Let Them Come: Onslaught – PS5 Review

Let Them Come: Onslaught is this week’s Vampire Survivors clone, and it’s a sequel to Tautara Games’ earlier Let Them Come, which was a 2D horde defence shooter. Shifting the viewpoint to above and adopting the now tried-and-tested formula of throwing a ton of enemies at you while you move about, and let the CPU handle the aiming and shooting.

Instead of vampires, you now get a horde of aliens who head directly towards you after you crash on their planet. But you know the deal, you’ll be moving around with the left stick while occasionally dashing with the X button. You can also use support items by buying and equipping them, but this is something you’ll probably never need to do. More on that later.

The alien life that greets you is a mix of big-clawed and scary-jawed xenomorph types. They generally try to get you with contact damage, although later on, you’ll find foes that will launch projectiles at you. They’re not quick, then again, neither are you, and so you’ll need to use your best kiting skills to stay safe while maximising damage. And that’ll work for a while but this is an autobattler and so you know the score: at some point, you’ll need to upgrade.

Enemies drop XP cubes, and when you collect enough of those, you’ll level up and will be presented with a choice of weapons or perks. As ever, mastering your build is just as key as having arcade skills. Pick the right weapons and perks, and you’ll put the odds in your favour. Pick a lemon of a weapon and invest in the wrong stats, and you’re as good as dead.

Unfortunately, it seems like the weapons aren’t all that well-balanced. If you want to do well, you pretty much need the Void Lightning and Autogun. Other weapons can be too weak, or too slow, to be useful. That said, there are still some good combinations to find. The problem is that there’s barely any reason to experiment, as really your best progression will come outside of runs anyway, as you get permentant upgrades in a skill tree screen.

The gameplay is good, though. We like autobattlers and roguelikes, and while this isn’t quite up there with Vampire Survivors or Brotato, it’s one of the better also-rans. The sense of progression is good and it doesn’t overstay its welcome given that there are just four stages to survive and each run only lasts twenty minutes. You will, of course, have to replay stages quite often to grind up enough money for those permanent upgrades to start working in your favour, but the game feels nicely self-contained.

That said, if you want to max out the trophies in this game, you will need to grind your way to 200,000 kills, which is going to take several hours to do. We’re not a fan of grindy trophies, but this isn’t that bad overall. And there’s a good trophy called ‘True Survivor’ that requires you to refund all your permanent upgrades and beat the first stage. That was certainly very challenging but also pretty satisfying when we managed it.

The game’s presentation elevates it a little from the other also-rans in the genre. The graphics use the typical (for this genre) pixel art sprite style, but shift it into an isometric 2.5D perspective, and various lighting effects create a good degree of tension and atmosphere, and this is complemented by the game’s excellent sound effects and solid soundtrack.

As you’d expect from an autobattler, the game comes into its own when you’ve upgraded a bit and have gotten used to the game’s mechanics and overall rhythm, and there’s an addictive quality that will keep you coming back to it. It might not live long in the memory, but Let Them Come: Onslaught is certainly fun while it lasts.