I admit I approached Insectum: Epic Battles of Bugs without much enthusiasm. Perhaps it was the slightly awkward game title that put me off, or maybe it was the prospect of turning the tide of battle with ‘cards’. The cheap asking price probably didn’t help.
But I’ve sat down with Insectum for a couple of evenings of play, fairly happy with what I’ve taken in. Don’t get me wrong, a GOTY contender this is not. But as an okay gaming experience that will be forgotten pretty much as this review goes live, it’s a decent enough experience..
The thing is, Insectum could have been much more than just an okay game. It could have done more with its premise and built upon its solid foundational mechanics to keep players engaged. But it never deviates from its core mechanics, quite literally. In fact, it probably stays in those lanes for a tad too long and we’d have been happy to have walked away with two-thirds of the stages in place, cutting any notion of boredom in the process.
In Insectum: Epic Battles of Bugs, you command a mighty insect army in lane-based battles. The plan? To take down any foes, destroying their nests in the process, all whilst ensuring yours stay safe and sound.
Taking up station on the left of the screen are three of your nests. Your insect soldiers emerge from these nests, marching to the right with the intent of proving themselves to their commander – you. Their journey takes them along three straight lanes with no deviation. Units cannot switch lanes and are bound to the lane of the nest they spawn from.
Three different face buttons signify nest types, while a small selection of available units is displayed on the screen. You can only pick from five at a time, each under a very short timer, replaced by squadron comrades as they go out to battle. This continues until your limited army reserves are depleted.
The key is to call on tactical nous and strategic plays to dictate the order of your troops. And we’ve been playing games long enough to immediately realise that best laid plans come in the form of sending out a heavily armoured, high health, close combat unit first, swiftly followed by a ranged fighter to provide backup. Chuck in a flyer for air support, and you’ve got the basics of an army of bugs.
The thing is, at the exact same time as you are sending your forces out, your opponent is doing similar; whether that be an AI controlled team or those of a local human. A battle of wits, and power fast plays out, with the loser being the one who loses their quota of units, or two of their three nests, first.
Unit types range, sitting in various Small, Medium and Large varieties. For instance, you’ll have little fire ants making up initial forces, along with cochineals and mosquitos. From there, stronger types – the European rhinoceros beetle, grasshoppers and dragonflies unlock as you progress through levels. The kings of the battlefield are the mantis and Fattail scorpion, utter tanks of insects, who can turn a battle in an instant.
In a nice touch, although confusing initially, the bugs in Insectum come with their latin, scientific names front and centre. You may never have heard of a Blattodea, instead recognising it as a cockroach, or the Nezara viridula (green shield bug), so this is a game that attempts to educate as it goes.
And those insects look half decent too. Far from a visual spectacle, and occasionally feeling like a game from a decade back, the unit visuals are clear and precise, plenty good enough to ensure you know what is going on, and where you may need to intervene, at all times.
Each unit is upgradable to an extent, with collected and earned Elixir the upgrade currency of choice, allowing you to chuck it into a unit’s health or attack stats. This can be found on the battlefield for consumption, or, most likely, as a little reward for level progression. But that Elixir is so plentiful, thrown out so easily, that your Insectum army will quickly become overpowered, after only a few stages. From there, as long as you utilise the same old tactics over and over again, moving through the 60 stages will be a breeze. We’ve completed the Story mode in Insectum with just a couple of very minor losses to our name, and the majority of levels were completed at first attempt, without fuss or bother in a mere minute or two. Remember that boredom we spoke about earlier…
The development team at Devilish Games have attempted to inject a little variety into Insectum though. Various biomes bring a few little arena-based obstacles to overcome. But as these are seemingly random, and you can do nothing to counteract them, we mostly found them to be a slight annoyance at best. Carnivorous plants, swooping birds and ice storms rarely make for game changing situations.
And then there is the Venom that is occasionally scattered across the play field. This is a game changer and should you collect this faster than your opponent, filling a power bar, will find that an overpowered rush of your units can take down enemies in a flash. Again, randomly scattered, it does occasionally mean a run of a stage boils down to a race to collect Venom, especially in early moments of the latter levels. And similar could be said for some nest reviving orbs, albeit to a lesser extent.
You’ll find yourself completing the Story (if we can call it a story) of Insectum in a couple of hours, picking up an easy whack of Gamerscore and achievements as you go. And from there, all that you have left is to partake in some local multiplayer battles. Of course, you’ll need a friend to hand for that, but we found a little fun could develop when playing multiplayer. Again though, one and done is about all Insectum can offer.
If Insectum could have offered a slightly shorter campaign, or a few more insects to manage, then it could have provided a more interesting, more exciting experience. But as it is, this one runs out of ideas extremely quickly, leaving you to stumble your way through a Story mode that has no story.
A decent effort at a lane-based battler, but ultimately the chance to control an insect army in Insectum: Epic Battles of Bugs is pretty unforgettable and far from epic.
Insectum: Epic Battles of Bugs Crawls onto Xbox and Nintendo Switch – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/insectum-epic-battles-of-bugs/9njz436z4mfx
Buy Insectum from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/insectum-epic-battles-of-bugs/9njz436z4mfx
