The Haunted Hoard: Research and Destroy (Xbox Series X)

Research and Destroy is set after an apocalypse, but what triggered the end of humanity here was certainly a strange sequence of events. As people grew displeased with science and facts restricting how they lived their lives, they reject such things entirely. Unfortunately, in a world of blissful stupidity, there was no way to prove that certain things didn’t exist, and so, supernatural creatures were able to come into existence. Ghost, werewolves, and vampires run amok since there was no logic left to make them disappear, and while Research and Destroy’s intro says all of humanity was wiped out in the supernatural takeover, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Larry, Gary, and Marie are not only the last living humans on the planet, they’re also scientists, and they’re eager to use their creations to make the existence of monsters impossible once again.

 

Research and Destroy is a turn-based tactical shooter that can be played alone or with another person, but no matter how it’s played, a specific player always controls a trio of scientists. You can rename them and customize their appearances some and multiplayer will bump up the enemy strength to compensate for the fact there’s six characters on the field, ensuring single and co-operative play are appropriately balanced. During a battle, you’ll find yourselves in usually fairly sizable stretches of cities that the supernatural monsters have taken over, there often being plenty of high ground and cover so different locations can allow for a range of strategies from both sides. Most important though is how turns are handled. On your turn you can move your three scientists, but the resource that determines how much they can do during that turn is time. Each scientist has an allotment of eight seconds, and if they’re just standing in place, they won’t waste any of it. However, once they start moving, aiming a gun or tool, or even recovering from an attack, time will start to drain. You can end your turn in midair even, the character freezing the moment they can’t afford to do anything else that turn. When time is available though, you can move around and fire your weapon like a more standard third-person shooter, the strategy coming in finding out how to best balance any actions you want done in a turn for each member of the team.

Technically, only Gary in his hazmat suit really has a defining mechanic, that being he can’t put his gun away to run faster. However, the other equipment you give your teammates can change how they fight and navigate in quite a few different ways. Every weapon has two different firing options, so a gun that can spray fire for a gradual burn also has an icy attack to slow down the foe instead. Another weapon that fires a ball of energy that expands as it hits more foes before exploding has an alternate fire where that energy ball instead weaves around all available living targets it detects before popping. A sniper rifle can also be a machine gun if that’s preferred, and while it is wise to still come up with niches for specific scientists like a healer or sniper, a character isn’t necessarily doomed if they’re up against a creature that might counter their usual tricks. Gadgets are where you can further specialize the character though, something like a set of rocket boots great for getting you to high ground, although if you use it improperly you might smack into a wall and waste precious time recovering. A boombox can force any creature in front of it to dance, leaving them lined up nicely for your next turn, and you can even equip a “time bomb” that actually lets you stored unused time from a turn for future use. There can be other ways to earn more time, enemies dropping little health or time boosts fairly often when defeated, but figuring out a good weapon and tool match can further your options in battle. Oddly enough though, while the game starts you with no gadgets, the three weapons you’re granted as defaults are good enough you could go the whole game relying on them alone. There are better options and ones that handle different situations more effectively, but a run with an unaltered team would be possible if more difficult than if you engage with upgrade options.

 

Your work to wipe out the supernatural menace doesn’t occur over a typical story. Instead, you’re presented with a map that includes Europe as well as bits of northern Africa. Your work to clear out the supernatural menace will involve you identifying and clearing out different regions of this map, the order and speed with which you do so technically up to you although there is an ending to the plot that necessitates eventually tackling some of the harder regions. Time is once again a factor here, as it is said every forty days the monsters of the world will begin to move in response to your actions. Your own actions now take days to complete, the player able to assign their scientists to different tasks like scouting out a new region’s threats, building universities in safe areas, and doing research into new weapons, tools, or upgrades. Even if you stubbornly stick to the default gear there is still a lot of value in building universities and doing research as you can weaken monsters by learning about them and the game will even keep certain mechanics related to them hidden until you’ve done so. Map management usually isn’t too difficult if you’re diligent and careful, and every battle will also have opportunities to earn more of the game’s currency, $cience, either through normal play or doing things like doing mid-battle investigations of monster bodies or the skeletons of previous researchers.

