Hell's Frontier
Your squad lands next to an uplink relay on planets overrun by the swarm. While the uplink runs, bugs crawl in from every side — more with every wave.
A campaign of 23 operations in three chapters: recon, extraction, clutch purges, evacuations and fights with three bosses. Every operation has its own twist: night, sandstorms, meteor showers, jammers, a rocky canyon or a forward watchtower.
Squad experience unlocks specializations right in battle: machine gunner, flamer, sniper, laser trooper, a mech with a jump pack, arc trooper, cryo tech, grenadier and demolisher. A fifth trooper stands by the relay — medic, engineer or signaller. New gear unlocks as the campaign goes on.
When the swarm breaks through, call in support with key combos: orbital strikes, airstrikes, a laser, turrets, a minefield and a shield dome.
Missions earn medals and samples: upgrade your call-ins and your squad and collect stars for clean victories.
HOW TO PLAY
Mouse: click a trooper, then another position to move them (troopers swap places). When a yellow ring lights up around a trooper, click it and pick a specialization (click or keys 1–4). The mech jumps: select it and click a spot inside the ring.
Call-ins: hold Q and type the arrow combo shown on the card on the left, then click a target. Esc cancels a call-in or pauses the game.
Click the violet sample capsules and the supply pods on the field.
English and Russian — the game picks your browser's language; change it in Settings. Desktop only (keyboard needed). Progress is saved in your browser.
Development log
Comments
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Really cool prototype.
Could definitely use some balancing, in particular with the upgraded roles.
Flamethrower, Heavy Machine Gun, and Sniper, are just too weak to be considered an upgrade in any way. Even the upgrades for each specific class within the Samples upgrade tree, though it’s good you’re building out a tree, the effects of the upgrades don’t address the lack of power-boost in each battle. The Flamethrower is probably the biggest surprise here, as its traditionally short range and wide arc should be far more effective against the big swarms of smaller enemy aliens, but that didn’t seem to be the case in practice.
I have attempted the first level at least 2 dozen times, and no matter the strategic mix up of units, or the fact it’s on Easy difficulty, or careful use of 3 support call-ins, I just cannot seem to get 3 stars.
On that note, the directional input for support is a very fun idea, but it really is just an unnecessary limitation. Being forced to enter a combination of keys likened to combo attacks in 2d fighting games before you can call in an airstrike just feels like an added bit of chaos with no direct reward. I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but probably not the best for this style of game.
Other than that, the overall appeal is there, and it is enjoyable fending off the swarms of killer monsters. I think the character sprites look good, even if their “Run” ability is also sort of pointless, and I do get a sense of Last-stand, all or nothing, seeing them boxed into the center like this, defending from attacks on all sides.
Definitely wishing you the very best in building on this, and thank you for sharing your game. 👍
Thank you so much for playing and for such a thoughtful, detailed review. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for!
You're right about the upgraded roles: Flamethrower, Heavy Machine Gun and Sniper should feel like a real power boost, and we'll take a close look at their numbers and at the Samples upgrade effects. The same goes for level 1: getting 3 stars on Easy shouldn't take two dozen tries, so I will recheck the difficulty there.
On the call-in combos: the arrow-key input is the core idea we built the game around, so I not planning to drop it. But your point about it feeling like chaos without a direct reward is fair, and I will think about how to make it more rewarding and less punishing. Run animation will be fixed. I was really glad the sprites and the last-stand feeling of defending from all sides worked for you. Thank you for the kind words and the best wishes, it means a lot. How many levels have you completed?
Completely respect the building on a core idea, and refusing to give it up down the road. For sure, that’s a great attitude to have in development. I suppose it just depends on how far down the road, and how much feedback that specific mechanic receives, but still an honorable dev trait and I support it.
I’ll be honest, I only completed the first level on all difficulties. The reason: I am one of those stubborn players that when presented with a 3-star system in a game, I simply must earn that 3rd star before feeling like I truly completed the level.
I know there must be a strategy to make it happen, and provided I was at least able to complete it on hard difficulty, I figured I wasn’t far off in general. The hard truth is that I simply lost interest in the game overall after so many tries. I am not one to give up easily, and will always look for redeeming qualities in a title before letting the difficulty of a challenge sway my opinion on the game. Even after finding it near-impossible I still see those redeeming qualities, but there just isn’t enough payoff at the moment to keep my interest.
By no means should you consider my one experience the reason you change things up, as it could just be that I’m a noob and not worthy of the 3 stars, but I’m grateful for you diving deeper into my feedback.
Thank you for such an honest and generous follow-up, and for the kind words about sticking with the core idea. I really appreciate it!
Your story with the 3rd star is very useful for us: a player who completes the first level on every difficulty and still loses interest is exactly the signal i need. I will look at how clear and reachable the 3-star goal is on level 1, and at making the payoff for each attempt feel better.
You're not a noob at all, and i will keep your feedback in mind while we build on the game. Thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write all this!