It was hard to put my finger on exactly what I was playing when I first started up Let Them Come. You get a tacky looking splash screen, a black background with a prompt that says “push A to start”, and next thing you’re mowing down hordes of advancing aliens from a static position, in a game that look for all the world like a cheap mobile time-waster. Although not entirely far from the truth, I’m happy to say first impressions can be deceiving.

It was my first death is what introduced me to the complexities of the game. Firstly, and worth stating up front, this is not another damn rogue-like although it does have a persistent upgrade system. After your first gruesome death, you’ll find your freshly-revived protagonist slumped behind his gun, smoking a cigar, and listening to his boom box. From there, you’re given the choice to return to combat or check out your inventory. The inventory screen is where a lot of the magic happens as you’ll find a myriad of unlockable gear, all upgradeable, and consumable items like grenades and special rounds. Cash earned from dispatching enemies can be spent on passive boosts and new gear (both of which can be upgraded), and damage-dealing munitions.

With a limited number of boosts, gear and ammunition available for any given run, it becomes essential to focus on your preferred loadout. Do you increase the potency of your machine gun or boost your health and armour? Do you stock up on flares to hold off small critters or flaming rounds to set tough enemies alight? Do you ignore all of that and just upgrade the hand cannon secondary weapon that seems a necessity for disintegrating swathes of aliens in the later waves?



Once you’ve got to grips with inventory system, you’ll spot three other tabs to peruse. The first is a list of communications that tell the clichéd story of an alien invasion and (who’d have guessed it?) an evil corporation; the second provides a catalogue of all the alien species you’ve slain; the third, and by far most important, contains your unlocked “mixtapes” that allow you to expand your boom box playlist.

Once back in the fray, the simple aim-and-shoot gameplay escalates in intensity as you find yourself tossing out explosives and firing off your secondary weapon a critical moments, all the while laying down continuous fire with a machine gun that is prone to overheating. Marching steadily towards you is an endless swarm of aliens that include fast-moving head crabs, spiky insectoids straight of Starship Troopers, explosive blobs (that can spew head crab eggs), and even infested humans with grenades or guns. As time goes on, you encounter new aliens and tougher variants, sometimes with new deadly abilities, but these reskinned enemies become less interesting as time goes on.



As you chew through aliens in quick succession, you build up a combo meter that becomes essential to surviving later waves. Upon maxing it out, you get to pick one of three random perks (and engage in a quick-time event) that can turn the tide of battle. An airstrike can clear an overwhelming horde, a health boost can keep you in the fight for longer, double damage does as expected, and a gun drone (or preferably the god-like rocket drone) wreaks devastation. These don’t last forever – the time seemingly determined by how well you pulled off the QTE – but they can make a huge difference for a few waves.

Should you get overwhelmed repeatedly in a wave, the game will offer a random bonus perk from the get-go, helping you push forward. Unfortunately, this brings up one major issue I have with the game - the chance of falling behind the upgrade path or having to save for specific items needed to defeat bosses. I spent several waves killing barely any aliens or being crushed by a boss, gaining only a few dollars at a time, before I could eventually afford the supplies needed to survive. It can drag down the otherwise relentless pace.



Bosses are probably the highlight of the game; you need to observe patterns, counter attacks and use the right items, at the right time, to maximise damage. Stocking up on powerful ammunition will do nothing for you if you can’t hit a weak spot in time to counter an otherwise unblockable attack. Some bosses require very specific gear loadouts and the final boss, a multi-stage battle between waves, forces you to weigh up your options or accept the cycle of: die, respec, win, and die again. A charging segmented worm and enemy spewing blob provided some of the most intense battles but also highlighted the need for specific items.

Should you grow tired of the persistent structure of the campaign, you can either tackle a boss rush mode, if quick reflexes and careful timing are your preference, or a survival mode that gives you $2000 to pick your starting equipment and asks you to survive as long as possible to post a score on online leaderboards. This was probably my favourite mode as you’re entirely dependent on your starting loadout and need to rack up combos to restock on health and supplies.



The presentation is spectacular but this took some time to realise. The opening waves are set in a dark, uninteresting corridor, you have limited music selection, and gunplay feels rather limited with no upgrades unlocked. Before I knew it, hours had passed and I found myself in a state of cartharsis, bobbing my head to my boom box playlist, as pulsating emergency lighting and muzzle flash illuminated advancing hordes that swiftly disintegrated into multi-coloured gibs, splattering all over the environment. When the gruesome pixel art, amazing soundtrack and arcade-like gunplay come together, Let Them Come is an experience.

The simple mechanics, which become more apparent during longer sessions, definitely limit the longevity of this game. However, played as a palette cleanser between other games or in shorts bursts to relax, anyone who enjoys score-attack, arcade-style games should consider Let Them Come, especially as it retails for just R86 on Xbox One or R55 on Steam.