Timing and control of space > attrition in Ex Sanguis

Image credit: Lightbulb Crew

Lightbulb Crew's Othercide was a melancholy meatgrinder of an XCOM-style tactics RPG, featuring the world's worst mum. It saw you leading squads of sorrowful, blade and pistol-wielding clones into stark geographical projections of anguish. With the odds generally against you, the game put a huge emphasis on initiative, running order and acting outside your turn. Lightbulb's new game Ex Sanguis looks an awful lot like Othercide, from the porcelain beauty of the characters to the grotesque and gloopy metaphysicality of the battlespace, and I couldn't be happier.

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Is that an… exploding blood blister, sprouting from that square? I think they make an ointment for that – oh, never mind, you've just drop-kicked an enemy into it, showering them in boiling gore. Seems exploiting such noxious terrain excretions will be crucial to saving a world of stone and flesh that is being bleached dry by the forces of Stasis, if I'm summarising the lore correctly.

Ex Sanguis now has an early access release date: 10th September. It also has a demo on Steam. I'll be playing that demo, and possibly writing about it, but in the short term, I thought I'd give you a little shove towards it.

Incidentally, a shove in Ex Sanguis launches the target four squares over while inflicting a bit of chip damage. Nothing too devastating in itself, unless the target collides with a blood blister. A Magnetic Pulse, meanwhile, propels nearby foes away while sucking distant enemies towards the target square. Other abilities can be used to break line of sight, or alter a character's facing. One can imagine countless applications for such chessboard-flipping tomfoolery. Get over here! Now get over there! Now get into the middle of this incoming AOE attack indicator!

Mastery of timing remains essential. There's a character order bar up top, and you get skills that accelerate or decelerate yourself and other characters. I really liked how Othercide trained you to fend off superior numbers by means of reaction abilities, interrupts and delayed attacks. At times, I think the clock-massaging element is up there with Into The Breach. It certainly beats the usual XCOM overwatch crawl.

I wonder if the apparent greater abundance of abilities that push enemies around and smack them into volatile scenery will be what sets Ex Sanguis apart from Othercide. Or perhaps the differentiating factor will be the campaign format: this is more of a modern-day roguelite, seemingly, with a choice of three abilities when characters level up. Missions unfold on a world map, with tougher varieties towards the periphery. "Take on high-risk, high-reward missions, head straight for boss encounters, or slow down to gather resources to increase your chance of success," the Steam page explains.

And then there's the story, in which you play another baleful maternal figure. "From the Sanguis of the Mater, the Stillae are born," the devs write. "Elite warriors who bare the last of their divinity's hope, you will lead them in a battle to save a dying world." Hmmm. I feel like I should interview Lightbulb's members about their experiences of mothers and motherhood. I feel like the interview would be long.