs. They duel it out by traveling down three different lanes to destroy the nest on the other end. Once two nests are destroyed, it's game over. There is no overarching story, just the task to complete one level after another.  In short, players start out with a deck of bugs to play. Different units have different strengths and weaknesses. The idea is to spread them out over the three lanes in a way that counters the enemy units, and wins the fight.

As players get deeper in the game, the levels get progressively more challenging. For example, upon getting to the forest, a bird would swoop down and attack both sides without discretion. On the flip side, progression yields points to level up insects with and new insects to be unlocked. I did find the core gameplay loop fairly decent. Battles are quick, only lasting a few minutes. It was easy to complete one then decide to play another stage or two.

Which is good because there really isn't much else here. The game is ugly to look at. The controls are decent, but there were multiple instances of having to click on something multiple times to get it to work, which was mildly frustrating.

Sometimes a game is really hard to review. In the case of Insectum: Epic Battle of Bugs it's because I enjoy playing it, but I am not quite sure what keeps me coming back. There are a lot of problems with the game, but ultimately it has the heart of what makes a good game — an addictive game play loop that kept me going round after round. That said, I don't know there's enough to this core gameplay loop to make it stand out in the very competitive world of indie games.

What's here ultimately feels like an alpha, a concept, and not much more put into it. Some improved graphics, polish, and maybe a little story would add significantly more, but as it stands I'm going to say wait for a sale or pass.

FINAL SCORE: 6/10

Thank you Keymailer for the free key for review purposes!