What really makes Research and Destroy an interesting tactical shooter though are the monsters you’re going up against and how they tie into your own limitations. Ghosts are freely able to pass through walls and objects and will steadily grow stronger each turn, incentivizing their quick removal lest they become too powerful and possibly even briefly inaccessible as they linger inside an object. The boogeyman is an extremely dangerous foe who can deal heavy damage or drain time from a character, but he only focuses on a single character and only that character can see him. You need to learn his position and then use a different scientist to try and take him out, the vampire assassin working a bit similarly as she will be invisible unless you have one of your characters actually looking in her direction. There are many clever monster types at play that do take a bit to roll out, and researching definitely feels fruitful because something like a poltergeist might show up and feel invincible when you first fight him because you can’t figure out how to make him solid yet. Mission goals do vary though, so while some do ask you to wipe out every monster in the area, others are focused on setting up devices to make an area safe, reclaiming some other unlucky research team’s data, or shutting down the portals that seem to be how the monsters keep entering our world. Objectives do a good job of spreading out your goals and guaranteeing a certain amount of time spent in a stage so you do have to be smart and careful, especially since in many missions there will be a point where every supernatural turn leads to new monsters spawning at the end for you to consider next round.

 

Research and Destroy can still feel manageable even when the odds are heavily tipped against you so long as you play with a tactical mindset, although the university defense missions do feel a little tacked on. While you can bolster the defenses of your universities so they can better defend themselves, there will be times you need to step in and fight back the supernatural hordes for a bit. Your own goals during these can be pretty quick to complete and the monsters often not strong enough to make a big dent unless you get sloppy, but defense missions also don’t seem too common provided you space things out well. They almost feel more like a means of punishing you if you do get complacent or spend your $cience poorly, even a full clearing of the game’s map not likely to earn you enough money for half of what you can potentially research before you even account for some errors or if you skipped chances for more cash. This doesn’t diminish the game per se though, not being able to buy everything does mean it’s harder to justify trying new weapons out even with a test range to practice in but otherwise it again asks you to think before acting even outside of battles. Research and Destroy can definitely snowball after one bad turn, and while there’s ways to revive scientists, it does eat time to do so, so you can end up in intense scenarios where you’re trying to drag your team over a finish line despite limited health and time to even keep everyone able to contribute.

THE VERDICT: The wacky battle between science and monsters found in Research and Destroy has more thought put into it than you’d think. Unique monster types gel well with the map designs, level goals, and time mechanic to provide a threat that can be quite potent if you don’t think about your moves properly, but the scientists have interesting versatile gear so you can stay competitive and even come back from quite a bit with the right plan of action. The limited opportunities to earn $cience can make it easy to fall into one comfortable set of equipment for most of the adventure and yet even the default gear is satisfying and strategic in its use. More room to experiment and a longer campaign would definitely make better use of what’s already present, but Research and Destroy does feel smartly designed and flexible as it is already.

 

And so, I give Research and Destroy for Xbox Series X…

A GOOD rating. The supernatural creatures of Research and Destroy are such a good bunch for keeping levels diverse and challenging. Even something simple like a Zombie Runner adds a foe who will likely reach you on its next turn and leave a puddle of burning acid behind if it does, and many enemies also have attacks that inflict real time damage so you are forced to drain some of your time resource escaping the field of effect. However, it also shows the game has a good understanding of how strong monsters should be that it can spawn in new dangers most every turn without overwhelming the player. There does seem to be a cap on monster numbers at times, but leaving any around feels like a bad strategy because they’re aggressive and have plenty of tricks that can snowball if left alone. The strength of your scientists is well executed as well since most turns you will wipe out a good deal of the opposition so long as you use your time right, but tougher foes mean sometimes you have to weigh your options well or utilize some smart tricks to avoid a rough supernatural counterattack. Some more room to really stretch your legs with the research side of things does feel like it could inject additional life into the experience, it already pretty crucial but also that importance means it’s hard to justify investing in unproven weapons when you could upgrade the defaults or invest in understanding the enemy better. Resource management is always a delicate art and it feels like some aspects that don’t crop up in a standard playthrough could have found root in additional modes like a larger map or endless survival challenge and there should be some stronger motivators for shifting away from the standard gear so you don’t settle into one strategy for a scientist too early on. Research and Destroy isn’t overly long though, so even if you stick to your guns quite literally, the map and monster design ensure there’s enough freshness to the experience that even leaning on the same tools doesn’t become rote.

 

There are changes to the world on repeat playthroughs, but Research and Destroy mostly feels like a game with a lot of ideas but not enough room to let you explore all of them. However, you are still able to interact with many strong concepts even if you don’t get a chance to experience everything because few ideas seem to come up short. The university defenses can feel a little unnecessary at times, but the different battle types and the way unique monsters and weapons can alter how combat unfolds ensures there is a lot of mileage to be found in this game’s mix of tactical planning and third person shooting.